Tip exchange/rant area for orchids that just won't grow for you

Dendrobium falconeri, it would grow weakly during cold weather, only to give up as soon as tempertures started to rise in the summer. It spent ten years slowly getting smaller and smaller in spite of truly heroic measures to help it grow. Certainly not a plant for the hot tropical coastal lowlands of Puerto Rico. As to get stubborn plants to bloom, the only sure fire method that works for me is giving them away.

 

I have tried with many varieties of Cymbidiums for years, hybrids and species. They really tend to aggravate me to no end. I have always used Ricardo's above method after a time.
Phragmipediums, Paphs are a piece of cake compared to them. I don't kill them but they just sit there and glare at me!
Now Ricardo has me worried about the falconeri, I got a lovely division from a generous Kelly this winter that is putting on nice roots and several new growths, but it's first Texas summer is on the way!
Paraphalaenopsis!

 

The cruelest thing about the falconeri was that it would rally as soon as the sweltering temperatures of summer abated, but always a little bit weaker than in the previous year.

 

Dendrobium laevifolium, I can't grow it. It doesn't like anything I do for it.

Lepanthes telipogoniflora, I've tried keeping them wet and very humid but like the laevifolium I suspect my humid spot was too cool for them?

 

Den. aberrans and Aerangis luteo-alba var. yada yada. I've tried all sorts of things and places with these two, no luck yet. I have no problem reblooming Aergs citrata.

Oh, and Bulbos. I'm all over the place with Bulbos.

I tried Leptotes bicolor for a couple of years (grew it next to pohlitinocoi which bloomed). Rehomed it when patience ran out.

I have had no problems with a standard Sedirea japonica (which I grow in a terra cotta pot conventionally with LECA) with but killed two variegated ones.

 

Sedirea japonica - I'm using a 4" basket with coarse bark or something, maybe coarse coconut husk chips. Cool, dry-ish winters, warm summers (outside). Grows well, lots of roots, second year blooming, two inflorescences this year.

 

And.... Papionanthe. They grow beautifully but NO blooms! Does anyone have success with these?

 

Cleistesiopsis... they just will not grow!
It's hard enough to find one in cultivation or at a plant rescue.
I cultured the mycorrhiza fungus in the pot, they do well for about a month, then rot.
Maybe substaining the mycorrhiza is the hard part.
They are harder than Cyps!!!

 

Hi Marni, I always spell that wrong! I have a teres and a 'Miss Joaquim'. They grow beautifully but haven't bloomed in over 2 years. They are over 3 feet tall so I'm pretty sure they're mature enough.

 

Papilionanthe - FULL sun, lots of water.

OK, this is going to sound a bit snobbish, or maybe "know-it-all," but I am convinced that these failings (and God knows I've had my share) have nothing to do with "the plant," and everything to do with our inability to properly meet their needs. So the question become "just how much effort and expense are we willing to employ to grow it?"

As to plants and mycorrhizae, I don't know the particular plant, but are mycorrhizae are even necessary? Pretty much all orchids need them for seed germination in the wild, but we successfully cultivate them without them.

 

Dendrophylax lindenii (the ghost orchid). It might have died almost immediately, but with no leaves, who knows? Eventually I decided the roots weren't doing anything, so gave up. Tried a second one, same thing. Fussy.

 

I don't believe it guys.You know you really like the hard ones.I am happiest when I get a difficult one to finally bloom or grow or sprout from seed.That is why I was fascinated as a kid.Orchids were the most beautiful but most difficult I read so I wanted to give it a try.I still do and that is what is fun for me. But,I certainly agree I give up at times too mostly because I cannot provide the correct or don't know the correct way to grow one.But,a place like this is certainly a great way to move forward or try again,too.

 

I don't think Frosty Dawn is a nobile type. It fits into the formosae section of Dens. Try it warm, water all year, and can be fertilized all year (but don't have to after new growth reaches maturity). Needs high light too.

 

Where do I start?lol I have killed many in the twenty years I have been growing orchids. Masdevallias seem to be the most unpredictable. They are ok for awhile and even bloom, then they just sort of fade away over the next few years.