If you put the vuylstekaras in a fairly large clay pot of PrimeAgra, then
stand it in a tray to act as the reservoir, you'll have it in S/H culture
with the added advantage of extra evaporation to do some localized cooling.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!

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"dd" wrote in message
...
I grow warm/intermediate orchids. As newbie, I foolishly bought some
Miltonia, Vuylstekeara, and Miltonidium orchids because they were
beautiful and I was hopeful and the vendors told me they were easy to
grow. (There's a lesson here.)

The Miltonia did great over winter then died when the summer heat in
the sunroom became too high. However, the Miltonidium next to her grew
very well and even rebloomed.

The Miltonidium (Rosy Sunset) stayed in the sunroom until July, then I
moved it to the living room, which gets A/C and is cooler in
general--from reading the AOS literature, I knew that the plant
wouldn't like the low humidity, but it was a tradeoff between the plant
cooking in the sunroom and having low humidity in the livingroom.
Suprisingly, it did very well and now has three bloom spikes. It is a
robust plant.

The Vuylstekearas (two of them, both Mary Kavanaugh) looked as if they
were going South and were buggy to boot, so in desperation, I nuked
the insects and then put them in PrimeAgra. (Yes, I know that you're
only supposed to pot plants when they're in active growth, but I was
desperate.) Then I put them outside for the summer. The Vuylstekearas
are still alive, but they are the rattiest looking plants that I've
got--shrivelled pseudobulbs and streaked leaves from various
pest/diseases and a wind storm. The healthier of the two, which I
brought indoors last week, actually has a rather pathetic bud.

Since all these plants are in the Odontogloss/Oncidium alliance, I
would have thought that they would have reacted similarly to my
environment. Guess not. It's probably a miracle that any of them
survived my care.

Has anyone who's an intermediate/warm grower had luck with
Vuylstekearas? I'm at the point of thinking that I should donate them
to person who's a cool grower, rather than continuing to torture these
plants.