Armeniacum - unusual blooming behavior

[tenman]

My argest armeniacum won me a CCM a couple years ago with five flowers, and has continued to prosper. Now, with ~35 growths, it has 5 flowers on 3 inflorescences with another inflorescence about halfway up. The odd thing its doing: I've never seen one with more than one flower per inflorescence, and this time there are two double inflorescences on it. Wondering if this is unusual and something that should be bred, or is more common than I realize. In various stages of blooming now, not sure if all the flowers will be open at once.

 

[SlipperKing]

That's crazy great!

 

[papheteer]

Just wow!

 

[monocotman]

Amazing. This species seems to love basket culture!
David

 

[SlipperKing]

Clearly you repot but how often? You must gently shake the mix out without disturbing the tangle plant mass, yes?

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Double blooms are rare but not unusual. Should be bred for being vigorous as well as bifloral.

Neat culture. What's in basket?

 

[Ray]

Well done, Tennis.

I suspect you'd see that pretty commonly in large colonies in the wild.

You can break down plant resource utilization into three categories - maintenance, growth, and reproduction. As it absorbs and processes its various inputs - water air, nutrients, light - it first keeps it's biological processes functioning. If that's fully satisfied, some can be dedicated to growth, and if the plant is getting exactly what it needs, there's enough produced that it can afford to "spend" some on reproduction.

The "maintenance" part is probably a more-or-less fixed allocation, per plant in the colony. The "growth" part is dedicated to adding new tissue, and is no longer applied to mature tissues or whole fans. In a large colony containing several mature growths, that might leave a fairly large "surplus", if you will, allowing a much greater expenditure of resources on flowering.

The fact that we rarely see such tremendous blooming is due to our cultural shortcomings, or desire to keep breaking the colony up.

 

[Ozpaph]

wonderful culture!

 

[tenman]

Clearly you repot but how often? You must gently shake the mix out without disturbing the tangle plant mass, yes?

No, I haven't and probably won't. My 33-growth micranthum completely fell apart when I tried repotting it. I may add some more mix to the top if it continues to sink, but am hoping to avoid a wholesale repotting. Anything more involved will take some serious planning.

 

[tenman]

Double blooms are rare but not unusual. Should be bred for being vigorous as well as bifloral.

Neat culture. What's in basket?

Fine bark mix surrounded by sheetmoss

 

[Duck Slipper]

Impressive...so how many years has it been going?

 

[tenman]

Impressive...so how many years has it been going?

Well, I con't have the original label any more (disappeared outside one summer), but I'd say it's been in the basket maybe 10 years, at best guess.

 

[scottbjd]

Amazing, I am familiar with this plant from the award. It would be great if this plant can be selfed.

 

[abax]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I don't generally like Paphs., but this one is a wonderful exception. WOOHOO!

 

[geoffsharris]

Chapeau. That is a fantastic plant. Wondering how cool and/or dry do you grow in the winter? It's a pretty high elevation plant in the wild.

 

[GuRu]

Tennis, what an outstanding display, what a great culture. I'm wondering if it was you, too who showed impressive photos od his basket culture here maybe 6+ years ago ?

 

[tenman]

Chapeau. That is a fantastic plant. Wondering how cool and/or dry do you grow in the winter? It's a pretty high elevation plant in the wild.

In the winter, the GH low is set for 60F at night, days 70+F. However, the plants stay outside in the fall until the nights are consistently in the lower 40'sF to upper 30'sF.

 

[geoffsharris]

Thanks. My sense from killing armeniaca multiple times in the greenhouse is that a period of at least down the low 50s at night for a dryish winter rest is essential and probably lower might be better. Sounds like you might be time shifting that a bit, but are getting into a range that is closer to what happens in the habitat. Your really fantastic plant is making me think that I could try again.

 

[Linus_Cello]

Grow it like a clivia?

Thanks. My sense from killing armeniaca multiple times in the greenhouse is that a period of at least down the low 50s at night for a dryish winter rest is essential and probably lower might be better. Sounds like you might be time shifting that a bit, but are getting into a range that is closer to what happens in the habitat. Your really fantastic plant is making me think that I could try again.

 

[Martin]

Congrats for that culture sucsess! Just stunning!