Dendrobium Unicum Free Flowering?

[Miller]

So I purchased a Den. unicum late winter already with buds on it. The flowers came and went and the plant has since sent out two new spikes. Now a few months later the old cane is sending out a few new flower buds and the new canes are sending out buds! Is this a good or bad thing? I grow outside under my arbor here in Houston, Tx. It gets pretty bright light and is watered a few times a week. When I brought it home I transplanted it into a wooden basket which is how I grow 99.9% of my orchids. Any advice is appreciated and hopefully these blooms will have the "fragrance" I've yet to experience.

M.

[78Terp]

This is from IOSPE:

A nice miniature plant that likes to be wood mounted and needs warm conditions through the summer growth season but cool to warm and drier in the winter and spring and has clustered, small stems carrying 2 to 3, apical, narrow, persistent leaves and blooms in the later spring and early summer on axillary, short [1 to 2"], raceme that arises from near and at the apex of leafed and leafless canes with up to 4 fragrant flowers. It is found in Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Thailand in evergreen, in semi-deciduous and deciduous dry lowland forests and savana-like woodlands at elevations of 800 to 1550 meters and is found on rocks and small bushes.

This species is similar to D dickasonii and D lamyaiae but this one differs in the smaller flowers with a wider cupped lip and three central keels

A lessening of water and fertilizer is beneficial through the onset of winter but in the last 2 months water should be reduced even more and fertilizer eliminated until new growths arise in the spring.



So I think the blooms are normal this time of year.

[catttan]

That is quite unusual to rebloom several times in a season. You must be doing something right ! Any way congrats . I' ve been trying to bloom mine the last 3 years without success - maybe our 'winters' here are not cold enough..

[Miller]

Thanks all. I too thought it was unusual which is why I submitted the post. Not only is it reblooming off the cane that just lost its flowers but it is blooming on the new canes as well. It's not a ton of buds but buds none the less.

[coeruleo]

i just have a little one i got over the winter, it bloomed a little, but is now growing new vegetative growths, i will have to take a closer look and see if it is also starting new buds... is yours starting new growths? my den tetragonum is putting out occasional single flowers from old and new growths like a sequential bloomer...? i thought that was odd, but i'm not going to complain!

[Miller]

That is exactly what mine is doing. The old blooms fell off a month or so ago. The new growths have a few blooms and the old growth has one bloom.

i just have a little one i got over the winter, it bloomed a little, but is now growing new vegetative growths, i will have to take a closer look and see if it is also starting new buds... is yours starting new growths? my den tetragonum is putting out occasional single flowers from old and new growths like a sequential bloomer...? i thought that was odd, but i'm not going to complain!

[Spirytman]

Everywhere i read about this orchid having a strong Orange/peach fragrance. Has anyone experienced this?

[Miller]

Nope, I have not. Maybe folks are confusing it with D dickasonii and D lamyaiae. Admittedly i don't know if those have fragrance either. Mine has not fragrance and I check it at different times of the day.