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!