Thread: I'm SO excited
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Old 19-01-2008, 01:54 PM posted to rec.gardens.orchids
John Varigos John Varigos is offline
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Default I'm SO excited

Well done, Ray. It is a given in Melbourne that if you are on the wrong
side of 50 you should never buy a D. speciosum seedling as you might not
live long enough to see it flower. They need to be quite a few years old
before they bless you with some blooms (I have seen ones which are 15 +
years old before first flowering) and even then it is no guarantee that they
will flower every year. I grow mine outside under a jacaranda tree
(deciduous) where they get full sun in winter and dappled light in summer
and any rain that comes their way. Temperatures here get down to around 3 to
4°C during winter and as high as 42°C in summer. There is a view like Dave
said, that they need a cold spell during winter to flower but I have been
unable to verify that this is so. It seems that when mine are having a good
flowering year everybody else's plants are as well (bugger!) so there may be
some truth to climatic conditions initiating flowering. People talk about
it either being a good or bad year for speciosums.

Geographically, D. speciosum is found from the NSW/Victorian border all the
way up the east coast of Australia and there is considerable debate as to
whether they are all the same species. Weather wise, the southern ones
would be exposed to wet winters and dry, hot summers but as you move north
into the tropics, this changes and you get wet moderate temperatures (mid
30s °C), high humidity summers and dry mild winters. So it is really
difficult to recommend a watering regimen without knowing where the plant
came from and most people have no idea if they bought their plant without
provenance. You only know for sure if the plant is wild collected and that
is usually illegal.

I look forward to seeing the photos of the flowers.

Cheers
John




"Dave Gillingham" wrote in message
...
Congratulations, Ray. Dunno about guidance. Mine grow & flower (or not)
according to their own peculiar preferences. The general wisdom seems to
be
that they like a cold (by Aussie standards) winter to promote flowering.

For more info on the species, the reference Kath gave you is a good one.
I had
scanned & emailed a lot of my stuff to her; then she found that site that
had
much of what I had sent her on it.

John may be able to tell you more. BTW, look at the Cedarvale site:
http://www.cedarvaleorchids.com

Ross grows beautiful speciosums, & his website has cultural info on it.


On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:13:57 GMT, "Ray B" wrote:

I am not a grower of dens. I'm not particularly fond of most of them, and
the unique ones seem to be outside of my skill set. I do not give plants
"rests".

MANY moons ago (maybe 120 or more, actually) Rod Venger sent me a Den.
speciosum seedling in a 2" pot. Despite my relative neglect, it has grown
and grown and grown. It is currently in an 8" basket (hasn't been
repotted
in years) hung up with the vandas, with the largest growths maybe 18" tall
(not counting the leaves) and today I actually noticed the beginning of
spikes!!!! 2 on one, one on another.

Not a specimen by anyone's standards, but I will give it credit for
tolerance.

Any guidance?

Dave Gillingham
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