No blooms on certain orchids

[Ellie]

I am a new orchid grower, and have been successful till now. I purchased a pachara garnet butterfly and a x black magic meadow 'green genius'. They were both dormant when purchased at this time last year. While every one of my 15 other orchids are blooming, these 2 show no sign of budding out. I have fertilized them with orchid fertilizer. What can I do?

[ksriramkumar]

Hello and Welcome. Posting a picture of the plant and some clues on your grow area and lighting would help get started

[Chris in Hamilton]

I think the Cattleya hybrid should be Blc. Magic Meadow 'Green Genius'. Agree with Sriram though. Posting pictures is best. Also, some idea of your climate and growing conditions.

[Azizan]

Hello there Ellie
After googling, I found that one of the orchid, Pachara Garnet Butterfly is a Vanda orchid. But I am not completely sure because it is not a registered name. But googling for black magic meadow 'green genius' nothing came out. By including the genus of an orchid would help us understand because different genus would require different needs.

(If it is really a Vanda) Most Vanda requires bright light and reach certain height/number of leaves to bloom. If the plant is healthy (roots white when dry, green when watered) and has no signs of disease (no spots or yellowing leaves), there is nothing to be worried about. Patience is a virtue. Maybe other people would help you out.

[raybark]

I'll add that "feeding with orchid fertilizer" isn't going to make anything bloom. In the hierarchy of plant needs, fertilizer is near the bottom of the list. Grow the plant well, and it will bloom when it is ready. Fertilizer doesn't fix shortcomings in any aspect of that.

[PaphMadMan]

We definitely need more information about these plants and your conditions. And yes, pictures would be very helpful. It isn't possible to even be sure what kinds of orchids they are from these partial names. If the tentative identifications as Vanda and Cattleya hybrids are correct, they never truly enter dormancy, so that part of your question is puzzling. Is this all the information on the tags? Are the plants definitely mature enough to bloom? What types of orchids do bloom for you?

I'll add that "feeding with orchid fertilizer" isn't going to make anything bloom. In the hierarchy of plant needs, fertilizer is near the bottom of the list. Grow the plant well, and it will bloom when it is ready. Fertilizer doesn't fix shortcomings in any aspect of that.

This should be the first comment in EVERY discussion of fertilizer.

[MattWoelfsen]

A quick internet search and I did find 'Pachara Garnet Butterfly' for sale in Australia? That page left off the name Vanda. Do you have other Vanda? This particular plant is commonly known as Vanda Pachara Delight. It is a hybrid: Vanda karulea x Vanda Gordon Dillon. Your Pachara Garnet Butterfly appears to be a variation of the blue flowers of Pachara, in that the flowers for this hybrid are red.

A grand parent of this hybrid is Vanda coerulea (Vanda karulea). This specie is known for its very blue flowers and cool temperature tolerance--so if you are in a geography that gets a Winter season, it can tolerate cooler temperatures--but not very far below 50F. The rest of its DNA are tropical Vanda that doesn't experience much of a Winter--Vanda sanderiana, Vanda tricolor, Vanda dearei, and Vanda luzonica--are all from SE Asia. That is a lot of verbiage to get to the point that your Vanda, under 'normal' conditions does not have a Winter dormancy.

Any new orchid you would add to your collection, particularly Vanda, seem to have an acclimation period where they do not do anything. I own several Vanda that I bought a year ago, they are now starting to grow root tips. Fertilizer probably is a waste, in terms of stimulating a plant into growth. However, you can probably encourage and nurture the plant by giving it planty of water, lots of warm, fresh, humid air and bright light. I would probably give it some sort of root stimulant--I use a fantastic product called KelpMax, to encourage root growth--once a month.

It would be helpful--as others have noted, to have a picture of your plants. It would also be helpful to update your profile to include your location in this world. That way we can have a better understanding of your geography.