Larry:

I've never grown vanilla myself, but we have a local grower who
produced flowers on a plant that clung to a small totem that was less than
3' tall. I wouldn't have believed that such a small vanilla could flower,
but I saw it myself- or, at least, due to the abbreviated longevity of the
flowers, saw it in bud. The tag was for a V. planifolia, and the overall
appearance of the plant was consistent with what I've seen as planifolia
elsewhere, but I didn't see it in flower so I can't say for sure it wasn't
another vanilla species. But that's what the tag read.

She grows it on the south side of her greenhouse, with not much
more than twinwall polycarbonate keeping the Arizona sun off of it. Plenty
of light, decent amount of heat, that sort of thing. Nothing fancy about
the substrate, no pruning, no convolutions or contortions of the vine,
nada. I get the impression from one of Withner's books that it is (or was)
grown in very high light in Puerto Rico. I don't have his book handy right
now, but I seem to recall something like 2/3 full sun in PR. The substrate
there is a bit different than typical orchid fare, heavy in limestone.

Anyway- like I said, I wouldn't have believed it myself if I
didn't see it. The leaves weren't much more than 4-6" in length, the pot
looked a little big for the plant, and the number of buds was pretty good
for each node. It didn't look like it was flowering out of stress, anyway.
You might top-dress with a bit of limestone to provide some calcium unless
you're already using a Cal-Mag type formula, and you might try throwing it
as much light as you can. How you're going to do that with a 30' python of
a planifolia is beyond me.

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-AJHicks
Chandler, AZ