Orchids and billbergia

It's that time of year again, the Phal is in bud, the paph and the cymbidium are in flower and the billbergia is just opening its flowers.

The little phal on the right is one a friend sent me as a seedling.



Bilbergia nutans

 

Congratulations Rich - my new flower stems have yet to open, will post them when they do.

 

My Dendrobium is in flower! It even has more flowers than when I got it, so I'm well chuffed! It seems to like my window sill.

Like that bilbergia, Rich - might try that next, in my quest for indoor plants :rolleyes:

 

Nice to have plants that flower reliably in the house in mid winter, well done Rich.

 

hi all, this is my billbergia, just starting to grow a stem (notice the red spike) i'll place a picture when it totally out
windy

 

i've got 2 now...

one's a dendrobium.....below is what the flowers used to look like. it hasn't flowered for a goo few months now though. does it need a clear pot? as it didn't come in one...it's just a black pot. and also what can i do to make it flower again? i mist the leaves pretty much every day and give it a few drops to drink every few weeks. i've also given it very dilute tomato feed about a month or so ago.



this is the new one i got. it's a phalaenopsis i believe....or more commonly known as the moth orchid. this one has come in a clear pot....so i'm wondering what i can do to ensure a long flowering period.




and also what's the most economical way to buy orchids?

thanks

 

I'm well chuffed. This was an orchid given to me in November 2005, in full flower.

One year later a new flower spike and now in flower. I'm usually not good with indoor plants, but Orchids seem to like me. Got another two flower spikes on one I got at the Eden Project last year

 

Wahaj, I know they grow phalaenopsis in clear pots, but I pot them on into ordinary plastic pots and they still go on to flower for years.
They produce lots of "above ground" roots that go everwhere, so I dont think it matters much.

Your cymbidium is looking good Fran, mine are spending the winter outside this year, frost free, but cold and wet, at the moment they are growing better than they ever did in the greenhouse.

 

Pete you live in the garden of EDEN plants grow well where in your region

 

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday when I discovered my newly planted Bilbergia nutans blooming outside ...

 

Oouuu err lovely - even more so as I have just received one through the post this morning from a very kind GC member.

Any advice on keeping them in good condition welcoe.

 

I've had two lots courtesy of GC! This trio was courtesy of DaveP, who I haven't seen around lately actually.

I can hardly advise as I stuck them in potting compost, sat the pot in the pergola and forget about them ... think that was October time. They rooted very quickly and I was so surprised to be greeted by the one flowering and one coming on the second one!

They are just SO beautiful, aren't they?


I had one in the UK for years and years .... neglect was how it survived in an unheated room.

 

This looks like a clipping you gave me years ago Lofl. Mine blooms every year, some better than others. It was so pot-bound that Hubby finally repotted it last year, and I gave it a new place in the Wintergarten. I am now waiting to see if it over-does itself blooming this year or does nothing until it decides that it is settled in.

 

That must have been the one I neglected in the guest room, K-G, in Little Horrors. It always bloomed beautifully and then it suddenly died on me after many, many years. Forgot you had it's babies!

Now that you're up and running there, you must post a picture of yours in bloom!

 

Glad to see those pieces are doing well LofL (got your e-mail BTW). Nutans flowers in early summer here most years, but thanks to an exceptional warm winter my old clumps are not too far behind yours this year. I've got Bilbergia saundersii in flower outside at the moment. Its main claims to fame are the tall funnels of yellow spotted leaves, which tend to fade a lot in our dark winters. The flowers are pleasant enough, with broader, deeper pink bracts than nutans and stronger bands of a brighter blue on the petals. Unfortunately the flower spikes hardly emerge from the funnels so you have to hunt for them a bit.

One species I decided to bring indoors for flowering a couple of months ago was Bilbergia brachysiphon. It resembles the old hybrid B. x Windii to a degree but is much stockier in its growth with longer, more richly coloured bracts. It is exceptionally vigorous and the plant in the pic is bursting out of a 20cm. diameter pot. It was received as a 10cm. unrooted offset about 15 months before. Flower spikes on this species can exceed 60cms. so it needs to be grown where the flowers can be viewed from below. This one is destined for a basket to hang outside my back-door.

Bilbergia brachysiphon - Nov. 2006