Rossioglossum Rawdon Jester

[Lars.Kurth]

Sorry to hear about it being so attractive to snails and slugs.

I guess that's life. In fact I think this plant has had the most slug damage of any of my plants. Surpassing Catasinae and Phals.

[silken]

It's gorgeous! I have had a Rossioglossum Rawdon Jestor and a Grande for just over a year now. I was hoping to see blooms about now, but no sign at all of a spike on either plant. Any tips on getting them to bloom such as light, temps, fertilizer, watering etc. I thought I was doing what they liked but...

[Dorsetman]

I remember seeing the first plants to flower - if anyone is interested, Rawdon is a place near Leeds in the North of England, where there was a nursery specialising in (true) odontoglossums. In my early orchid days - in the 1960s- I used to go and visit them every few months, and buy a few seedlings. Rawdon Jester was a cross between two species which at that time were called odontoglossums - O.grande and ( I think it was ) O.williamsianum. People had being trying to use both as parents, crossing them with other odontoglossums, but with no success at all, as far as I know, and later when these parents were taken into a different genus ( Rossioglossum) we said - ah, that's why....but in this case, between two plants believed to be very closely related in the same genus, suddenly there was a seed pod ; I used to hear about it, and the progress of the seedlings when I made my visits . When it first flowered, it was actually thought that it was not a hybrid , and that the O.grande parent had been self -fertilised, since the flowers are so similar to the O.grande parent, but shortly it was found that there was one significant difference ; in UK at least, O.grande finishes its growth, needs a short dryish rest - weeks not months - and then flowers. ( If you carry on watering with no rest, it starts a new growth instead). After flowering - or showing no sign of a flower spike, O.grande is then rested through the winter ( you don't want a winter growth which makes a poor bulb, and then sometimes it never starts growing again). But Rawdon Jester, rested through the winter, will then flower in the spring before starting a new growth ; or it will flower immediately after making up the bulb, in the autumn- fall to you (!)- or even both, and O.grande never does any of these things in UK.
Also I think that a good strong plant of O.Rawdon Jester can carry more flowers ; I have seen 10 on a spike - which is something coming from the O.williamsianum parent - grande rarely has more than 5 ( again - in UK - in other places with different light, it may be different.)
Incidentally I know of another nursery in UK where they tried to repeat the cross, and it failed to take, year after year.
And for Silken - it is always sold in UK as a cool-house orchid - meaning the sort of conditions you would give to say Cymbidiums .

[catttan]

Very interesting story Geoff.Thanks.

[silken]

Thanks for the info Geoff. They are in a heated greenhouse but over the winter the temps are kept below house temps. so I think I can give it the cool growing quite well. They get quite high light and I try not to over water in the winter with cooler temps. I am going away for 3 weeks so maybe one of them will have a spike when I return! The other possibility is our house sitter could kill everything, but I sure hope not. He has instructions If I ever get a bloom I will post a photo.