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Ed M
Guest
My Pecteilis susannae is finally blooming. This is one I bought at the World Orchid Conference in Miami back in January as a tuber.
The plant is a large to giant size terrestrial/lithophyte native to India, Myanmar, throughout Southeast Asia, Borneo and Sumatra. It is getting fairly rare in nature due to over-collection, and had I known this I might not have bought it. The plant grows in rocky, seasonally dry areas in full sun. It apparently requires frequent brush fires to eliminate competition that would shade it too much and it seems to appreciate the resulting nutrients as well.
Flower size is about 4 inches (10cm), with a long nectary. There are currently 10 flowers and forming buds, on a plant a little under 3 feet tall. The flowers are powerfully and wonderfully sweetly fragrant.
The plant starts out as a tuber looking like an elongated Kiwi Fruit about seven inches long. I potted it a tall, clear plastic waste basket in which I had drilled drain holes in the bottom. I potted in a mix of about 50% charcoal, and the other 50% a mixture of seedling grade fir bark, sand, perlite, and peat moss. (I can see a new -huge- tuber forming in the pot up against the clear plastic.)
I waited until it started sprouting in May to begin watering. I also gave it a dose of 13-13-13 Dynamite (Nutricote) time-release fertilizer and fertilized it frequently with a 10-30-20. Now its finally blooming six months later.
It looks like you have done some research and know what you are doing so as long as its happy and reproducing, you are doing the species a service if you ask me. Great job with this little (I mean big) guy!
