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Old 06-07-2003, 10:20 AM
White Monkey
 
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Default Miniature orchids?

Greetings all,

I just discovered this group after biting the bullet and getting an orchid.
Many members of my family have had them, so I'm not a total babe in the
woods and I think I'll be able to keep this one up (phal. "pink stripes")
just fine in my tiny Amsterdam (Netherlands) apartment. However, I know that
the collector bug will hit me very hard at any moment, I can feel it--it's
happened before, just not yet with orchids (actually, it's an interest in
adding vanilla to the list of spices and herbs I'm trying to grow that got
me the phal.; it was *there*, you know how it is, and they didn't have a
vanilla orchid in stock and this one just kept nodding away at me...).

Before I go totally nuts I'd like to have a direction for that to flow...
I'll be getting a few hardier and larger sorts as regular houseplants as I
go, given that the prices here are much lower than appears to be the case in
much of the rest of the world (the nice phal.'s with one flower spike with 6
or 7 flowers are going for 5 Euros here right now) but for the collecting
and being generally insular and nuts about it phase, I think it would be
best to try these fabulous little tiny ones I keep seeing referenced. In
this climate, a miniature greenhouse, say the size of a couple of 10-gallon
aquaria, would be my best bet to start off with, I think.

So... what am I yammering at you folks for? Well, I'd like suggestions on
which of the miniatures make good starters for amateur cultivators. What's
good in shade (apartment's too small and the electrics too crappy and
bunched up to get a fancy lighting setup, so we're talking natural
conditions on that one), what can take a lower-temperature winter (yes, we
do have a heater, but no, we don't run it very high at night--just enough to
keep stuff from freezing) (I'm willing and able to get reptile hot rocks or
something for the mini-greenhouses, though, should that turn out to be
best)? I'm not one of these people who think something has to be showy to be
special, and am in fact quite attracted to the weird, so don't worry about
that sort of thing in answering. I am also aware that the floral return on
orchids is limited--in other words, I'm fine with looking at apparent clumps
of sticks or smudges of green for most of the year. The humidity levels here
are high, but the light low. I have access to excellent plant-supply shops
where they will know which soils/media to sell me, and which fertilizers (if
any), and where I can ask advice about sick or damaged plants, so I don't
have to get only the hardiest and most difficult to kill or anything like
that, but this probably isn't a moment for the downright delicate.

So, any suggestions on what to keep my eyes peeled for?

Thanks,

Katrina


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Old 06-07-2003, 11:08 AM
Geir Harris Hedemark
 
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Default Miniature orchids?

"White Monkey" writes:
adding vanilla to the list of spices and herbs I'm trying to grow that got
me the phal.; it was *there*, you know how it is, and they didn't have a
vanilla orchid in stock and this one just kept nodding away at me...).


"Small apartment" and vanilla don't exactly go hand in hand. Vanilla
requires high humidity, high heat, and won't flower until it is a
significant number of metres long.

I think this is a pity - I would also have liked to grow my own
vanilla.

that sort of thing in answering. I am also aware that the floral return on
orchids is limited--in other words, I'm fine with looking at apparent clumps


I wouldn't know about that. I have an epidendrum hybrid (far from a
miniature, I am afraid. It comes up to my hip when it is flowering)
which finished flowering in the beginning of april. It had kept at it
for three months at that time. Today, the first flower of its new
flower stalks opened.

Last year, it only flowered once. Flowering seems to be related to
size.

Perhaps Larry knows wether there exists such a thing as a miniature
epidendrum? Larry?

I am getting a number of flasks in august. In there is a neofinetia
falcata. Perhaps that would be someting for you? I have no idea how
hard it is to grow, though. Talk to me in three years.

Geir - who also lives in a small flat.
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Old 06-07-2003, 11:32 AM
White Monkey
 
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Default Miniature orchids?

"Small apartment" and vanilla don't exactly go hand in hand. Vanilla
requires high humidity, high heat, and won't flower until it is a
significant number of metres long.


Thanks for telling me this. The heat will be a problem, so I may not get one
after all... but as for it getting to a certain size, they climb, right? I
was planning to train it all over the kitchen window and environs; I have a
wire grid there already anyway. That room is so humid I need to open the
door to make tea, or I suffocate. Well, not quite that bad.... Does the
whole plant require high heat, or only the root system? I've heard very
interesting stuff about growing some warm-root vegetables with their top
leaves actually frosted, if the roots are kept warm. I suppose this is too
much to hope for with a vanilla orchid? Another point is that I don't plan
to live in this apartment forever; when we eventually moved, having grown
the plant awhile might give it a jump on flowering... ?

I am getting a number of flasks in august. In there is a neofinetia
falcata. Perhaps that would be someting for you? I have no idea how
hard it is to grow, though. Talk to me in three years.


That does look like an awfully nice plant. Thanks for the tip; it's going
straight onto my wish-list!

Thanks,

Katrina


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Old 06-07-2003, 03:44 PM
Geir Harris Hedemark
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

"White Monkey" writes:
Thanks for telling me this. The heat will be a problem, so I may not get one
after all... but as for it getting to a certain size, they climb, right? I


Yes, they climb.

If you are to get flowers on it, expect to have it go up and down to
the ceiling a couple of times. I have been told that a length 10m is
not an uncommon length for production-size specimens. Not exactly a
miniature.

wire grid there already anyway. That room is so humid I need to open the
door to make tea, or I suffocate. Well, not quite that bad.... Does the


Buy a small digital hygrometer/thermometer combo. It shouldn't cost
more than about 15 euro. If the humidity ever drops below 60%, you
will have trouble.

I have never tried this myself, so all I am stating with such
confidence is hearsay. YMMV.

whole plant require high heat, or only the root system? I've heard very


The whole plant, as far as I know.

to live in this apartment forever; when we eventually moved, having grown
the plant awhile might give it a jump on flowering... ?


I would expect so, but my experience is, as I said, nonexistent.

I know there is a guy on no.fritid.hage (norway.recreation.garden,
literally) from time to time who has grown vanilla in the past in an
apartmentq. He has complained about huge crops of black fungi, but
little vanilla.

If you try there, you might be able to lure him out.

Geir
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Old 06-07-2003, 04:33 PM
Wendy
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

Welkom! "White Monkey"
The first orchid to come to mind is Ludisia discolor, easy grower, very
low light. They have
the most beautiful leaves.
Cheers Wendy
"White Monkey" wrote in message
...
Greetings all,

I just discovered this group after biting the bullet and getting an

orchid.
Many members of my family have had them, so I'm not a total babe in the
woods and I think I'll be able to keep this one up (phal. "pink stripes")
just fine in my tiny Amsterdam (Netherlands) apartment. However, I know

that
the collector bug will hit me very hard at any moment, I can feel it--it's
happened before, just not yet with orchids (actually, it's an interest in
adding vanilla to the list of spices and herbs I'm trying to grow that got
me the phal.; it was *there*, you know how it is, and they didn't have a
vanilla orchid in stock and this one just kept nodding away at me...).

Before I go totally nuts I'd like to have a direction for that to flow...
I'll be getting a few hardier and larger sorts as regular houseplants as I
go, given that the prices here are much lower than appears to be the case

in
much of the rest of the world (the nice phal.'s with one flower spike with

6
or 7 flowers are going for 5 Euros here right now) but for the collecting
and being generally insular and nuts about it phase, I think it would be
best to try these fabulous little tiny ones I keep seeing referenced. In
this climate, a miniature greenhouse, say the size of a couple of

10-gallon
aquaria, would be my best bet to start off with, I think.

So... what am I yammering at you folks for? Well, I'd like suggestions on
which of the miniatures make good starters for amateur cultivators. What's
good in shade (apartment's too small and the electrics too crappy and
bunched up to get a fancy lighting setup, so we're talking natural
conditions on that one), what can take a lower-temperature winter (yes, we
do have a heater, but no, we don't run it very high at night--just enough

to
keep stuff from freezing) (I'm willing and able to get reptile hot rocks

or
something for the mini-greenhouses, though, should that turn out to be
best)? I'm not one of these people who think something has to be showy to

be
special, and am in fact quite attracted to the weird, so don't worry about
that sort of thing in answering. I am also aware that the floral return on
orchids is limited--in other words, I'm fine with looking at apparent

clumps
of sticks or smudges of green for most of the year. The humidity levels

here
are high, but the light low. I have access to excellent plant-supply shops
where they will know which soils/media to sell me, and which fertilizers

(if
any), and where I can ask advice about sick or damaged plants, so I don't
have to get only the hardiest and most difficult to kill or anything like
that, but this probably isn't a moment for the downright delicate.

So, any suggestions on what to keep my eyes peeled for?

Thanks,

Katrina


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Old 06-07-2003, 05:32 PM
J. Del Col
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

"White Monkey" wrote in message ...
"Small apartment" and vanilla don't exactly go hand in hand. Vanilla
requires high humidity, high heat, and won't flower until it is a
significant number of metres long.


Thanks for telling me this. The heat will be a problem, so I may not get one
after all... but as for it getting to a certain size, they climb, right? I
was planning to train it all over the kitchen window and environs; I have a
wire grid there already anyway. That room is so humid I need to open the
door to make tea, or I suffocate. Well, not quite that bad.... Does the
whole plant require high heat, or only the root system? I've heard very
interesting stuff about growing some warm-root vegetables with their top
leaves actually frosted, if the roots are kept warm. I suppose this is too
much to hope for with a vanilla orchid? Another point is that I don't plan
to live in this apartment forever; when we eventually moved, having grown
the plant awhile might give it a jump on flowering... ?


Umm... as White Monkey says, Vanilla planifolia has to get -really-
big before it flowers and needs more space and light than a kitchen
window can provide.
It is a -tropical- plant; the whole thing has to be kept warm. It is
essentially a greenhouse item. They are grown outdoors in Madagascar.

I hope you aren't considering it as a source of vanilla "beans". The
process of making vanilla pods is a kind of lengthy fermentation that
takes lots of heat and sunlight.


J. Del Col
  #7   Report Post  
Old 06-07-2003, 05:33 PM
J. Del Col
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

"White Monkey" wrote in message ...
"Small apartment" and vanilla don't exactly go hand in hand. Vanilla
requires high humidity, high heat, and won't flower until it is a
significant number of metres long.


Thanks for telling me this. The heat will be a problem, so I may not get one
after all... but as for it getting to a certain size, they climb, right? I
was planning to train it all over the kitchen window and environs; I have a
wire grid there already anyway. That room is so humid I need to open the
door to make tea, or I suffocate. Well, not quite that bad.... Does the
whole plant require high heat, or only the root system? I've heard very
interesting stuff about growing some warm-root vegetables with their top
leaves actually frosted, if the roots are kept warm. I suppose this is too
much to hope for with a vanilla orchid? Another point is that I don't plan
to live in this apartment forever; when we eventually moved, having grown
the plant awhile might give it a jump on flowering... ?


Umm... as White Monkey says, Vanilla planifolia has to get -really-
big before it flowers and needs more space and light than a kitchen
window can provide.
It is a -tropical- plant; the whole thing has to be kept warm. It is
essentially a greenhouse item. They are grown outdoors in Madagascar.

I hope you aren't considering it as a source of vanilla "beans". The
process of making vanilla pods is a kind of lengthy fermentation that
takes lots of heat and sunlight.


J. Del Col
  #8   Report Post  
Old 06-07-2003, 07:44 PM
Boystrup Pb, ann,...
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

Probeer Herman ter Borch, "botanische orchideeen" (helmond Nederland) Hij
heeft veel kleine planten van goede kwaliteit en prijs. Hij kent er ook veel
van.
http://www.botorch.com/

Akerne orchids in België zij hebben ook veel kleine planten zoals restrepia,
dracula ...
www.akerne-orchids.com

These two sites can tell you a lot and the people there know what they are
talking about

Peter




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Old 06-07-2003, 07:44 PM
White Monkey
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

"Wendy" wrote in message
news:MqWNa.120079$MJ5.109561@fed1read03...
Welkom! "White Monkey"
The first orchid to come to mind is Ludisia discolor, easy grower,

very
low light. They have
the most beautiful leaves.
Cheers Wendy


Ooh, thanks, yes (having done a search), those do look nice. I'll see if I
see them at the market.

Thanks,

Katrina


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Old 06-07-2003, 07:44 PM
White Monkey
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

Probeer Herman ter Borch, "botanische orchideeen" (helmond Nederland) Hij
heeft veel kleine planten van goede kwaliteit en prijs. Hij kent er ook

veel
van.
http://www.botorch.com/
Akerne orchids in België zij hebben ook veel kleine planten zoals

restrepia,
dracula ...
www.akerne-orchids.com
These two sites can tell you a lot and the people there know what they are
talking about
Peter



Hartelijk bedankt! Heel mooi! Ik zal vragen op mijn vriendin die een auto
heeft of zij vindt een ritje een fijn idee. (Of het bovende zin in betere
Nederlands.)

Dank u,

Katrina


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Old 06-07-2003, 07:44 PM
White Monkey
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

If you are to get flowers on it, expect to have it go up and down to
the ceiling a couple of times. I have been told that a length 10m is
not an uncommon length for production-size specimens. Not exactly a
miniature.


Not *all* my orchids have to be miniature. My husband and I need more color
around the place (in season; greenery's fine too), and could fit a *few*
normal-sized plants in here. The miniatures are just an attempt to get a
handle in advance on controlling the effect on our lives of an inevitable
leap into colelction mania. Not to mention trying to keep things as
inexpensive as possible right now, but this, I know, doesn't necessarily go
well with wanting miniatiures! So I'll be starting, ahem, small. In the
non-mini group there are some lovely yellow oncidiums (oncidia?) down at
the flower market this week for 4 Euros. I forsee myself walking down there
tomorrow...

...I have never tried this myself, so all I am stating with such
confidence is hearsay. YMMV.


Thanks; it does look, though, as though the vanilla plant will have to wait
for a greenhouse, hothouse, sunroom with conditioning, something like that.
Darn.

Thanks again,

Katrina


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Old 06-07-2003, 07:44 PM
White Monkey
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

It is a -tropical- plant; the whole thing has to be kept warm. It is
essentially a greenhouse item. They are grown outdoors in Madagascar.


Thanks, yes, it does look like I'll have to wait on this one.

I hope you aren't considering it as a source of vanilla "beans". The
process of making vanilla pods is a kind of lengthy fermentation that
takes lots of heat and sunlight.


I was thinking (dreaming) of it as a very-low-yield, impress-your-friends
kind of source, like my ginger and turmeric plants. Oh well! Someday I'll
be able to create the right conditions and I'll give it a whirl. I'm the
sort who's trying to make my own rice wine for cooking and do all my own
curry powders up and so forth (except when there's a "personal" blend going
around one of the shops or markets, like this nice hot madras powder I'm
nearly out of).

Thanks,

Katrina


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Old 06-07-2003, 07:44 PM
Kenni Judd
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

Hwra. Lava Burst 'Puanani' -- starts blooming in the compot, can stay in a
2" pot for years, blooms its head off in bright light, still blooms 2 or
more times a year in phal shade ...

--
Kenni Judd
Juno Beach Orchids

http://www.jborchids.com
"White Monkey" wrote in message
...
Greetings all,

I just discovered this group after biting the bullet and getting an

orchid.
Many members of my family have had them, so I'm not a total babe in the
woods and I think I'll be able to keep this one up (phal. "pink stripes")
just fine in my tiny Amsterdam (Netherlands) apartment. However, I know

that
the collector bug will hit me very hard at any moment, I can feel it--it's
happened before, just not yet with orchids (actually, it's an interest in
adding vanilla to the list of spices and herbs I'm trying to grow that got
me the phal.; it was *there*, you know how it is, and they didn't have a
vanilla orchid in stock and this one just kept nodding away at me...).

Before I go totally nuts I'd like to have a direction for that to flow...
I'll be getting a few hardier and larger sorts as regular houseplants as I
go, given that the prices here are much lower than appears to be the case

in
much of the rest of the world (the nice phal.'s with one flower spike with

6
or 7 flowers are going for 5 Euros here right now) but for the collecting
and being generally insular and nuts about it phase, I think it would be
best to try these fabulous little tiny ones I keep seeing referenced. In
this climate, a miniature greenhouse, say the size of a couple of

10-gallon
aquaria, would be my best bet to start off with, I think.

So... what am I yammering at you folks for? Well, I'd like suggestions on
which of the miniatures make good starters for amateur cultivators. What's
good in shade (apartment's too small and the electrics too crappy and
bunched up to get a fancy lighting setup, so we're talking natural
conditions on that one), what can take a lower-temperature winter (yes, we
do have a heater, but no, we don't run it very high at night--just enough

to
keep stuff from freezing) (I'm willing and able to get reptile hot rocks

or
something for the mini-greenhouses, though, should that turn out to be
best)? I'm not one of these people who think something has to be showy to

be
special, and am in fact quite attracted to the weird, so don't worry about
that sort of thing in answering. I am also aware that the floral return on
orchids is limited--in other words, I'm fine with looking at apparent

clumps
of sticks or smudges of green for most of the year. The humidity levels

here
are high, but the light low. I have access to excellent plant-supply shops
where they will know which soils/media to sell me, and which fertilizers

(if
any), and where I can ask advice about sick or damaged plants, so I don't
have to get only the hardiest and most difficult to kill or anything like
that, but this probably isn't a moment for the downright delicate.

So, any suggestions on what to keep my eyes peeled for?

Thanks,

Katrina


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Old 06-07-2003, 07:44 PM
Geir Harris Hedemark
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

"White Monkey" writes:
I hope you aren't considering it as a source of vanilla "beans". The
process of making vanilla pods is a kind of lengthy fermentation that
takes lots of heat and sunlight.

I was thinking (dreaming) of it as a very-low-yield, impress-your-friends
kind of source, like my ginger and turmeric plants. Oh well! Someday I'll
be able to create the right conditions and I'll give it a whirl. I'm the


Don't let the process get you down. The worst that will happen to you
when fermenting your pods is that you will have learnt something about
fermentation. Since fermentation is a fairly important bit of cooking
techniques, you might be a better cook.

If you have a go, please save an unfermented pod for me, please. I am
sure that a vanilla thingy would be a nice plant, even in a
non-flowering size.

Now, if I could get my vanda keeree/sansai blue and my blc white
diamond to flower.

Does anyone know how large a vanda needs to be before it starts to
have a chance of flowering? The leaves are about 15cm/6in high right
now.

Geir


  #15   Report Post  
Old 06-07-2003, 07:56 PM
White Monkey
 
Posts: n/a
Default Miniature orchids?

"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...
Hwra. Lava Burst 'Puanani' -- starts blooming in the compot, can stay in a
2" pot for years, blooms its head off in bright light, still blooms 2 or
more times a year in phal shade ...


Thanks! That *is* nice! It's gone _right_ onto the list.

On the non-mini's, I was planning to put 1 or 2 (eventually!) less delicate
types in each room... the phal. is on the dining/living room table with
tree-filtered sunlight in the mornings, and indirect-tree-filtered sunlight
in the afternoons. It's only been here 3 days, but certainly hasn't gone
into shock or anything. The oncidium I may buy tomorrow is destined for the
warm (at this time of year) and bright (in the afternoon) bedroom, over by
the anthurium because that also likes lots of light but fries quickly in
direct sunlight.

That room really won't be much of a problem, but the trouble is, everything
ends up gravitating into that room, from the schefflera to the
mother-in-law's-tongue to the maranta (guess who rescues the plants nobody
wants when they move, around here? I got all the plants from a coffeeshop
that went out of business, too, and farmed them out to friends with better
light, but kept the dracaena reflexa and the pothos and they've just been
going to town these last couple of years).

We have a very dark and gloomy office, from a plant's point of view, and a
shady living room. It seems to me that some orchids might even like my
husband's office, there in the gloom, but he thinks Orchids Die without
Religiously Specific Conditions and that nothing can ever live in there with
him... any suggestions from the group on what I might prove him wrong with?
And for that matter, just to dream here, is there even a single orchid which
can live outdoors through a freezing winter on a windy balcony? Yeah, I
know, ha, ha.

--Katrina




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