Wow...and that will make it bloom?


"Wendy7" wrote in message
...
You could send it to me Gene! Ha ha! Cheers Wendy

"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
news:iEfli.4795$CJ4.3942@trndny08...
Need some ideas from you vanda types.

5 years ago I purchased two Aranda Floraweb plants (Arachis flos-aeris x
Vanda Emma van Deventer). Not something you see around much. These
plants are 40+ years old from the Singapore Botanical Gardens. Both
plants were 5+ feet tall....big guys. Both plants had previously
bloomed. They had been neglected and needed some TLC.

I cut them back to reduce the naked stem length and put them in fresh
vanda baskets. Each year I would hang them outside in a crepe myrtle
tree in my back yard and they would grow and look very happy when they
came back into the greenhouse in September. In the greenhouse during the
winter they kind of stopped doing anything....no decline but they seemed
to just sit up high in the light and wait for the next summer to arrive.

No blooms. The larger one is reaching 5 feet tall again and the other is
about 3 1/2 feet. I have to sit it on the ground to see into the crown!

This year I bought a bag of red lava rock from HD and took one of the
plants out of the teak baskets (it was falling apart) and placed the
plant in a 12 inch clay pot (a big pot) and placed the lava rock around
the base. The other plant I just put the lava rock in the basket. In
May I put both plants in full sun on a bench. To give them more sun
would require putting on the room of my house!

The larger plant in clay pot is responding well sending out really nice
roots. The smaller one looks good but the larger one is really shining.
I fertilize each week when the other vandas get their squirt of MSU.

SO the question....Does anyone grow anything closely related to this
cross who has bloomed it? Any other suggestions?

BTW...the remains of the old flower spike was over 5 feet long so besides
being an old plant I expect it to be an awesome show. Extra bonus points
if I could get to to bloom in time for the October show. I don't know
when to expect it to bloom.

Good Growing,
Gene