…I have mentioned this, my most faithful flower-machine before. I am not quite sure the Swedish expression “blommaskin” translates too well, but you get the point. This Masdevallia Aquarius Hybrid has been blooming non-stop since May of 2008! This morning I counted over 20 flowers on this thing and I just had to get a picture. I grow this one like the rest, on the windowsill with additional lighting, in sphagnum moss.
Isn’t she lovely?!
Very nice ! I envy You! What´s the secret?
Thanks a lot Nena. 🙂 The secret? Well, with this particular plant I think it might just be luck… or a good clone… But other than that I think the “trick” is temperature. I did notice a lot of activity a few weeks after the temperatures finally dropped markedly for fall. I aim for a 5-10 C degree diurnal temperature variation in the room, and in the winter it’s not hard to do. I get down to about 13-15 degrees at night and 21-24 during the day now. This drop in temp kick starts a lot of plants to bloom. I have several Paphiopedilums that are blooming (or in bud) right now, and pretty much all of my Masdevallias.
I never have the heating element on in the orchid room and I keep an “old school vent” (a small hatch with a tassel attached to it) open at all times. When the temperatures drop outside the temp in the room drops too. Especially at night when I close the door to the room so the heat from the rest of the house does not get in and the humid air from the humidifier does not get out. Works great!
Do you have the Vandas in the same room? how cold does it get in that room at night in the midst of the winter?
Yes I do have the vandas in the same room all year around. I always keep the temp in the room above 13 degrees, it very rarely gets that cold. Usually night temp fall to about 15 degrees C, both in the room and in the warm vivarium. Not all vandas require warm growing conditions. V. coerulea (one parent in most blue Vandas) for example grows quite cool in the wild. Down to 10-15 degrees at night during the winter, and even a few sporadic days closer to freezing are not uncommon. The color of the flowers deepen with cooler night temps. So many hybrids with this parent will be more tolerant to cooler temps as well. I have talked to a friend of mine about this who is an expert on Vandas. He said that he successfully grows all of his Vandas, even the warm growers, with winter night temperatures down to 15 degrees – with no problems at all. And trust me, this guy is really good with Vandas! This made me really happy to hear as I have been dreaming of an Euanthe (formerly Vanda) sanderiana – so I bought a beautiful young plant (var. alba) from him that day. Check out his Vanda blog, it is in Swedish but use the google translator on the page.