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Happy Holidays everyone. I am very new to growing orchids. I got this… | The Orchid Oasis | Planta community

JohnD

Happy Holidays everyone. I am very new to growing orchids. I got this zygopetalum orchid “red bird” about two weeks ago. It shipped from a reputable nursery but i was worried about shipping in the cold. It looked nice as seen in the picture with the bear behind it. I transplanted it using an orchid soil mix and gave it water. The pot drains very well. There is a humidifier in the room that keeps humidity at 50-70%. The plant is a foot away from a large window facing east that gets indirect light most of the day. However, it is not looking good as seen in the other photos. One of the flowers dropped off. What am I missing? Help. JohnD

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5 comments

  1. MeasomerPi

    Hi John. What a cool flower! There could be a couple reasons the flowers are dropping. One is that orchid flowers are long lived but they don’t last forever. It may just be time for them to fade. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. I think is more likely one of two things - either the cold in shipping got to them or they could be dropping because it was repotted while in bloom. One other thing, I don’t think this is a zygopetalum. The flower structure and pseudobulb form are more similar to something in the Catasetinae alliance. Plus your plant is deciduous. Check out the Monnierara Jumbo Delight. I don’t think that’s what you have necessarily but the form is closer, at least to my eye. If my suspicion is correct, the care for it will be very different. I don’t have a lot of experience with Catasetums, but I did purchase one this summer so have been doing research. My understanding is they have an intense growth cycle early spring into summer where they want a lot of light, water and feed. In the fall they drop their leaves and bloom. After the blooms drop in the winter they enter dormancy. I highly recommend googling your plant under the ID it was sold to you and see what you think. I could be wrong.

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    • Jen

      Ohmygosh. Perfect advice above as usual from M-Pi. I would also look at your medium. If you’ve gone from something very moisture retentive like moss to what is essentially pebbles- that would be a drastic change for almost any type of orchid. I too, have very little experience with Catasetum orchids, but that’s what it looks like to me. They may very well take a more airy. Medium- but the shock of the extreme change could be the issue. Please keep us posted.

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    • JohnD

      Thank you both for your insightful comments. I will research Catasetums. Great suggestion. My gut also tells me you are both correct and repotting to a bark mixture was too much change for the plant. The nursery shipped the plant without soil, packing the plant with moss. I thought that was done for transport but now I think that was purposeful because the plant is epiphytic. I have since repotted the plant using moss similar to the way it was sent. Hopefully I can prevent any further damage. I will also call the nursery on Tuesday for more information. However, what should I do with the stem? Do you typically prune orchids once the flowers drop off? And of course, Happy New Year everyone🎉

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    • MeasomerPi

      Thanks Jen! 😊 I would leave the spike for now. From what I’ve read, most Catasetims pseudobulbs bloom once BUT there are some that bloom multiple times. I’m unclear if they the produce new inflorescences each time or just push more blooms out of the existing one. Once you have a positive ID, you can better decide what to do. Oooooo, a plant masquerading as another. So exciting! I feel like we need a Great Dane and a van with a funky paint job to solve this mystery. And yes, do let us know what you find out.

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    • JohnD

      You must of given me the van and great Dane because I found out that this is a catasetum cychnodes Taiwan golden orange orchid. And you are completely correct in that catasetum need different care than zygos. The plant goes into dormancy at this exact time. Evidence of this is the loss of leaves and bulbs. A new paeudobulb has already appeared for the next season which should start in a couple of months. I still dont understand why the nursery called this a zygo red bird on their website but I will speak with them when they open again. I was looking to buy a fragrant zygo. Maybe this is for the better but mislabeling their website put me on a two day mystery unnecessarily. I am very confident that I am on the right path now. That you for all your help😊👍

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