Ornithoblah-blah is in spike. Maybe a month from blooming. You're not saying this is a stinky one are you?? To me it's pure vanilla - scent from the Gods.

Twink bloomed all summer, but is putting up lots of new growth now. Maybe more blooms in the spring? Kind of stinky in my book, but not a bad stink if you don't mind burning plastic.

Big Bertha Stinky - Yes, that is a stinky one. Never could smell the chocolate thing. As has been said before, the two best days of your life are when you first get this one and the day you ship it off to someone else.

Your Twink looks really, really nice. I think it's going to pop any day now. I bet a bit of warmth would make them do so if you're keeping it cool.

K

Kevin I couldn't agree more and that's why Scary Baby and ortho are up for trade/sale. Either you love them or you don't. Some folks love the smell, I don't. This one is particularly fragrant. The older they get the stinkier they get. I prefer the fragrance of Anguloa's and neos :-) My ortho smells like more like Sharry Baby. Vanilla, I wish. I am trying to delay SB from spiking. I would like to let someone else enjoy the behemoth spray of "white chocolate". SB is one of my most profuse bloomers. It blooms any time It feels like it which is often

The Twinkle has 73-76 days. That is cool for me. I am about 80 days in other grow areas. Its been stuck like this for a long time. I think it's going to pop and it just doesn't. Should I go higher? Lower? I have intergens and Encyclia prismatocarpa all in spike in the same grow area. Not Minnie Stinky, bud stalled. After a time, the spikes just abort. I have tons of spikes. Hard to count. They are still coming. Maybe 20 or more?? 1st itme I am blooming this. Bought it at the end of the bloom season last winter. It put out a few more and then finished. It was not in great conditions.

Ortho-stinkum is starting to really pop. I thought that one would be the toughest. Had that in the kitchen grow area same temps. grrr!

Clara

Clara, perhaps the buds plan to pop open all at once to excite you and totally change your mind about these!
My Twinkle 'Fantasy' grows hot/bright all year, and manages to bloom often, so I'm skeptical about the "cool" thing.
The scent - my Sharry Baby was banished outside the first time it flowered - what a horrific, cloying stench! Yet, others disagree, and it was an easy plant to give away. Go figure!
Cheers - Nancy

Nancy, thank Goodness I'm not alone. :-) What are your temps? I had this one outside this summer. I could not believe it didn't bloom, not even in August. I can put in another warmer grow area. Think I should? I found another aborted spike.

Many times a year is telling me I have something up with the culture. The oncids either start protesting in terms of heat of I have to break my neck to get them to bloom. It's like I have no middle ground. The big Stinkies are the exception wouldn't you know!

Clara

I'm glad Nancy said that about temps. I was wondering why mine bloomed it's little head off all summer in 90+ heat. On the other hand this one has also bloomed during the winter months in low 70's conditions.

I think your plant is just a brat and wants to taunt and tease you to the point of complete despair. Some plants are like that you know. Never ever trust an orchid.

K

It's amazing the different sense of scents. I love the onc ornithroblahblah, and love my sharry baby(s). I can't stand the scent of the onc twinkle and fortunately it didn't do well for me so I tossed it (smelled like it had a mildew undercurrent to me). But I can't get enough of sharry baby or onc ornithroblahblah.

I have both Oncidium ornithorhynchum and Twinkle "Fragrance Fantasy". Both are at the mid to tail end of blooming this season.

Ornithorhynchum spiked (>15 spikes in 8" circumference plant) in May, stalled due to heat and (I unwisely placed) in full sun outdoors. In September, I put it in shade but still outdoors. Spike growth/maturation accelerated and bloomed.

Twinkle was in S/SE windowsill all along and spiked/bloomed without stalling in August/September.

I suspect both these oncidiums like cool(ish) conditions, and bright but indirect sunlight. This is my 1st year with either, so my conclusion may be off. alvin

hello, Clara, your "stinker" looks very nice. mine had 2 spikes from the beginning of the summer. additional spikes have also started gradually over the summer. I brought it into the house end of oct. I keep the house at 68F - the 2 longest spikes (about 24" long) just started to flower yesterday.
sue

No stink yet, but I anticipate it. They just started opening and look exactly like mini Sharry's. Has been up against the cool west window. I keep forgetting to water it - maybe that's the trick!

{{gwi:202083}}

Kevin-you may be right. Afterall it is a 'Stinker'. I can handle this one. It's not very stinkie. The blooms seem to last a long time; provided it blooms

Alvin - I had this one out all summer too. It easily took full sun/heat. It needed to grow a little. It was a "Hausermann's root rot deluxe". Their White Caps are not particularly fragrant. The roots went nuts this summer and then it really started putting out the spikes. The spring spikes never bloomed and aborted 2 weeks ago. Interesting how 1 zone can stall a plant. Brought it in...nothing. It's still growing and making spikes. Turned out to be a good plant once it was re-habbed

It's been sitting next to the Sleeping Giant. Can you imagine what that will be like? a 12" basket of PB's about the size of my palm? brrrr...shudder. The spikes are so long and get packed with buds. Late afternoon I have to leave the room or move the plant.

{{gwi:202084}}

John it's good to see you! I do remember you are the CEO of the "Stink Fest" Franchises. Ortho-stinko-rynchum has the musty scent for me. It is interesting that Kevin smells vanilla. Someone dropped by and smelled it. They also thought it smelled great

littlem- where in z-5 are you? I brought all of mine in at end of sept. we actually were having cooler weather then and I got nervous. I was loosing the sun so I suppose I would have had to move them anyway.

Jane, that little guy has advanced since I saw it. What is the name of that one so I can avoid it? :-)) It is a mini Skinkie Baby! Lets hope it doesn't smell like Mummy Stinkie. I don't mind the way Mum looks, its the smell. The older they get the more powerful they smell. akkk!

Not sure which way to take it. Some of you say heat it up, some say cool it more. Any temp votes? I have ~72F, 74 and 76-80º grow areas.

The oncids/intergens have been a struggle to bloom this year. Spike and stall. It's an issue of temp but not sure which way to go. Had some oncid types in the warmer room and they did not like it. But the weather has changed. I am beginning to run the heat, so conditions have become more stable.

Clara

I think it is the temp swings. I have buds on some Catts which have been sitting. I'm having a heart-attack because they are not progressing. They are large and ready to go, but my room has been cold and I believe they need warmer. I can't move them now. They budded prematurely because of the unusually warm fall. Now it is cold, heat is on and they are not sure what to do. I fear I will lose some. Have them under lights, but the nights go down in the 50's.

Hubby will revolt if I keep the heat up at night for the plants. Oil bills keep climbing. The room is too big for a small electric heater.

Clara: Good to know both Twinkle and ornithorhynchum can take full sun after all. I was iffy about the ornithorhychum being outdoors all summer and wondered if I damaged it - what with the buds stalling for almost 3 months.

I'm probably in the minority of growers who love the smell of both. They're different. I've read that Twinkle's fragrance comes from the cheirophorum parent. alvin

When that thing goes...it's gonna GO!!!

Personally, I love "stinkers".

My home is most always opened up, so I suppose no fragrance becomes overwhelming.

When I walked past my Colmanara 'Wildcat' today, I noticed it has a fresh, clean fragrance with a hint of honeysuckle...that one smells great!...to me, at least. :)

Lellie, you could be in a giant ball-room and Stinky Baby would overwhelm you. Many people like the smell, but I cannot be within a mile of that plant. I had a large one which I would put on a different floor of my house with the doors closed, I could smell it outside in the yard. I began to think I was hallucinating! I could smell it in my car, in the store, in another house. Maybe the 'fragrance' was on my clothes.

If my little guy smells the same, it goes on Clara's sale-list.

Jane: my Twinkle "Fragrance Fantasy" smells nothing like the ornithorhynchum. I have read that Twinkle (cheirophorum x ornithorhynchum) takes on cheirophorum scent. Now on the Garden Web fragrant orchid sticky it's noted that

"cheirophorum = It is quite stinky, kind of like lemon with hints of vomit and sweet undertone"

which is probably not a good sign of things to come. I like the smell of my Twinkle. alvin

LOL Jane!

Too bad we can't have a 'scratch 'n sniff' on the net...hehehe!

Jane happy to put him on my trade/sales site if it ends up being a "Mini-stinkie" fragrance:-)

Is that baby vomit or adult? There is a big difference ;-)) If it's adult, it goes to my sales site immediately with mini -stinkie!

Clara

hello, Clara, I am in southern ontario, east of Toronto.
sue

My white twinkle 'White Cap' started spiking in June and blooming in late August. That month, it won a 1st place at our society's low-key show. Then, as now, it's "spitting" a few flowers at a time. There are many, many buds.

The red twinkle 'Fragrance Fantasy' started spiking in July and still hasn't bloomed. All the buds look fine.

Last summer, mine were outside in 50% light from the E/SE until someone said they couldn't take the heat, so they came in till the weather got cooler at the end of summer.

Clara, after reading what OHG said, I moved mine to the cooler living room. They've had so many variables thrown in that, if they bloom or blast, I won't know why.

Whitecat8

LOL what a funny thread. I actually like my stinkers, but I confess I was finding Sharry Baby a bit overwhelming this summer.

A friend of mine HATES it and I have fun just goading him by asking him, "So, just HOW much do you hate Sharry Baby?" He says it gives him headaches. Mine was a backbulb donation and the donor at the time said it was going to be Wild Warrior 'Chieftain'; imagine my surprise when I saw the flowers were not green/cream/brown, but rather the dark red and white of OSB 'sweet fragrance'. It bloomed this summer at the same time as my Odontobrassia Kenneth Bivens 'Santa Barbara' which is also somewhat oddly smelled. The stairwell where they were on display was ... overwhelmingly scented on sunny days!

Among my other stinkers are the usual suspects:

Onc. cheirophorum, which I like for what I find is an incense-like smell ... I broke the spike this year, idiotic klutz that I am, I'll have to wait another year to enjoy it.

Onc. ornithorhynchum, which I feel in love with when I saw a specimen sized plant in a giant basket at a show, and I find its smells suggests lilac and lavender. This once bloomed twice this year so far.

Onc. Twinkle "Red Fantasy" is really putting a nice show right now, with 4 spikes. The smell's okay, I guess, pleasant on the whole.

Snow pea- Interesting that your ODBRS has a scent. Mine does not. I think I'm glad about it too :-) What does it smell like?

I am looking at the zones while I am re-reading this post. The bulk of the posters, Lellie and Nancy excluded are in Northern zones (5-7). Got me to thinking. My ODBRS skipped a bloom cycle this summer. It had gorgeous "meaty" growth, big chunky roots. It was outdoors. It will not bloom now, even though it has very appropriate conditions. I have been wondering why I am battling to bloom oncids this year. They will get to the point of swollen bud and stall. "Ortho-stinchum" has been the exception. I would have though it to be the more difficult, being species. Why?

Alvin your posts have been superb; not only on this thread but all of them. Thank you. Your posts on this thread confirmed the "why" for me. All of you in the upper zones really sorted it out for me.

I put my orchids out this summer. I'd like to clarify that I have a massive amount of air/wind outside, living in the Windy City. I grow on a 2nd floor roof. It is often 7ºF cooler than street level. "Real Feel" is probably cooler with the wind. I visited z-6 recently. I saw orchids. I could see that 1 zone can make a difference. That may be why I can put mine in full sun.

May, June and most of July were cool here. Oncids did fine at that time. ODBRS, Twinkle, SB, Ortho started to react/stall during late July and August when it got warmer. It was harder to tell with the Bivens. They had to be shaded or brought in. The rest, if they weren't burning, they were left in place. Twinkle was not in stellar shape, root-wise when I purchased it. My focus was to let Twinkle grow. It did. But the Spring spikes did not pop. I called OHG and they said "Keep it cool". It will bloom near the holidays. Premature spikes. That info came too late. Next year that will be taken into account. Premature and latent are signals that something is wrong with the past/present culture. I probably grew Twinkle a little too warm last winter.

Ortho should have gone inside in late July when it heated up. I opted to heavily shade ortho outside. It was in spike. It is blooming. It didn't hold it's buds. I think that made the difference.

It finally cooled off enough for me to want to bring some in Sept/Oct. Unfortunately, the fall weather turned into summer. Inside temps started to really climb. I didn't move them back out. The sun was gone by then. It was a choice of light vs temps. I chose light. Never a bad choice. However, that small action of shading ortho or leaving some out when it cooled may have made the difference. I shaded a few when the weather was warm, mainly hybrids that had "O", BLLRA's too at Arthur's warning. They are in spike. We shall see how much of a battle it will be to "pop" the buds.

Orchids do have a cyclical"window". The critical time in this scenario is before spikes are produced and when they become visible on forward. I believe that is why the higher # zones can have Twinkle blooming during the summer, and Kevin. No accounting for his "Twink Magic" :-)) Seriously, he sits on the border of z-4 &5 and probably keeps his orchids cooler than I, during the winter/spring.

If conditions are not met as specific times, they will not bloom, bloom poorly or as I am seeing, become a battle to "pop". They can't be subjected to wide temp swings that are not within their ability to cope. Putting them out actually becomes productive for growth but counter-productive for bloom. It does have an affect on their ability to bloom, even though they have been hybridized for some flexibility.

As most of you know, light is no longer an issue for me indoors. Temperature has been my nemisis this year. Small nuances such as shading at certain times in the cycle or bringing them in, may be the key. At this point, I may or may not have success in getting Twinkle to pop the blooms. I went off the "cultural deep end". Even a week of inappropriate temps may affect a plant. I may suffer the consequences as a result and watch Twinkle abort his spikes. He has aborted the 2 that were produced in spring. Time will tell for the rest. There is no compensation/manipulation possible to sort it out. Tight culture and time will straighten it out.

I also see the plant is not finished growing and producing spikes. That additionally indicates to me that temps were not correct for a time. The plants is packed with buds. But the yield may ultimately not be that great due to my cultural failure early in the year. This winter, they will be grown cooler. Next summer, they will go out early and come in when the weather gets beyond their cultural limits. We'll see if it makes a difference. I may not like the way this growup of ioncids smell, but what a valuable lessin!

Clara

Thank you Clara for your great & detailed Zone 5 culture notes for these intermediate oncididiums! It'll help fine tune my culture experiments in Zone 6 - being my 1st year with them. I should be careful with the direct sun/heat exposure as there are spells >90F/32C in Boston summers that even the wind can't mollify.

I have been quite taken by the oncidium genus lately esp. the odoriferous ("stinky") varieties. I could be wrong, but barring spike stall, I find the few oncidiums I have to be very low maintenance and windowsill friendly - always a plus! Thanks again, alvin

Clara, I'm afraid I'm unable to describe the scent of K.Bivens! It was odd - not exactly pleasant but not awful either.

As for blooming vs growing, I think you're on to something for the ODTBRS. I purchased it in bloom three springs ago. Then it grew a new bulb over that first summer, but didn't seem to do well (pbulb was smaller than the other first two, possibly because I was afraid of frying it in the sun.)

This year, all the orchids got a lot more sun over the summer and KBivens really grew, and then I noticed it had twin spikes in July-August. It was gorgeous.

It's now putting forth a new pBulb, but I'm wondering if it will be able to grow enough to bloom again next summer, or will it instead jump the year.

As for the growing conditions for the tiny smelly oncids, I dunno, I think I could do better, but since they do bloom, and I'm really really lazy, I just leave them well enough alone.

Thanks Snow Pea! The Bivens can take a lot of light but not heat. I think we figured out what to do next year with the Bivens! :-)) Let him out early and then into the A/C . Sound like a good plan?

Clara
Cooling Down Twinks