kovachii

[Silvan]

my 'Jewel' x self is in bloom again and it didn't even take a year in between flowering. I'm impressed...But not with the flower
I'll take a better picture tomorrow. It has a more square pouch this time around
with freckles on it that we don't see on this picture. Plus, no yellow in the pouch.
Weird, it had those two yellow lines last year.. And I guess that you can flower a kovachii with a 80F
average day temperature.

Anyway, I liked the picture and wanted to share it.
Voilà!

No yellow stripes but lots of freckles

Last year bloom:

 

[Justin]

it looks quite happy. great growing! i am hoping to get mine to flower in the coming year...

 

[Silvan]

it looks quite happy. great growing! i am hoping to get mine to flower in the coming year...

Thanks. Waiting for the first bloom can be veryyyy long. But after that, I think that it flowers regularly.
How old is your plant?

 

[mrhappyrotter]

It's beautiful! I think I'll wait until the prices come down on them a bit before I decide to take the plunge. The hybrids are expensive enough, and I'd hate to spend that kind of money on something if it then failed to thrive.

 

[trdyl]

Sweet!

Congrats on your bloom.

 

[troy]

I don't understand why these were illegal for so long here in the u.s. yours is beautiful!!!!

 

[NYEric]

Nice, thanks for sharing.
When were they illegal here in the USA?

 

[troy]

I beleive 2 years ago

 

[theorchidzone]

Yes. That part is gratifying. A mature plant should bloom every year.
JC

Thanks. Waiting for the first bloom can be veryyyy long. But after that, I think that it flowers regularly.
How old is your plant?

 

[John M]

I beleive 2 years ago

Legal seedlings were availalble in the USA from Piping Rock Orchids in 2007, possibly also 2006.

 

[Paul]

good job!!!!

 

[Achamore]

And Orchids Limited / Jerry Fischer in Minnesota had legal plants almost at the same time as Glenn Decker did.

In the first few years after their discovery, CITES would quite rightly have rendered these illegal for int'l shipping. In those first few years there would not have been any plants available for sale anywhere outside of Peru that had not been ripped out of the natural habitat. But also early on the Peruvian government gave a license to 2 orchid nurseries in Peru to remove 5 plants each from the wild, for breeding purposes. All the CITES-legal plants, whether seedlings or adults, have come from the breeding program at those 2 nurseries, all based on those 10 plants. So it took several years after the discovery for any plants to be available from that breeding program. Makes sense, yes?

I suspect the freckling and the lack of the yellow in the inner part of the pouch would be down to the warm growing conditions. From what I have read and been told, kovachii grows in a pretty cold environment. But like most phrags, it is clearly pretty tolerant of temperature changes!

 

[Erythrone]

Great job, mon ami! Is it you 'Halloween'?

I agree with Achamore. Maybe the warm temperatures are responsible for the lack of yellow.

 

[JeanLux]

Good growing anyway!! IMO the shape has improved, compared to last year's...!!! Jean

 

[phraggy]

I like it. Thanks for posting the pic.

Ed

 

[Wendy]

Well done! :clap:

 

[eaborne]

Great job!

 

[Gilda]

Awesome with or without the stripes....I'm jealous!

 

[Migrant13]

And such a great pouch!

 

[Markhamite]

Love it! Very nice.