The beautiful little princess is blooming again. I bought this Ascocenda Princess Mikasa v. blue from Roellke in October last year and it bloomed just in time for new years 2008/09 (I even had to bring it along for our ski vacation…). Now it is in full bloom again. I just love this hybrid. Compact growing habit (for a vandaceous orchid), really eager to bloom, and such gorgeous long lasting flowers!
It is not unusual for this particular hybrid (a cross between Ascocenda Royal Sapphire x Vanda coerulea), to bloom twice a year. I am just happy I have a good clone that is up to the task. Last time the flowers appeared to be more blue, but I am not entirely sure it is not just a trick of the camera. It is notoriously hard to capture the correct color of the flowers. This time I almost caught the purple, but the flash blows out the intensity of the color quite a bit. You should se it in person. It is stunning!
I grow this bare root hanging in my north/east window under additional lights year round. She takes a bath once a day for about 20 minutes –Ā well she is a princess. I back off on the watering to every other day in the darker part of the winter, if she decides to rest. Last year she did not. IĀ think I have to track down the pink variety of the Princess Mikasa at some point. It is one of the favorites in my collection.
…and I still think the lip looks like an alien driving a go-cart…
It is quite obvious she is a princess, if you had to take her on a ski trip! That is hilarious Karma! But you know, i would do the same to my V. ‘Sansai Blue’ to keep an eye on it š
Yes, the stuff we make our loving significant others put up with for the sake of our hobby. š Although I must say that it was a much more pleasurable vacation by having one orchid along. Getting a babysitter to water once, maybe twice is doable. But finding one who is willing to bathe and pamper the little beauties every day well, they are a bit harder to come by. I still haven’t figured out what to do this year when we leave to go skiing for a week… but it will come to me.
nice nice! I just got a Vanda Sansai and a V. Pakchong. what additional lighting do you use? and the 20 min bath is it in a bucket? I mist them in the shower every few days and use a mist / spray bottle once/twice a day. if you had to go aay for a week or 2 and you coud not take it with you what would you do? Wonder if leavingthe root tips in a tray of water would help.
Thanks Stefano. Nice Vandas you have. I love coerulea crosses too, the blue color they inherit is so nice. I bathe mine in a large bucket with water and a very mild fertilizer solution (about 1/8 recommended dose) every day. It is just much easier for me that way than hauling them off to the shower every time… It is mainly the organic material in the water that would make it go bad over time, and since I keep my vandas are bare root (save for some epiweb in the baskets for some of them) the water keeps for quite some time. I keep a lid on it so it does not evaporate too much. If I had to go away for a week or two… well, I don’t think I CAN go away for more than one week – there is just too much to water… š One week is alright though. Most of the regular orchids would be ok without care. The babysitter would only need to water a handful of the potted orchids one time. IF I could convince her to come twice to spray down all the mounted orchids in the warm vivarium and let the vandas bathe for at least 30 minutes I think they could manage the temporary drought. I do not recommend you leave the roots in water as I think they might rot instead. Vandas like to dry up quickly after being watered. It might work to hang them right above the humidifier and have it on timer a few times a day if you could not find someone to water them. The reason my Princess had to come with us skiing last year was mainly due to the fact that she was blooming. When they are blooming they require much more water and the buds started opening the first day up at the cabin. Good timing. š
Thanks I was thinking anyway to buy a warm mist humidifier for myself.
Have you seen those threads about Vandas in a vase on the forums?
I also read someone that saw at some conservatory Vandas growing roots into a pond below – so I wonder if the tips could be adapted for water.
do you bathe yr Vandas all a the same time in the same bucket? mine are hanging on a railing on my window so to take them down and put them back is more work than taking tehm to the bathroom and hang them under the shower.
do you supplement the window light with some CFL or else?
what is yr setup for these?
Anyway your site has a great layout. what wordpress theme are you using? pretty amazing. and did you modify the theme?
I just think if the header photo was half as tall the pages would be more readable on a laptop… have always to scroll down. but anyway really impressive use of wordpress
Stefano. Humidifiers are great!! I definitely recommend them. However, I recommend you get an ultrasonic humidifier instead of a warm air one. Cold air systems are cheaper to run and cover a larger area than hot-air models. They also help cooling the air – and you want this. Most orchids prefer a 5-15 degree temperature drop at night, and you want to be running the humidifier primarily at night when the orchids breathe. However, you should try to use RO (reverse osmosis) or distilled water (or you can use the condensation water collected a clothes dryer) for the cold water systems. I have written some more about it under “how I grow my orchids – humidity.”
Yes, I bathe all my vandas at the same time in a large bucket, it takes a little puzzle work to get them in but it works. My supplement lights are two fixtures hanging at different heights in my window, each has two 55W low energy CFL tubes (PL-L 55W/865) and each fixture offer about 9000 lumen at 6500K. I run them 12-16 hours per day according to season. My vandas hang 10-25 cm distance from the lights.
I do not recommend you grow vandas in a vase. It is a trend that I am afraid will kill a lot of vandas… There is no air circulation at all in the vases and I guarantee it will lead to fungus or rot – it is just a matter of time. The concept of growing vandas with the roots in the pond probably works at the conservatory because the vandas grew the roots into the pond on their own over time, giving them a lot of time to adjust to the wetter conditions. If you were to just place the roots in water I think they would most likely rot.
I am happy to hear that you like my blog design. I am using the Atahualpa theme, but I have added a logo and made all my own header images as well as changed all the colors for the theme etc. I like that it is a fluid theme, the reason I chose it for my blog. What screen ratio do you run your laptop? I have a laptop as well and usually do not have to scroll to read the latest post… well in any case, scrolling is good exercise for your scrolling finger. š Thanks for the review though.
Hey thanks for the info! nice setup that you have. will check on the humidifiers. I was thinking warm mis because I use it in my bedroom and maybe it is nicer in the winter. also the window glass might get quite cold in the winter.
some of my Vandas got some yellowing the bottom leaf, I guess i need to soak them in the bucket more often rather than shower.
Also I like the roots hanging down.
2 small Vandas that I got with basically no roots or dry roots are really doing better and growing brand new roots. Maybe the larger ones i got need some adjustment from florida greenhouse to NY apt with 40 -60% humidity.
I was surprised last week to see at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden a large Vanda with really many leaves turning yellow. I saw it a month before and looked fine.
Anyway my computer is a macbook 13 ” screen 1280×800… well I prefer less scrolling. You have a great design and the photos you take are very crisp and so well lit but I can’t look at them without scrolling. great design and info just wish i could see more on my screen – maybe smaller title/ top image…
I will check that theme – I use wordpress as well and I am using the Journalist theme… only few free themes that I like.
Also regarding S/H converted a lot and some Cattleyas really seem to like it. but I tried with a Dendrobium formosum I was keeping on my fire escape with southern exposure and grew really lush… well after 2 weeks the leaves started yellowing and no new roots. I just repotted in in bark and leca in a clay pot. do not walt to risk it.
stefano
My advice about the humidifiers. Go to the store and see how they work, then pick the one you think will work best both for you (since you sleep in the room too) and the orchids. Good luck! š
Be careful watering the vandas so you don’t get water standing in the folds of the leaves afterwards, it can cause the leaves to yellow, rot and fall off. I shake mine (sometimes upsidfe down) after watering if I see water there. If they came form a very humid greenhouse it will take some time to adjust, just be vigilant with the watering so they don’t dry out too much.
Semi-hydro seem to be a bit tricky… I love the concept and wish that it was the magic “pill”. Even though I have had good result in it I am worried because I hear of other people loosing plants suddenly after 2 years of success. Especially Paphiopedilums. Not sure why. I only have a few plants left in s/h, and they are doing great, but I am keeping them under observation.
Sorry about the scrolling… I have become so used to widescreen monitors, forget what it was like before… I will think about it and see if I can come up with a good solution that works for both formats. Thanks for the input. **Edit: I think I have figured out what you meant now. š I will make the larger versions of the photos (that pop up in the lightbox) smaller in the future so they fit on your screen. Not an easy way to change old photos however so they will remain as they are.
I think your site looks great. Just meant it is not optimized for smaller laptop monitors. You must have a nice large 20 something monitor. I think you could just downsize the
If I understood you right it is the enlarged photos you cannot see without scrolling? If so, check the latest post (Leptotes), that one should open the medium sized photo instead of the large in lightbox. Does it work better for you? š
yeah now the images fit in the window! thanks. sorry about the bud blast. as someone said wonder if the fan dries up the air and the bud
You are very welcome! š I am glad it is working better for you now. I have moved the Leptotes to a new location in the viv where the fan is not as strong, we’ll see if that does the trick. I’ll try anything!
Greetings from Germany. Just ran across your blog today and found tons of useful info. I just started my own little project in the wintergarden. Since I don`t get much light in there I have hung a few fluorescent tubes. Since I have a vanda as well, I was wondering how much light your vanda gets.
Hello Hanno, I am happy to hear that you like my blog. š Vandas can be grown very successfully under lights. Mine are hanging at a distance of about 15-25 cm from the tubes (Princess Mikasa = 25 cm) of a CFL fixture with two 55W CFL tubes (PL-L 55W/865) that produce 9000 lumen at 6500K. The lights are on 12-16 hours depending on the season (12 hours in the winter). A friend of mine grows tons of vandas successfully under big CFL light canons, check out his greenhouse, it is a really nice setup.
PS! CFL benefits from not running as hot as regular tubes so you can hang orchids closer to the lights.