It’s bellina season again… It smells lovely in the warm vivarium right now, although I think my particular clone has a pretty weak scent for a bellina. Some say one flower can fill an entire houses with its fragrance, mine is definitely a bit more shy than that but I do not mind. This species likes it hot and humid, why I keep mine in the warm vivarium. If the RH drops too much it will either refuse blooming all together, or drop a bud… which is what happened to me this time. Darn.
We are on vacation so I only get into town to water every 5 days, normally I mist in the warm viv every other to every 3 days and this keeps the RH (relative humidity) at a comfy level (85% +) without any misters or foggers. The five day stretch have meant a little dryer conditions in there, perhaps down as low as 55% at day five, and the bud following the flower in the photo actually dropped. So I devised a very simple solution to the problem. I filled a plastic mesh pot with sphagnum moss, soaked it in water and placed it on a saucer with more water. I placed my humidity mound in the middle of the viv letting it evaporate gradually. This actually worked and kept the RH well over acceptable levels again. The mound was still soaking wet when I came back in to water this time. More buds are coming so all is not lost.
By the way, what do you think of the sad butterfly (or alien) in the center of the flower…?
Your method of increasing the humidity is very inventive. We’ve used the “buddy” method as well where we help a friend when they are gone and they help us. A rock filled base tray with water just up to the top of the rock is another possibility to increase the humidity. Just keep all roots out of the standing water.
Thanks Marty. 🙂 Raising RH with my simple moss ball like mine thankfully works fairly OK inside a small enclosed space like the vivarium where I grow the bellina. In a larger room I find it much harder to get any noticeable effect using or humidity trays, so I rely on humidifiers for the job.
Oh! and I thought it was a thirsty,coneheaded alien in the center of the bellina looking into the yellow cistern to see if there was any water there.
Nice bellina!
Ha ha… I think I see what you mean. Although I think it looks like a very sad, sad alien riding a go-cart or something… 😉
I grow Phal bellina for years and what I noticed is that they dislike the difference between the lowest and the highest RH during the making of the buds. I can say it because I grow all my Phal in 45-50% RH (because I live in Sardinia, Italy and I need air conditioning for many months a year). I must admit that species as bellina or pulchra needs more time to adapt once they adapt they go ok. My bellinas bloom every year and my RH are not the best!:)
Talking about scent I have to say that, as many other orchids, it’s depend on temperature: warmer temperature = more intense scent. You can notice that for example that in the central part of the day the scent is more intense that in the morning or in evening, but during the night it’s so low or imperceptible. Anyway phal bellina is a great species (not as hard as somebody suggests). Congratulations!
Thanks Mike, and thanks for sharing your experiences growing Phal bellina. It could very well be just like you say, that it is the difference the little princess dislikes… I have a Phal violacea f. coerulea that has been blooming all summer in there, not being as fuzzy as the bellina apparently. I normally have both higher %RH and definitely more even %RH in the viv when I am home to monitor things. But I think I actually solved the problem last weekend by hooking up an old humidifier to help keep the RH up and more even. The membrane is damaged on it so it does not output a lot of fog and I almost threw it away, but it seems to be just enough for this small space. Nice that you are able to bloom yours in the lower RH environment. I grow my pulchra the same way (about 50% RH), on the windowsill since it does not like it too hot.