Laelia gouldiana

[bench72]

Yippeeee!!!... It's not quite fully opened but I couldn't wait.

Cheers
Tim

[RSJ]

Awesome! Oh the thrill of opening buds with that kind of oompf to them! Very nice, Tim.


RSJ

[TundraKev]

Wow!! Wonderful, wondeful. I would love to see the whole plant. How do you grow your L plants? What do you use for potting material? Mounted? Tell us everything.


Kev

[Cinderella]

I can see why you couldn't wait! A great one.

[jptg7781]

Tim,

That truely is beautiful! Please do tell us everything about it.

Tracy

[Gin]

Wow ! I would not wait either , Please tell how you grow it ,does it require cooler temps. in the winter for spring bloom ? Thanks for sharing . Gin

[bench72]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. This is actually my first flowerer for the year 2005, so doubly happy with it.
So u want info...

This one use to grow in bark but about five months ago, I got given a huge bag of perlite and so I thought, what the heck.. so the bottom part of the pot is straight out clay pellets, and then about half way is the perlite with some peat moss (5 handfulls of perlite, 1 of peat).

It's in the patio, so direct morning sun from 6-9am. The rest of the day it is in fairly bright condition as the cement floor reflects the light.

Temps, I don't/can't control temperature so they get from 40c (104f) to lows of about 5c (40f). However, when we had a heatwave of 40 celsius (104f), those couple of days, I came home at lunchtime to water the plants under the bench and slight mist everywhere else. During the colder months, this will not get wet at all, unless the day is going to be warm enuff to not need a jumper out.

as for the added extras, I fertilise every time I water. I rotate with a seaweed based fert, then a bloom booster (a type), then fish fert, then bloom booster (b type). Bloom boosters are any type of high potassium. Oh and very very weak! Only about 1/4 strength.

As for the plant, this is not a tiny one, 12" high and the infloresence another 18" in length. There's 5 flowers, each 3", petal tip to petal tip.

(Kev, Tracy.. u asked for it )

Gin, it's an autumn flowerer (I'm down under), it just sends out a growth in spring after it has a rest in winter and then flowers once the growth is mature.

Cheers
Tim

[jptg7781]

Thanks Tim! How you remember all that is beyond me ... But this is going on my wish list!


Tracy

[Jmoney]

very nice! any fragrance?

[bench72]

oh yes, how could I forget... perfume... very very strong early in the morning... umm, how to describe... u know that sweet cattleya smell, almost like brown sugar...

Tracy, if anyone asked me about how I grow all my outdoor orchids, they get the same reply hehehehe.. (except the three Sarcs)

Cheers
Tim