mrhappyrotter
Grand Chupacabra


I've been looking forward to these blooms for quite awhile now. I got this plant probably 5 or 6 years ago and it refused to bloom. In that time, it's produced many new growths, and I've even divided it once.
Unlike my other caudatum-group hybrids, this one appreciates sitting in water at all times. Most of the others end up losing leaves to rot (that starts at the base of the leaf) if they're exposed to too wet a potting mix at the wrong time of the year. But this one? It lets me know I've allowed it to get too dry, the leaves will droop a bit, and if the dry spell is too long, it ends up with a lot of leaf tip die back.
Anyway, it was hard to photograph for some reason. I couldn't get the whole flower in the photo AND keep it in focus, so I settled for a bit of a close-up. The disadvantage is that it doesn't show the long, pendant petals. Also, the color is a bit off. The flowers aren't darkly colored as I had hoped, but there's a lot of purple and pink.
When it's time to divide this particular plant, I don't know what I'm going to do. I decided to experiment with it, so it's planted in mostly rockwool, in a net pot (hydroponic pot), sitting in a clay pot. Over the years, the roots grew through the net pot and attached themselves to the clay pot. So, now the plant is firmly anchored to the clay pot, and even if I managed to dislodge it without doing damage, I doubt the roots will pass back through the inner net pot. I guess I didn't think this potting strategy all the way through.