winika cunninghamii and a mixture of wild and cultivated species of New Zealand

[HeidiT]

Hi all -
So glad I found this forum. I am new to orchids having rescued quite a few from the office where they are continually thrown out. My rescued orchids are doing amazingly well. They are basic ones you get from the garden centre or flower shop with a white flat flower ( I will try to find the name!) Anyway, let's hope they flower again!!

My main concern is my Winika Cunninghamii which I just acquired. It's in a piece of ponga. It's looking a little dry and some of the leaves are going yellow. I have placed it in my front door way which gets plenty of light but no direct sun. I desperately don't want to kill it so would very much appreciate any help or advice

Thanks everyone.
H

[kiwiorchids]

hi heidiT,where abouts are you? When i got mine,it did the same, so i prised it off the ponga and potted it in sphag moss. It since grew new roots and has a new shoot too.

[HeidiT]

Hi - I am in Orakei Auckland.

The previous owner had some kind of moss in there (more like straw). I pulled that out and replaced it with sphag moss, hoping that might help. But the plant seems to be potted inside the ponga with soil so I just placed it on top. Replanting sounds like a good idea. I will post pics on the weekend when I'm back from Wgtn, of what its in now and go buy some fresh sphag ... so you recommend just sphag moss no soil or orchid mix??

Also, I am on the hunt for more natives as my partner wants to plant the whole yard in only natives... are there anymore native orchids I could buy?

Thanks heaps for your help ... h(:

[kiwiorchids]

oh cool! im in Hamilton. i dont know bout buying, but any piece of unprotected bushland (eg, not crown land or DOC land) shold have them growing. Try this site for more details.
New Zealand (NZ) Native Orchids

Also, sphag seems to have great regeneration properties, and NEVER plant winika, earina, dymoanthas etc....any other epiphytic or lithophytic chids in soil. Bark, ponga, sphag, they are all good. Of all my natives, after the frosts and the current drought, only one pterostylis and one winika are left.

[kiwiorchids]

You could even put bark or ponga fibre in the pot and a 5-8cm layer of sphag ontop to encourage the plant to grow in the bark.

[Ron-NY]

I love helmet orchids...wish I had access to them here

the three white ones are winika cunninghamii and the other-i think is corybas fimbriatus

[kiwiorchids]

yea...they are getting less and less thanks to possums and snails. Yes, possums love corybas much to my suprise, all it took was a camera covered in bracken and set near a patch of the corybas.