I would like to have this one if I can get it in a reasonable price.

According to the book (Bloom-again Orchids), it says "The plant resembles a tiny Phalaenopsis, but don't make the mistake of growing it like one".

"It needs to be grown cooler and in more light than Phals. Give it a six month fall to winter cooling period, with night temperatures around 50deg F. When it's in active growth, water it just before beginning to dry out, every few days, and fertilize every other week. Try rain water. In winter, reduce the watering slightly, but don't let it dry out too much. Repot every year in spring."

Also "Sedirea is actually Aerides spelled backwards, a taxonomic joke. Aerides was the genus in which this orchid was originally classified."

If you want to check out a whole bunch of really cool ones, click on the link. Prices are a bit high, but they're probably worth it.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: New World

Hmm. Thank you for the additional cultural information. It does not seem like Phal culture at all really. Also, I am very intimidated about the 6 month cool resting period. Maybe I should wait. I will probably kill it. But I want it!

JLOrchids has one in-spike for $30. But that is a significant amount to take a risk on right now. hmmm..

Kevin - I have window shopped at New World a couple of times. The orchids that I want are not in my budget. :( But I still like looking.

Lisa - do you have any idea what happened to your Sedirea?

Oh yea. I was also considering a Neostylis Pinky 'Starry Night'. Any thought one this one?

Thanks everyone!

The easy orchids here are soft-cane Dendrobiums, Cymbidiums, Dendrobium kingianum and orchids that get those 40 to 50F nights supplied by nature.

Not so easy, i imagine in the frozen north where mother nature is giving you night temps outside below 32F.... and you have to supply warmth, but not Phal.
warmth...Perhaps you should be looking at orchids that like Phal. conditions.

In the winter, I have a room that is in the low 40s at night and the low 60s during the day. That is where my D. kingianum lives. It is a great room with lots of southern and western windows but the heat does not really work in their. Still these temps are not going to hold up for 6 months. I will keep looking other options for that room. boo.

The bunch of Den. kingianum down in the shade-house do not endure a 6 month winter. The long-term average for Sydney, Australia in July is Min 7 Max 17 which is low 40's to low 60's F. Currently, outside at 05:19am it is a toasty 19C.

Anyway, what i'm getting to is that maybe by raising the day temp a little bit you might get good results in your plant room without breaking the bank.

Being a miser, that is how i run the heating in my "warm glass-house" ... run the heater for a couple of hours in the early morning to lift the day temp and the sun and the glass- house effect does the rest. Never worry about the minimum (though in 38 years here it has never got to zeroC. (32F))

Of course, this might all be rubbish if you do not get much sun in winter in your particular zone 5.

Phalaenopsis do not do well in that "warm glass-house" that is why they are subject to 6 month outside/inside and why they were brought in last week. It is 25C at the moment where i have them, but they are the casper milk toasts of the orchid world.

I just noticed Asuka Orchids has this one on sale at the moment for $28. I doubt you could find it cheaper - maybe Oak Hill if they carry it. Asuka has very reasonable shipping rates too and nice plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Asuka

Thank you for the link, Kevin! I will check it out. Although JL Orchid has one in spike for $30.... Have you ordered from them before? Would you have an opinion about ordering from one place over the other?

Arthur - I do live in the gray zone 5 so additional lighting can be helpful. In my old place, I bloomed phals and catts without the supplemental lighting. However, this is/was the first winter in my new place, so I am still getting to know the seasonal lighting and temp changes in all the rooms. But I am definitely adding supplemental lighting next winter.

Thank you for the idea about adding a heater to get the temp up. Since it regularly drops below freezing here, I sometimes open the room up to allow the warmer air in from the rest of the house.

I've order plants from Asuka a couple of times and have always been extremely pleased. Same goes for J&L although I've ordered more from them.

Chances are if the plants from J&L are in spike, the ones from Asuka will be too since this seems to be the season these plants bloom, but you could ask first.

Kevin

You can also get them for $28 from michealorchid.com. I just bought one from him at the Michigan Palm Sunday show. I've gotten orchids from him in the past and they're always really nice plants. My Sedirea japonica is in spike right now.

Cathy

Hello Greencurls:
My S. japonica is from J&L and is now about 5 years old. Originally I tried to keep it in its plastic pot but it eventually got root rot after just a few months. Near death's door, but with a few leaves, I shifted it to a fresh pot and coarser medium and put it in a terrarium to boost humidity. I watered it very little through the pot, but I let one of the dangling long roots touch the bottom of the terrarium on which i made sure to keep a film of water - it was like drinking through a straw. When it looked like it was recuperated I took it out of the terrarium. I finally found that it perfers to be mounted which keeps it well drained. However, at the same time it wants never to dry out for too long. Finally, after observing other orchids and the way they were grown, I hit on this: mount the littel diva on a somewhat horizontal mount (mine is a wood piece that has a cup-like and channelled surface that drains quickly, then cover the roots very loosely with living moss (from my wood pile). The living moss does a couple of things - it covers and keeps the well drained roots from shriveling beyond the point of no return, lets the roots breath, and if the moss keeps living, it tells you that you are watering enough. A divine balance!
Keep the mount dryer in winter but raise humdity and let it have strong light as if it is living in a deciduous tree. Keep it cool, and I mean cool - my tiny greenhouse falls to 45 degrees.
I water with a dilute solution of seaweed extract, a little commercial fertilizer, and leftover coffee or tea.
During summer when it goes outside (in partial shade), chicken manure is added to the mixture. (All my orchids get this treatment)
Do not let her totally dry out when in spike or the spikes will blast!

Right now the little diva has 5 spikes - oops I hope I didn't jinx it by mentioning that.

Following the instructions on the New World page is a good method of growing both S. japonica and Neofinita. Once I got them out of the plastic pots, which seem to suffocate their roots, I had much better performance from them.
You might Use a basket, or perhaps a clay pot which has numerous holes drilled into the sides.
Good luck!
Maryanne in WMass

My S. japonica came in today. It looks great with about a 3 inch spike! I decided to order from J&L because I wanted the Dend. oligophyllum they are offering.

Maryanne - Thank you very much for sharing your growing experience. It is really insightful. I will move my S. japonica into a clay pot after it is done flowering. I would love to have 5 spikes one day but for now I will work on keeping it alive.

I had grown one of these before. They are not at all demanding. But need more light than a phal. Has a citrusy fragrance.
Here in So. California, they like the coolish evenings and they usually flower on cue late spring to early summer. Flowers last a long time on the plant. Price is usually between $25-$35. I grew it in sphagnum & bark combo, because of our dry climate here. It was also grown in a clay pot, so it dried out pretty fast.
My sedirea met a very sad ending when I had to give it away to move to NY for two years. Now that I am back I am ready to try one again.

I know I am extremely late to be posting on this and you probably have already gotten one of these orchids but I would like to add on just in case anybody wondering where they could get one of these. I got my from eBay from Kawamato orchids. They are an amazing orchid supplier and I have got many of my orchids from them. Around half a year ago I purchased a s. Japonica seedling from their weekly auctions because no one had bidded on it and it was at the price of 19.99. I ended up getting it at that price and now it has a big spike on it. The most recent auctions have gotten quite pricey for they have spikes and have gotten over $60. For anyone interested I reccomend watching the auctions just in case there is a good deal available!