The sound of silence- a contest for lurkers!

[the jive turkey]

Thanks for the warm welcome. I never posted before because I was afraid that you were all bad people who bite but it's true, you all are good people who don't bite.

I had a lot of problems with my orchids this summer. The Draculas are in trouble now because of summer heat and I am also in the middle of changing my growing area for them; I'll make a thread on how I grow them some other time and I'll include pictures.

I also had troubles with pests (mealies, aphids and scales) and root rot of a lot my paphs (I panicked because I thought they were dehydrating and repotted in a sand/coir/pumice mix for more moisture but that mix killed the roots). So, after loosing too many plants, I joined this forum and a lot of other forums to get ideas on how I can get better conditions for my plants.

I suppose I'll post more of my Draculas and other things I have in the non slipper photo forum but here are some more Dracs for now:

Drac. gorgonella--my avatar

Drac. iricolor

Drac. platycrater

Drac. verticulosa

Drac. vampira

 

[Heather]

... it's true, you all are good people who don't bite.

Now, hold on... some of us are good people who do bite!


And speaking of that, I've always adored D. vampira!
Reminds me of a roth....

 

[Marco]

Heather's a fiesty one!

Those are great pics. I love the gorgonella! How big are the flowers on the dracs usually?? A thread and pics on how you grow your dracs would be great. I would love to try one but if I'm not mistaken they grow cool-intermediate. I don't know if they'll survive in my paph conditions.

 

[Mahon]

If you are having trouble growing your Dracula or any Pleurothallids in the heat, you can always pick a shady spot, and mist them every other day with some air circulation (a small plug in fan works well; just don't use one of those carpet fans, that's a little TOO much circulation...lol). It is possible to grow some of the high elevation Pleurothallids in temps. around the high 80's, just need the moisture to compensate for it...

Beautiful Dracula! Your Dracula platycrater has great color, I usually see pink and white ones, but that burgundy is better! And are the caudae on the sepals orange like the dorsal? That is unusual... =)

-Pat

 

[Marco]

Hey Pat thanks. Which dracs and pleuros do you have that were able to handle that kind of temp? Would you happen to have pictures of the flowers?

 

[Mahon]

Marco,

Don't have any pictures, I should really invest in a digital camera instead of orchids... =(

I have grown Dracula sibundoyensis in the shade in high temperatures... I believe that it is a high elevation species from Ecuador, but I could be mistaken... also tried Dracula sodiroi (my least favorite Dracula species), and it didn't die nor flower, just existed. Currently, I have a few misc. Stelis species all sharing a basket in high heat but in the shade, and an unknown Pleurothallis species which is about 4mm long and mature (thinking possibly a small Pleuro. grobyi)...

Basically, I don't reccomend growing most of the Pleurothallids in heat, but if you don't have the conditions, then it is a good alternative... anyone else grow them differently? =)

-Pat

 

[Rick]

Nice to meet you Jive Turkey. Your Dracs are very cool. I've dabbled in a few over the years. I have a chimaera, bella, and cordobae presently, but I've beat them up pretty bad although they have all bloomed.

They can take the higher temps, but they need even higher humidity/airflow than the paphs.

Someday I might get serious about them again and make a special sunroom with a chilled wet pad.

 

[the jive turkey]

Now, hold on... some of us are good people who do bite!

umm..I'll let you bite me:wink:

Those are great pics. I love the gorgonella! How big are the flowers on the dracs usually?? A thread and pics on how you grow your dracs would be great. I would love to try one but if I'm not mistaken they grow cool-intermediate. I don't know if they'll survive in my paph conditions.

Hi Marco,
They do grow cool-intermediate. The flower size on dracs is various but usually medium to tiny. Drac iricolor is on the tiny side about the size of dime or smaller; Drac gorgonella is about the size of a quarter; vampira is a little smaller than a computer mouse. For me, gorgonella and polyphemos have been the easiest to grow and bloom.

If you are having trouble growing your Dracula or any Pleurothallids in the heat, you can always pick a shady spot, and mist them every other day with some air circulation (a small plug in fan works well; just don't use one of those carpet fans, that's a little TOO much circulation...lol). It is possible to grow some of the high elevation Pleurothallids in temps. around the high 80's, just need the moisture to compensate for it...

Beautiful Dracula! Your Dracula platycrater has great color, I usually see pink and white ones, but that burgundy is better! And are the caudae on the sepals orange like the dorsal? That is unusual... =)

-Pat

Thanks Pat, for me, the problem wasn't so much the daytime high or lack of humidity but that I couldn't, or rather, didn't want to pay for the electric bill this year to take the temperature down into the 60s at night and I think that's what stressed them out; I'll elaborate on my mistakes later. The Drac. platycrater does have orange/burgundy. My picture is a little underexposed, I got the plant from Mountain orchids and they have a better picture.

 

[Kyle]

Dracula vespertillio will grow hot. Really hot. High 20's. I keep mine in a room with my phals and paphs. The room gets to 26 during the day and 21 at night. The plant spikes regularly. I also have a drac gorgona beside it and it does well. The buds blast everytime, but it grows well.

I have the rest of the draculas in my cold room, which gets 20 degree days, 17 nights. The hot vespertillio does better the then the cool vespertillio.

A little plug: Ecuagenera sells a hybrid between Dracula vampira and Masdevallia bicornis. Its fantastic. Lots of hybrid vigor. The flowers are large and red/maroon in colour with the vampira stripes. Flowers like crazy. I give it two thumbs up. It should be warmish growing due to the bicornis influence.

Kyle

 

[SlipperFan]

Great Draculas! I had a couple for a few years, but gave them away this summer. I could grow them OK, but they never flowered well for me because my conditions are not humid enough. I put them outside for the summer, and there they did bloom well in our Michigan humid summers. I was amazed that the flowers lasted at least two weeks. They are in a greenhouse now, with lots of humidity -- I'm sure they are much happier.

 

[PHRAG]

There are only a few days left until the end of the contest. Come on lurkers, post a quick "Hello" and enter to win. You know you want to.

 

[Heather]

You can win a prize just for saying hello!
Wow....what a world!

 

[Cinderella]

Hi, I'm a lurker so far. Hello everyone. I have a small collection of 'chids with a few Phrags and Paphs. I recently acquired a Paph Deperle, which I know is an older cross but I have wanted it for a while and I'm excited about it. I would like to expand my Phrag collection too. I am especially interested in pink Phrags right now but I would not turn my back on a red either.

I still consider myself a beginner and have been growing for about 3 1/2 years. Can you consider yourself a beginner for about 10?

Cinderella

 

[Heather]

Welcome Debbie! Nice to see you again. You'll fit in well here, many of us are into those little pink Phrags.

 

[SlipperFan]

Hi, I'm a lurker so far. Hello everyone. I have a small collection of 'chids with a few Phrags and Paphs. I recently acquired a Paph Deperle, which I know is an older cross but I have wanted it for a while and I'm excited about it. I would like to expand my Phrag collection too. I am especially interested in pink Phrags right now but I would not turn my back on a red either.

I still consider myself a beginner and have been growing for about 3 1/2 years. Can you consider yourself a beginner for about 10?

Cinderella

In many respects, we are probably all beginners...
Welcome!

 

[Heather]

Okay, we've heard from many of you this month, 2 more days to speak up and be elible for the contests! We'd love to hear from the rest of our silent crowd!

 

[Cinderella]

Oops I forgot to list the 3 I grow or want to grow to be eligible! And it is all about being eligible!

My Phrag Don Wimber is recovering nicely from some sort of rot....or I just got water in the fan when we moved.

Waiting for my Paph Song of Love to bloom I hope.

And I really really want a Phrag Cape Sunset. That might be my next chid purchase.
:drool:

 

[spot]

hi everyone. i joined up here pretty early on, but havent managed to post a message. until now.

im currently growing:
*a compot of neofinetias
*some paphs, multifloral and otherwise
*some phrags, mostly besseaes and besseae hybrids
*some species phals
*some cycnoches and catasetums
*a couple of oncidium hybrids, which i keep dividing
*some catts
*a masdevallia, which ive actually flowered
*a dracula vampira, which i have not

anyhow, i used to post on message boards (especially the river-valley orchidworks one) pretty frequently.

then some strangeness occurred there. i wasnt really involved, but it kinda turned me off to online communities. so ive only lurked in the several forums i belong to ever since.

everyone here seems really knowledgeable. ive enjoyed learning from those of you who, unlike me, do post frequently. keep posting, ill keep reading.

 

[Heather]

Hi Spot!! A big welcome to you, and thanks for joining way back when.
Looks like you have a very nice collection. Look forward to hearing more from you.....or not.

 

[Marco]

Hey spot, welcome to the forum. Mind if I ask where you got the neofinetia compot