Well, I guess it had to come at some point, but it has started. The
flowers on my new Cymbidiums are starting to fade. I lost a couple of
them (flowers that is) within days of bringing them home, but that was
due to damage from cold (outside temperatures were about -15 degrees
Celcius - I guess my efforts to protect them from the cold weren't as
effective as I'd hoped). But now, about a quarter of them have
started to droop and close up on themselves. There remain quite a few
that still look great, but there is no longer any scent.

My question is this: should I cut off the inflorescence once the
flowers are all faded, or can it rebloom from them the next time it
comes into bloom? I know some phalaenopsis will rebloom from an
inflorescence and that one should therefore not cut them off unless
the plant tells you to by having the old inflorescence die back.

Thanks

Ted

AFAIK Cyms don't branch and rebloom like phals or oncids.

K Barrett

"Ted Byers" wrote in message
...
Well, I guess it had to come at some point, but it has started. The
flowers on my new Cymbidiums are starting to fade. I lost a couple of
them (flowers that is) within days of bringing them home, but that was
due to damage from cold (outside temperatures were about -15 degrees
Celcius - I guess my efforts to protect them from the cold weren't as
effective as I'd hoped). But now, about a quarter of them have
started to droop and close up on themselves. There remain quite a few
that still look great, but there is no longer any scent.

My question is this: should I cut off the inflorescence once the
flowers are all faded, or can it rebloom from them the next time it
comes into bloom? I know some phalaenopsis will rebloom from an
inflorescence and that one should therefore not cut them off unless
the plant tells you to by having the old inflorescence die back.

Thanks

Ted

On Mar 2, 10:23*am, "K Barrett" wrote:
AFAIK Cyms don't branch and rebloom like phals or oncids.

K Barrett

Thanks. I suspected as much because the inflorescence itself seems
rather fleshy or succulent, where the inflorescences on the
phalaenopsis and oncidium orchids I've had had inflorescences that
seemed harder, almost woody, but as always it is best to ask to be
sure.

Speaking of the oncidiums reminds me, though, of one of my saddest
orchid losses. I had a sharry baby that filled a 25 cm pot with
pseudobulbs; so much so that in addition to completely obscuring the
medium, they piled on top of each other to a height of about 10 cm.
At it's finest, last, bloom, it had 6 highly branched inflorescences,
each over a meter long. It's scent filled all the rooms on the second
floor of the house. After that last bloom faded, I was going to repot
it (not divide it, to see just how big it could get - it had the
makings of a nice specimen plant - not that I am skilled enough to
grow something worth taking to get judged, even if I was well enough
to get to the nearest orchid society meeting). And then I was ill and
spent over a third of a year in the hospital. As I had no one to take
care of my orchids, most, including this one, died. Only a couple
catts survived, and they died the next time I was in hospital. I know
sharry baby is quite common, so nothing particularly special about it,
but that was one fine plant. Alas, I don't have the means to replace
it and I don't know where I'd find its equal. I don't really want to
start over with a first bloom seedling.

Thanks again

Ted

On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 06:40:29 -0800 (PST) in Ted Byers wrote:
sharry baby is quite common, so nothing particularly special about it,
but that was one fine plant. Alas, I don't have the means to replace
it and I don't know where I'd find its equal. I don't really want to
start over with a first bloom seedling.

Sharry Baby + Semi Hydro + lots of light = Huge plant in no time.



--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.