K Barrett ) wrote:
: So just *WHAT* is it with bulbos??????? I've tried wet . moss. bark......
: they just linger for me. Talk about ticking me off!!!

: Bill Thoms says to put them on treefern (horizontal) in 1/4 inch of standing
: water... pfft! Nada. No new growth much less blooms. So I put them on
: bark and/or s moss in clay & nada: no new growths or blooms....... so WHAT
: do they want??? God they **** me off!!!!

: Best result I've gotten is high light in baskets with dry moss and I thinK
: they bloom just before they expire... which doesn't get me anywhere fast.

About 2 years ago you I was thinking about getting into Bulbos and their ilk
after I fell in love with Cirr. Elizabeth Ann 'Buckleberry'. I was wondering
if it would be possible to keep them in my window sill environment. For
reference I grow the majority of my plants in an east facing window that gets
lots of morning sun and the humidity runs between 30-60%. You and I (mostly,
there might have been a couple of other people chime in) discussed it on rgo
and ended up concluding the only way to find out would be to try it out and
see what happened.

Here's what I found out so far for my environment. A month or so after
our discussion I bought a Cirr Elizabeth Ann from a vendor at the AOS show
in Sacramento. It was mounted in a nice thick wad of spagh on a piece of
cork. It was spiking and the spike matured and bloomed, so far so good.
The following year a new bulb formed and spiked but the buds blasted 2 days
after I fertilized it (@#?&!). Encouraged by my success so far I bought a
Bulb. wendlandianum start and co-mounted it with the Elizabeth Ann. It
sulked for at least 6 months, lost the only leaf it had but finally grew a
new bulb and is doing OK so far. The Elizabeth Ann has really taken off this
year. It has 2 leads now and one of the leads produced 2 new psuedobulbs.
The leaves are twice as big as any of the previous leaves so it appears to
be quite happy. It should spike sometime in August so it's too early yet to
know for sure if it will bloom this year.

So, for me a hanging cork mount with spaghnum is working pretty well. I water
every 2-3 days by soaking the spagh thoroughly. The spagh is often bone dry
to the touch so the plants aren't constantly damp as is often recomended. I
don't consciously dry them out, mounted plants in my environment dry out
pretty quickly and I can't be chained to the kitchen sink watering my plants
all day at their beck and whim. It even went without watering for over week
while I was on vacation. I was worried about how well it would take being
dry for week but it doesn't seem to have bothered it all. Right now, I've
got my fingers crossed that I'll be getting not one, but 3 flower spikes
this year from the Eliz. Ann this year and if I'm really lucky a spike from
the B. wendlandianum although it may still be a bit small for that.

Hope that helps,

Dave