This lovely Dracula has been blooming for me non-stop since last summer. The four flower spikes just keep on producing new flowers one after the other. You can see the next bud on deck behind the flower in the photos. I really love the classic Dracula “monkey face” along with the spiky hairs of the flowers… they look like icicles or tiny stalactites. The plant stands about 15 cm tall and the flowers measure about 2 cm wide with nice red tails adding an additional 3 cm in each direction. I wanted to share some new photos since I finally have some proper camera equipment to document the subtle details.
Dracula rezekiana is fairly easy to grow – as far as Dracula is concerned. I grow mine cool, but it is tolerant to a wider range in temperatures since it grows mainly in lowland forest from 850 meters all the way up to 1700 meters throughout eastern Ecuador. As long as you can provide adequate humidity and medium to low light it should prove a prolific bloomer. I would recommend it to anyone curious about growing Dracula.
Gorgeous Dracula rezekiana orchid … thank you for sharing…
Thank you! 🙂
lovely,but I bet you have in flower other then Pleurothalids, I miss some of your other beautiful chids 🙂
Thanks, indeed I do have some other orchids in bloom, but precious little time to photograph them… 😉 But I will make some time this week. I have a very nice Leptotes bicolor blooming right now that I think you will enjoy.
Hi Karma,
I have always loved Masds and Dracs but they seem to be the only orchid species I can’t seem to keep. Obviously no cool space like yours (which I am so envious BTW) but I am starting to look around for a good (tried, tested) vivarium design in the meter by meter size… Any tips for a smaller setup?
Pat.
PS – Your collection is amazing and your pictures just as great! I’ve enjoyed reading your tips…
Hi Pat! Thank you very much, nice to hear that you enjoy my blog! I think you can grow many Masdevallia and Dracula without the advanced setup I have. Primarily the humidity is going to be your main concern, for Dracs in particular. I have a much simpler setup for a much smaller intermediate/warm vivarium. It is basically just a used terrarium with a light on top and a couple of computer fans inside. Works great too. I water by hand 2-3 times per week and with enough plants in there the humidity stays around 80%. Keeping temperatures down will be an issue though… My only heat source is the light on top, and I use wine corks for spacers between the light and the glass to get better cooling under the low energy tubes (two Dulux 55W). If you want to keep cool growers you will need some sort of active cooling, I use a bathroom fan to pull air from the outside into my large viv most of the year, but I do not know if this is practical where you live. Cooling is one of the harder things to do effectively. But there are many really neat intermediate to warm growing Masdevallias too, so perhaps start there. Good luck!
The “monkey plant”, Dracula rezekiana. Will it grow & do well in a terrarium? How large should the terrarium be? (I just ordered the plant)
Hi Linda! I have not been active on the blog this year due to some personal issues, so I am sorry if this reply is a bit late. Generally, the larger the space the easier it is to control the climate. But that being said, as long as the plant fits and you manage to keep humidity and temperature good along with good air circulation, then anything goes. Good luck!