Deep South besseae

[goods]

For years, I was called crazy for wanting to grow this species in South Louisiana. I've always been told it was impossible to be successful in such a warm climate. Today, I'm finally able to prove the naysayers wrong. This is the second blooming attempt for this plant, I believe. I bought it in bud last year, but it blasted in shipping.

It's originally an OZ plant from the cross "Balance x Curves". It may not be award-worthy (I'm not really knowledgeable on Phrag. awarding), but I like it nonetheless.

Yesterday, prior to fully opening.

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IMG_0642 by goods82, on Flickr[/IMG]

Today

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IMG_0669 by goods82, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[Stone]

Good Stuff!! Do you grow it outside?

 

[biothanasis]

wonderful! :clap:

 

[JPMC]

Beautiful! There's hope for me yet.

 

[SlipperKing]

You can't leave us hanging! We need culture info on your southern culture.
Nice BTW

 

[wjs2nd]

It looks really good! The petals look wide. Any bloom measurements?

 

[NYEric]

Yay besseae! Why would it be hard to grow in the south?

 

[Cheyenne]

I think they would grow fine where it's warmer. The flower color just might not be as intense as it could be. Maybe they would grow slower, but still grow. Mine slow down when it is pretty warm. I have had better luck in clay pots sitting in a little water when its warm for the evaporative cooling to the roots.

 

[Erythrone]

wow !!!!

 

[goods]

I honestly am not sure why people said it would be more difficult in the south now that I've grown it. My only guess is that the people who I'd questioned were long time vendors from around the Gulf Coast, so maybe they tried this species early on and now that we have places like OZ, the breeding has improved the hardiness of the species. I still wouldn't grow this one totally outdoors here. I have a friend who tried it in a sunroom without A/C and it didn't last very long.

My growing conditions are similar to what you describe, Cheyenne. I have it in a west facing window, potted in modified semi-hydro. The plant is potted in an unglazed clay pot, filled with Hydroton. I have a saucer underneath that always holds water about 1/3 to 1/2 up the pot.

Spread across the petals is about 7.0 cm and from dorsal sepal to bottom of pouch is about 5.0 cm

 

[Tom499]

Sweet flower!

 

[Ross]

Well grown!:clap:

 

[Susie11]

Beautiful. I love the big fat petals.

 

[goods]

Thanks everyone!

 

[JeanLux]

Very nice shape!!!! Jean

 

[Rick]

I think they would grow fine where it's warmer. The flower color just might not be as intense as it could be. Maybe they would grow slower, but still grow. Mine slow down when it is pretty warm. I have had better luck in clay pots sitting in a little water when its warm for the evaporative cooling to the roots.

I would agree with Goods that convention for besseae was that it was better off at the cool end of intermendiate, and most of us Southern growers were having poor success due to our high summer temps (unless you used AC to cool your greenhouse, or grew under lights indoors).

Lots of people would try putting them under their benches to find cooler spots.

After changing around fert and paying attention to pot conductivity, I think the success I'm seeing now (I have one in spike now too, that I've been growing for 2 years), is because of nutrition/mineral conditions at the roots rather than temps. It's just as warm in my GH as the last several years, but all my previous attempts with this species ended in failure (after very fast initial growth), while my newest plant is just chugging right along.

My first losses were also with OZ clones, so I'm not neccesarily playing with better bred and adapted plants now either.

The other thing that is different for my present plant is that it is not climbing, but spreading out laterally. It put on 5 growths over the last year, and all are at level with the substrate.

 

[SlipperFan]

Ooooo! Nice one!

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

I think besseae is pretty temperature tolerant. I grow mine under lights, so its basically intermediate-warm. I find phrags in general tolerate cold well, but actually prefer it warmer. Outdoors, NYC summers can be pretty hot...and besseae usually tolerates it well. I have one, an OZ cross, putting up 2 spikes now.

 

[eaborne]

Goods,
It looks like you have a very nice besseae! I am also in Louisiana(central) and have been able to bloom and continue growing besseae's. I have a handful of besseae and d'alessandroi's, and the most recent blooming one is my avatar picture. I grow in a greenhouse, but bring in most of them(and fischeri and schlimii) in the house June till it cools down in Sept. The other 8 months they are in the greenhouse where they get optimum conditions. They grow in the house, but slowly for me. The main thing is it keeps them alive and growing. This past summer I kept a couple besseae in the greenhouse(which averages 97 highs) and they lived, but did not grow much. One possible thing that helped them is potting them in The Orchid Gallery's "Cool Pots", which supposedly keep the temp inside the pots 8-10 degrees cooler. I also have high air movement over my phrags. A besseae is in spike now and all the others are growing again. I leave all other phrags in the greenhouse, including Scarlet O'Hara and my Jason Fischer's, and they do just fine even at those high temps. Overall, they definately don't thrive like they do grown in cooler climates. My goal for next summer is to have a cool wall and leave everything in the greenhouse.

 

[The Orchid Boy]

That bessae looks perfect to me! I'm just barely getting started with phrags and have loved this one from the start but I am still a little nervous about trying one.