Disa Diores 'Inca Princess. x Colette Cywes
These large flowered Disas grow on the margins of streams on the tops of mountains in South Africa - Table Mountain at CapeTown, and in the Cedarburg, a little further north. These tops usually have a cloud cap, due to the geography ( moist Atlantic air moving south due to the circulation of the south Atlantic, meets cold dry air moving north due to the circulation of the Indian Ocean). Consequently the streams are constantly refreshed with cold pure water. So to grow them successfully you need the same. Not for you, my friends in Florida, South Carolina etc ! Not even for us in UK without some care and attention . I use a small domestic chest freezer to hold rain water or RO water, which I take care to adjust to match the pH ( low - in the 4.8-5.5 range) and EC - never above 200 uS) I keep the temperature below 10 C. This feeds a stream (a tray, with water flowing along the length, and running back into the chest) in which the plants stand - the stream is about ½ inch deep.
This is the first to flower this year - the season is usually mid-May to the end of June.
The main large flowered version is D.uniflora, which has up to 3 flowers ( up to 4 inch across ) despite its name, and which has been hybridised with quite small flowered species ( typically 2 or 3 cm size ) but which have tall racemes of up to 20 flowers. Of course the hybrids have intermediate size flowers, and the object of much hybridisation is to get new colours, and try to work the flower size back to the large D.uniflora. These flolwers btw are about3 inch.
Reply With Quote
