Den. Drudy Brandt x Udom Blue Angel

[Mrobert]

I should have taken a picture of this a month ago, it had more blooms and actually some leaves.
I'm not a big den. guy so I'd appreciate it if someone chimed in with whether or not my no-leaves/3-spikes is a good or bad sign.

[Cjcorner]

Actually, from what I understand, certain dendrobiums do not bloom while leaves are on. Instead they bloom on old icky looking canes. I believe they are the Nobile type that do that, but don't take my word I'm kinda new at all this and do not have too many dens. A little research on the web should give you some answers.
Good Luck....
Connie

[wetfeet101b]

I'm not sure exactly what is going on there.
If that was a nobile type dendrobium, I would not worry about not having any leaves while in bloom. They have a regular cycle of storing enough energy in the pseudobulbs to get by the blooming season, and as they run out of food, new canes appear to replenish the plant once again.
But the deciduous types usually have short flower stems that stay close to the cane.

The long flower spikes and tall hard canes usually mean that it is not a nobile type debdrobium.
Hard cane dendrobiums usually drop the leaves from canes that are about two years old or older. So a "bald" cane in itself is usually not a cause for concern. In fact, some old canes can continue to produce flower spikes long after they dropped their leaves - provided they are getting enough nutrition and energy.
However, they usually have new canes growing from the base every season so the "bald" canes are offset by new canes with fresh leaves.

Flowers eat up a lot of energy.
Without leaves to take in light, the plant has very limited ability for photosynthesis to produce new food.

In your scenario: No Leaves + Lots of flowers = the plant is probably running an energy deficit as the flowers are eating up more energy than the plant can produce.
If no new canes are produced, it will only be a matter of time before the plant completely runs out of energy and die.

Those flowers actually look like one of my NOID dendrobiums (suspected to be Den. Emma Blue which is not a nobile).

There are a few possibilities going on there.
1. The plant has produced too many flowers and they are drawing away nutrition that would be needed to produce new canes.
2. The plant may be trying to produce new canes but they are dying or aborting for some reason. This could trigger an emergency response from the plant and produce flowers in an attempt to get pollinated and continue with its survival by means of its offspring.
3. Maybe that plant is just one of those orchids that march to its own beat. Perhaps it just prefers to bloom like this and eventually produce new canes as the flowers fade.

~John

[Mrobert]

John- Thanks for the information. When I got the plant is had only 1-leaf per cane and those long spikes. It has been blooming for a long time (6-weeks?) without leaves. For most of that 6-weeks I've been thinking "it can't keep this up" but it does (I suspect at the detriment of the health of the entire plant.
What do you think about cutting the spikes?
-Mateo

[wetfeet101b]

Have you checked the base of the plant to see if there are any signs of new growths? (or perhaps signs of new growths that died)

It would seem like such a shame to cut the spikes, but if that is what it takes to save the plant then it probably needs to be done. I would wait for others' opinions before doing it though.

On the bright side, even if you cut the flowers now they still appear to be in great shape so you can still display them as cut flower in a vase.
You might need to sacrifice the flowers now to save the plant. A healthy plant will bloom again.

~John

[bono]

Beautiful colour and great display of flowers.