Sobralia rosea, a nice surprise!

[Ed M]

This plant was quite a surprise to me. A friend gave me the plant, and he bought it from OW as Sobralia altissima. Even though S. altissima is extremely rare in cultivation, I tried to get rid of it because it grows 45 feet tall. Thankfully, no one wanted it. When I saw flower buds last week on a two foot tall plant I knew immediately this was not altissima, and when the flowers opened it was obviously Sobralia rosea. The sequential flowers are five-inches across and last only one day. Its very nice that they are produced on a reasonable sized plant.

 

[paphjoint]

Excellent flower and pictures!!

 

[Kevin]

Very nice plant and fantastic pictures! Could you give some culture tips? Do you have any other Sobralias?

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

Lovely!

 

[Ed M]

Hi Kevin. I've got 4 different Sobralia plants. This S. rosea, and S. lowii, S. albopurpurea, and an unknown that was supposed to be S. macrantha but its now 8 ft tall and hasn't bloomed yet (no, I didn't get it mixed up with the S. altissima. )

I grow them moist at all times, with good light, and lots of fresh air, the cooler the better. This S. rosea is growing in an 8 inch pot of red lava rock. My S. albopururea is growing in a 6 inch pot of sphagnum moss. The other two I'm growing in 20 gallon black trash cans because of their size...they are planted in a mix of soiless potting mix (Fafard 2), charcoal, spongerock, sand, and some fir bark.

Sobralias seem to hate having their roots disturbed. So, when I repot, I simply "pot up" with a lot of drainage material. The roots on these plants always seem extremely vigorous, and I usually repot when they "explode" the pot they are in. By that time, there seems to be very little potting media left...just roots.

Many of the species are frost-tolerant, down to 28F or so. Check out Nina Rach's website on Sobralias for more information.

 

[Kevin]

Thanks for the help. I have seen Nina's site. I have Sobralia gentryi, and might get Sobralia macrantha. The gentryi I got from Ecuagenera a few years ago, and I might have overpotted it, but it is growing, and I don't want to repot it until it gets rootbound. I have it potted in medium bark and peat, which was just a guess to get the water-retention from the peat, but drainage from the bark. Most info says that macrantha likes intermediate to warm temps, but in the AOS article in the Dec. '07 issue, it says that it is a cool grower. I can't find a whole lot of info on gentryi. This article says that gentryi is in the ephemeral group, which means it's flowers last only a day or so. Also, they like int. to warm temps, but most grow well with a low temp or 10C (50F). This seems like a cool temp to me. So, what temps do you grow yours species in?

And again, excellent photos! Any tips on that?

 

[Greenpaph]

That certainly is exquisite!!

:clap::clap:

 

[paphioboy]

Very nice... Thank goodness its not altissima... hehe..

 

[SlipperFan]

Yes, exquisite, and very well photographed.

 

[JeanLux]

of course this is one of my absolute favorite genera! But this flower is superb!!!! what delicate color and great lip!! What a chance that you didn't find someone to give it away!! Jean


(your thread reminds me that I have a body outside in the rain needing repotting =>http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6565 page 2)

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Fantastic flower and pics! I would be surprised too. Now to get one...

 

[Ed M]

Hi all. I spoke too soon about the flowers being ephemeral. The first flower did only last one day, but this second flower...the one I took photos of...is now three days old and still going fine. Yea!

 

[NYEric]

Oh the system administrators must have been practicing blocking photo-sharing websites all weekend! If I could I'd tase them in the crotch! Finally, nice flowers. although I was a little scared to open the thread when I read that Ed had a "large plant"!!

 

[biothanasis]

Gorgeous!!!!