Saturday, May 17, 2008

Sarcoglottis sceptrodes

Just look at these babies! Ain't they honeys? So perky and shiny! So crisp and vigorous! And you oughtta see the roots on them!

I last grew S spectrodes oh, maybe 16 years ago. I had a large happy speciment that after several trouble-free years alas did not enjoy being transported from Brooklyn to Manhattan, and not watered at all for about 2 months despite being dormant at the time. Poor thing never woke up again. I've been growing a vigorous Ludisia and a Stenosarchos Vanguard "Fireball" for a few years now and decided it was time for a few more painted leaf orchids again.

They arrived bare-root aside from shreds of sphagnum from their plug-tray. I let them drink heartily a few days en-masse in a plastic deli container, and then potted them in a pleasingly fluffy mixture of 1/2 Miracle-gro African violet soil and 1/2 Pro-mix. This is pretty much what my old happy speciment used to grow and thrive in. The Ludisia and Stenosarchos like it too. (Under my too-dry conditions, sphagnum simply dries out to concrete-like consistency far too quickly, even in plastic pots. I do not trust the stuff to keep my terrestrials consistently moist enough.)

Can't wait til the ones I'm keeping turn into big hearty hosta-like monsters. And then those really strange green snake-head flowers...o yeah.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for your information on potting medium. Does the scepterodes like to be in a cramped planter or does it want a roomier living space? I'm noticing that mine has filled its planter and the BIG roots now have no planting medium around them. I need to know now if I should just go into a slightly larger planer ot move up to something like a 4-6 in. pot.

orchidgrrl nyc said...

I like to give big-rooted plants plenty of room. I've seen S sceptrodes (and also Stenosarchus) seemingly very happy in rather tight pots, but once the roots have crowded out the mix I'd move it up. If you have multiple crowns you can divide the plant and put each piece back in a smaller pot. (One of these babies is now in a 6-inch pot with 3 crowns. Yay!)