Miltonia spectabilis var Moreliana

[ang709]

So pretty! I love the deep color.

[jensoca]

I have one that is in sheath right now and two of the bloom spikes have died and the other two are just opening. I bought it earlier this summer and it was all over grown with 4 new growths growing on the outside of the clay pot. I have not repotted it yet because of the bloom spikes but I was thinking of mounting it because of the shorter roots. Any advice?

[mauraec]

How lovely - despite the troubling cultivation issues that they have presented! I managed to send off my first Miltoniopsis with great dispatch earlier this year. I think I set a new record - it had 4 healthy and budded spikes one day, 3 or 4 beautiful half-open blooms the next day, and then collapsed completely - turned into brown and yellow mush all the way up and down the whole plant. I didn't think I had TIME to induce a really good root rot, or some such blight, within my 6 days of ownership, but I did. I love these blooms, but I'm terrified to try one again - I've had a good 75% or so success rate with the rest since I started with the Great Cymbidium Repotting Project back in June. BTW, you helped immeasurably in that repotting experience, and the plant is threatening to take over all the other orchids. New growths (5, I believe) are already at about 3', and the older fans are fading with dignity into backbulbs.

Kudos on your fabulous purple Milts.

Maura

[Dorsetman]

I have one that is in sheath right now and two of the bloom spikes have died and the other two are just opening. I bought it earlier this summer and it was all over grown with 4 new growths growing on the outside of the clay pot. I have not repotted it yet because of the bloom spikes but I was thinking of mounting it because of the shorter roots. Any advice?

I recall that my first Miltonia plants were mounted on tree-fern slabs, and gew to cover the slabs completely. That was a long time ago and I had quite forgotten, until your request for advice triggered the memory.
I will try a piece of one of my plants on that sort of material when I repot next, and see if I can do the same again.

[cdayinflorida]

I grow my Miltonias in osmunda baskets. It is really the only thing that has worked for me. They seen to like the footing. Their little thread-like roots run all through the fern fiber.
I know they hate to be re-potted. That is why they were plunked down in the osmunda baskets.

[jensoca]

I like that idea, for the osmunda baskets, I am looking for anything to keep this little monster happy. It has 12 growths and I don't want to divide it, I want a huge specimen.

[mauraec]

I like that idea, for the osmunda baskets, I am looking for anything to keep this little monster happy. It has 12 growths and I don't want to divide it, I want a huge specimen.

I'm with you on keeping anything that could be a specimen - I've resisted advice to divide up a couple of huge old cattleyas and I love them, even when they're not in bloom. BTW, did you get the rain in Savannah? ALL my orchids went out for a much-needed shower yesterday.

Maura

[jensoca]

I live on a barrier island, Burnside Island, and we got rain for like ten minutes and I got about 2 inches in my home made rain barrel system. But the rest of the city got drenched.. I wish we had gotten more, it always ends up like that.