This series is now in its fourth installment. The first three were:
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Getting Started: The basics of lighting, and introducing Phalaenopsis moth orchids
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Keeping It Alive: Watering, and introducing Paphiopedilum Asian lady slipper orchids
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Getting Serious: Artificial lighting, and introducing the core Oncidium alliance orchids
As I mentioned in my third installment, placing a small greenhouse frame in a guest room allowed me to control lighting, humidity, and temperature. But I haven’t said much about temperature yet, except for small details in each of the orchid genera I’ve introduced so far…
Challenge 3:
The American Orchid Society defines three general ranges of temperature for growing orchids, and provides some additional guidelines for various orchid species. Those ranges are:
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Cool: Orchids in this category like night-time winter temperatures between 50 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit. In general, they do not like daytime temperatures over 80 degrees, but they can often tolerate winter lows down to 45 on occasion. The ancestors of these orchids usually come from mountainous regions.
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Moderate: Orchids in this category like their night-time winter temperatures between 55 and 60 degrees. They can tolerate hot summer days for a few days at a time if the humidity levels and air movement are strong enough, and are usually okay with a day or two of lower winter temperatures.
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Warm: Orchids in this category do not like winter night temperatures to drop below 60. Like moderate temperature orchids, they can tolerate hot summer days with adequate air movement and humidity — and such warm conditions often spur faster growth.
Most orchids like — or even need — a 10 to 15 degree (or more) variance between night and daytime temperatures, and most also like a 5-10 degree variance between summer and winter. While such changes are not always necessary to grow orchids, many species will not bloom or grow at the same rate without these seasonal and daily cues. For example, my two out-of-bloom Phalaenopsis — in questionable shape though they are — are now putting up flower spikes because they had a couple of weeks dipping just a bit below 60.
In an area with too much light and temperature for an orchid, air movement and humidity can be added to compensate somewhat. If the leaves are feeling toasty, then they’re probably burning up inside, too; more cooling with air and moisture may be in order — or you might just have to move the plant away from the excess heat.
I keep all of my orchids a bit on the warm side, with lows hovering around 60 each night. During the day I set my thermostat to 75. This satisfies almost all of my plants, though as summer comes along again I will probably need to raise the daytime temperature to 80 and then give my cooler orchids some extra ventilation. I have a few cool weather orchids that so far have done okay in the warmer nighttime temperature range. I suspect I’ll eventually figure out a way to lower their night-time temperatures a few more degrees, but for now they’re surviving and growing.
Fine Tuning — Revisiting the past with an eye toward success
When I was much younger, I tried several times to raise orchids, but never with any success. Two of my three early failures were with the showy Cattleya alliance orchids, so when I started building my new collection, I was more than a bit hesitant to start collecting them again. Cattleyas like light — lots of light — and my early growing attempts didn’t give it to them. I remember one of the two plants wound up on display in a dark corner on top of the TV. I’m chalking it up to the ignorance of youth these days. Now that I have enough lighting, I’ve picked up four orchids from this broad and popular family.
You can recognize a Cattleya alliance orchid in two ways: the flaring tubular lips of the flowers, and the rather gangly looking pseudobulbs that usually only support a few thick, fleshy leaves. Cattleyas are the orchids your mother warned you about when it comes to greenery. A healthy plant’s leaves are often a slightly sickly looking yellow-green, and the sparseness and thickness of the plant’s growth makes it one of the least attractive orchids out of bloom.
My first attempt at Cattleyas was sort of a compromise for me. I had been looking at orange Phragmipediums and wound up purchasing one without even a flower spike based on its on-display parent. I didn’t want to walk out without some flowers, and there was an interesting plant in bloom with orange and yellow flowers on the next table over — a good stand-in until I could get the Phrag to bloom. The plant was Epilaeliocattleya Volcano Trick. A bit different than your average Cattleya, this plant has dense sprays of smallish flowers rather than one or a few large blossoms.
The second of my latest attempts with the Cattleyas is pictured at the top of this section — Brassolaelia Yellow Bird. This is a famous hybrid, with one parent being the fragrant Lady Of The Night orchid, Brassavola nodosa. Like its parent, Yellow Bird is fragrant at night. When I walk into my orchid room in the morning when this plant is flowering, it smells beautifully exotic and spicy; it’s almost overwhelming. Yellow Bird is what I’d call a “sprawling miniature”; my plant came in a 3 inch clay pot, but the parent plant, which was on display at the time I purchased mine, was mounted on bark and had taken over a good-sized slab of wood. Still, the individual bulbs and leaves are perhaps 6 inches in height when full-grown; the flower spike rises not too far above that.
My third acquisition in this family of orchids was a very young plant in its first year of bloom. I believe it to be a relatively new hybrid, and it does not yet have its own name. Labelled Brassolaeliocattleya Hawaiian Thrill X Madeline Lundquist, I expect this plant will eventually grow to be a full-sized Cattleya plant based on the size of the flower. This flower shows the typical frilly lip of many of the more popular Cattleya plants these days. It also shows a broad palette of colors typical of many of the newer hybrids…
My latest purchase in this family is the title image of this diary, Sophrolaeliocattleya Dancing Fairy ‘#15’. I really didn’t go to the greenhouse to buy orchids when I purchased this beauty — in fact, unlike most of my orchids, I didn’t buy it at my normal grower, Fantasy Orchids, but rather at the greenhouse where I buy my supplies, Denver’s Paulino Gardens. Santa was in the house the day I walked in for some drainage catch pans (i.e. seedling trays with no drain holes). The store had just received a number of new and very nice orchids, but my eye was drawn straight toward the two plants with the astoundingly dark red flowers… I picked what I thought was the better of the two — it took me all of a minute. Dancing Fairy is a reasonably compact plant with smallish flowers and a lip with very little flare. The plant seems reasonably mature; I don’t expect it to get out of control, making it a great plant for my still limited space.
Family: Cattleya alliance orchids
Risk vs. Reward: Moderate risk, moderate reward. Cattleya flowers are showy, but they do not last as long as many orchid flowers — they act more like a “normal” flower. Also, the plants themselves aren’t the best looking when out of flower. Fortunately, if you’ve got room for orchids with high light requirements and decently warm temperatures, they take the same basic treatment as most other orchids, and they’re not horribly rare or expensive.
Lighting: Bright light (30,000 lx — 45,000 lx). Cattleyas grow best with strong lighting with some shade during the midday hours to protect them from burning. A healthy plant will often look a bit sickly with a slightly lighter yellow-green leaf color. (This is not always true, though. My Eplc. Volcano Trick took on a “tanned” purple shade when I put it under strong artificial light; I’ve moved it down to the strong moderate light zone on my table and the purple is fading; the plant has more medium green leaves...)
Temperature: Moderate. Cattleyas tend to like winter nighttime temperatures down to 55-60 degrees, with a 15-25 degree daytime temperature increase.
Watering and Fertilizing: Water thoroughly then let dry. Cattleyas need more water when flowering, and then like to have a rest after they’re done blooming. I fertilize with Grow More’s 20-20-20 Cattleya formula except during the resting period. Resting triggers growth and a new flower cycle. (Don’t ask me what to do when a new growth starts while the flowers are still in bloom — I’m still trying to figure that one out myself...)
Potting: Like most of my orchids, my Cattleyas have come in plastic pots with standard orchid bark mixes. My local grower uses clay pots for their smaller orchids, so my Yellow Bird is in a clay pot — and their parent plant was mounted on bark rather than potted. This alliance should be repotted when the mix decomposes, but like most orchids likes to be a bit crowded in its pot. It is recommended that pot size be increased only when the newest growth hits the edge of the pot.