hi,
i am new to this whole discussion board thing, but was thinking that it might be a good way to get advice on some of the orchid problems i generally have. currently i am very frustrated with my dracula vampira and can get no more than a shrug or look of amazement when i ask local gardeners about how to care for cool growing orchids. can anyone here give any details regarding dracula vampira. i have put mine in an abandoned fish tank along with a air humidifier, and set it directly in front of the air conditioning unit. the hygrometer reads a consistant 80% humidit y and roughly 75 degrees C, but the leaves get a wrinkled appearance and it refuses to bloom. what am i doing wrong? i would love some advice.

Have you checked to see if the plant has any roots? They may have rotted
away for some unknown reason.

-Eric in SF

"agnatha3141" wrote in message
s.com...
hi,
i am new to this whole discussion board thing, but was thinking that it
might be a good way to get advice on some of the orchid problems i
generally have. currently i am very frustrated with my dracula vampira

well, i just checked the roots, and a couple of them have some rot, so i applied a fungicide and put it back in the tank unpotted. there seems to not be an awful lot of roots and the ones that it has are extremely thin, and dissimilar to the thick healthy roots that most of my other orchids have. i ordered it three months ago over the internet, and it could have been unhealthy from the start, or upset by the shipping. i dont know an awful lot about these plants minus the general stuff that you read on the internet. i know that they are prone to flower intermittantly year round in the way that bulbophyllums do, and i was wondering how long i could expect it not to flower. and how do i know that it isnt flowering because i am mistreating it versus that it is dormant. i appreciate your input.

Hi,

Clean the root area up - it sounds like there are no roots left, which is
why it is shriveling.

Put it in a shady spot and keep the humidity up - hopefully it will throw
some new growths and with the new growths, new roots.

Good luck!

-Eric in SF

i will give it a shot. thanks eric.

I only have one Dracula in my small collection, and it's a vampira.
Since it has more than doubled in size in the past 18 months and has
flowered I thought I'd better put in my 2 cents. So here are my
growing conditions:
In the past, night temp in winter dropped down to 4C and relative
humidity was around 70%. Summer temp was around 30C and humidity was
as low as 30-35% for a few hours after midday. Despite all that it
grew well although had developed some wrinkled leaves which I guess
was due to low humidity, and the flowers didn't open very widely and
didn't last long (4-5 days).
I have since moved to a warmer area where day temp could at times be
as high 40C (yes, over 100F) but I can provide it with reasonable
humidity, 65-70%. It continues to grow well, have a lot more new
growths and at least a couple flower spikes. I'll wait to see how the
spikes develop.
Since your humidity is up to 80% it seems you're doing well there, but
your temperature in front of air conditioning was 75C? Would that be
75F? Still seems pretty high given that it's in front of an air
conditioning.
You may not necessarily do anything wrong. I would say give it a bit
more time before expecting to see spikes, say another 6 months after
you see new growths. I think draculas grow all year round, no dormant
period, and their roots are very thin, around 2mm diamater. I wouldn't
leave my Dracula vampira bare root, but if you had success with other
plants in the past perhaps it's worth a try. Btw, how many leaves has
it got?

Good luck and let us know how you go.

Tong


agnatha3141 wrote in message ws.com...
hi,
i am new to this whole discussion board thing, but was thinking that it
might be a good way to get advice on some of the orchid problems i
generally have. currently i am very frustrated with my dracula vampira
and can get no more than a shrug or look of amazement when i ask local
gardeners about how to care for cool growing orchids. can anyone here
give any details regarding dracula vampira. i have put mine in an
abandoned fish tank along with a air humidifier, and set it directly in
front of the air conditioning unit. the hygrometer reads a consistant
80% humidit y and roughly 75 degrees C, but the leaves get a wrinkled
appearance and it refuses to bloom. what am i doing wrong? i would love
some advice.

thank you so much for the info, and i am just going to wait it out with the vampira how long did yours take to bloom after you got it?

Just checked my records, it took 8 months from the time I bought it to
spike and a further 3 months to bloom. I believe the time varies
depending on your growing conditions.
The nursery where I bought it from potted it in sphagnum moss but I
changed it to bark in wooden basket and it seems to do well since. One
thing about Dracula vampira is that the flower spikes either grow on
or into the surface of the potting mix, so if grown in normal plastic
pot some spikes may never show up. They're of the same size as the
roots, but sort of brownish in colour.



agnatha3141 wrote in message ws.com...

thank you so much for the info, and i am just going to wait it out with
the vampira how long did yours take to bloom after you got it?