J Fortuna wrote:
snip
By the way, do you know about doritis buyssoniana, or doritis pulcherrima
var buyssoniana. If not, you might want to look into it. It's the same as
doritis pulcherrima, only bigger flowers.


Since you mentioned it...some years back, I bought a buyssoniana
'Shaffers' in Livermore, CA from Orchids of Orinda. The plant is
spiking again now. Currently the spike is two feet tall and growing--it
probably has another foot to go. It's a large, upright plant with 7
pairs of leaves, and it looks like a Vanda. Because of its size, I grow
it in a south-facing window, with ambient light from a 400-watt MH
light. It seems pretty happy there. To keep it from leaning toward the
sun, I turn it around every once in a while. It's been growing in a
large S/H pot and seems very content in that media. The thing I don't
like about this plant is the roots--not only are they in the pot, but
there are a boatload of aerial roots and roots coming out between the
leaves, which make the plant look as if it's having a Medusa
experience. Sometimes the roots poke through the leaves, which is not
attactive. The flowers are a pale lavender. It IS an interesting plant,
but I wouldn't want more than one.

By contrast, I have a nice little Doritis pulcherrima var.
champornensis (spellings vary on this), and it is a little plant with a
shorter spike and cute little lavender/rust flowers. The seller, Tom
Ritter, said that it's a Florida native. It's happy under florescent
light until it spikes.

I've also got two Doritis pulcherrima 'Stone River,' which have proved
to be very difficult to grow. The flowers are purple.

My favorite Doritis is a pulcherrima (pulcherrima 'FANGtastic AM/AOS
x pulcherrima 'Monte Vista HCC/AOS). It has dime-size peloric
yellow-and-white flowers. It's a sweet little thing, but the flower
spike is long--it got a blue ribbon at a regional orchid show.

By the way, the OP should know that many Doritis flower spikes tend to
open from the bottom up and drop the old blossoms as the new ones open,
so you don't get to see a whole spike in glorioius bloom.