Bulbophyllum species Part II

Some more of my species of Bulbophyllums that I have bloomed and manged to have pictures of.

Bulbophyllum medusae.  One of the first Bulbophyllum I ever aquired, I have it growing on a mount, and I pretty much can't keep it wet enough, so it doesn't do that well for me.  I'm hoping someday it will grow off the mount, and I'll be able to divide and pot it.  Or I'll just get another one.  :) A few pictures of this one as I think it deserves it!

Bulbophyllum corolliferum.  I've had this one for a few years now.  It took a while to adjust, but once it did, it grows very well.  When I kept it in the same amount of light as the other Bulbos I sunburned it, so it is now kept a bit shaded.  This past year it started blooming in mid September, and still is blooming as of today.  Total of about 20 spikes over that time. I had it growing in one of the baskets I make with CHC, but yesterday repotted it into a spaghum moss lined basket with a Turface/Perlite mix.  Charming little guy. These pictures are from last year, I didn't take any this year.



Bulbophyllum sikkimense.  Another charming one, I give it my typical Bulbophyllum culture. I find this one interesting as the color changes significantly as the flowers age.  These two photos were taken on the same day, from the same plant, but just different age of the blooms.  They open a very peachy color and darken over about a day to a pink.  When I received this plant, it was much bigger than expected, so looking at the pots I had, I decided to use up a Stanhopea wire basket.  Lined it with spaghnum moss, filled with lava rock,, and then topped with spaghnum moss.  A bigger basket that I typically use, but so far it seems to be working.



Bulbophyllum purpurescens.  Tiny little thing, it isn't the happiest with me over the last year since I acquired it from Krull-Smith. I'm going to repot it here soon and see what I can do with it.  But even so, it did bloom for me last summer.



Bulbophyllum lasiochilum.  Adorable plant, adorable flower.  It is mounted on tree fern, so it gets watered a lot in summer, but in winter while it is under lights, I just lay it down in a tray, with some water in it.  Otherwise my typical Bulbo culture.

Bulbophyllum catenulatum.  Just received this a few weeks ago from Andy's.  It came mounted, but at least the mount is a rectangluar block of wood, so I can set it in a small try of water - which I have.  It has about 100 dried up spikes, indicating this is a frequent bloomer? and it came with one bud which did open.  Plant and flowers are tiny.  The flower is maybe the size of the nail on my pinky finger, but very brightly colored. I had put it under my T5s when I recieved this one as Andy is calling it an intermediate grower, but is seemed to resent that much light, so I have moved it off to the side a little bit.  We will see if it does better there.

Bulbophyllum NOT lilaceum.  At least that is what I call it. Aquired from Carter and Holmes at least four years ago, maybe more.  Tag reads lilaceum.  So not a surprise that a plant from there is mislabeled.  Anyways, this may be the first Bulbophyllum I ever got, and I mounted it of course.  But unlike medusae, this one seems to love being mounted.  I have taken pieces off of this a few times, and they always grow well potted too.  I'm attaching a picture from last year, but right now it has one spike open and 5 more spikes developing.  As soon as I get an updated picture, I will update this thread.

That's it for now, hope you enjoyed!

Edit: February 2013 - Please see my post on Bulbophyllym ambrosia as well.   http://orchidsnhoyas.blogspot.com/2013/02/bulbophyllum-ambrosia.html











Bulbophyllum species

I've mentioned before that Bulbophyllums are one of my favorite genera of orchids.  I don't have a whole lot of them, but I'm working on that.  I realized though, that I hadn't posted them here, so here goes.  I do have a few hybrids, but I'll save them for another post.

I grow most of these in pretty bright light, and attempt to keep them wet all summer where they grow outside.  Under my conditions, that is difficult, but I'm playing around with different potting ideas to get there, and it seems to be paying off as more are starting to grow better and even begin blooming.  As I had acquired a few new Bulbos this past summer, I no longer had room for them under my T5s for winter.  So I cleared out the little office that my hubby was using for all of his sports memorabilia (they are now in boxes in the garage :) ) and bought MR16 LEDs.  I'm using three of them to cover the space, and hopefully that will be enough for them.  Also, since the Bulbos now have their own little room, I am able to raise the night time temps to 62F, and it typically warms up in the day to at least the mid to high 70s.  The room does have a window which gets afternoon direct sun, which hopefully will help with the lighting.

Here are some of the species that I have managed to bloom over the last year.

Bulbophyllum rothschildianum.  Acquired a year ago in bloom from Krull-Smith, this is my first rebloom.  Growing in a type of basket, filled with LECA and topped off with spaghnum moss.  This is one of the few Bulbos I do leave outside in winter, and supposedly it doesn't mind the cold. Still a young plant, hopefully it will continue to grow well, and I'll get better bloomings.



Bulbophyllum cupreum.  Acquired maybe 2 years ago as a small division from a most generous lady in Ohio.  Growing in a shallow clear plastic pot in Turface.  This is the first blooming, and it has a second spike in bloom right now. A couple pictures, and if you look carefully at the first one, you can see one of the little bugs have pollinia on it.  Second picture is the result  :) Growing conditions are as described above.

Bulbophyllum grandiflorum.  Acquired from the amazingly generous lady in Ohio, again about 2 years ago.  This is growing in the kind of basket thing I make, with LECA as the media, topped with spaghnum moss.  Gave me 5 spikes this year, but unfortunately, the first 4 were when the plant was still outside, and something ate them.  Just drilled directly into the bud.  This last spike developed much later inside and was allowed to bloom out.  Guess the plant felt sorry for me, and decided to give me at least one bloom.  Growing conditions same as described above.



Bulbophyllum fascinator.  Acquired two years ago from Krull-Smith.  This one sulked for me awhile, but is growing nicely now.  In the Chinese take out tray converted pot, with Turface as the growing media, it is due to be repotted soon.  Hope it doesn't sulk again.  Sorry for the dark picture, I do have other ones, but they are on my flickr account, which I can't seem to link to from here for some reason.  Grown under cultural conditions described above, and I had a total of 4 flowers this growing season.

Bulbophyllum putidum.  This one is actually mounted, because I received it that way, again from that wonderful lady in Ohio.  It gets watered a lot while it is outside in the summer, in the winter, under the LEDs, it is sitting in a tray of water, that I refill after it dries out.  These pictures were taken a month or maybe two ago, and it is still putting out spike after spike for me.  It is in bloom today as I write this.

This plant I received about a year ago from TOF, labeled as Bulbophyllum sp. Sumatra.  It was a huge plant when I received it, and I split it and have it growing two ways.  One is mounted, and that one hasn't bloomed, and one is potted in the almost basket thing that I make, with lava rock, covered with spaghnum rock.  Two spikes this past fall. This plant is a long rambler, and is difficult to contain in any type of pot. Cultural conditions are as described above.

ok, think this thread is long enough, I'm going to stop it now, and I'll follow up with a Bulbophyllym species Part II soon.  Hope you enjoyed!