Close up picture

It likes to climb. I had one 20 or more feet up my avocado tree. Hurricane took it. Central Florida may be too cold in most places to grow it outside. Does your friend live nearby? If they do then plant it like they did. Do not cut it. It is at a small piece now. A trellis would help. Make sure you grow it right side up. It grows with the points of the leaves pointing downward.

Thanks Shaved! I'll try and find a trellis of some kind...I guess I'll use Orchid mix to try and root it?

Put some lave rock to hold the trellis. treat it as if it was a mounted orchid. It needs water daily. Google vanilla orchid care or culture...

They're very easy if you keep up the humidity and generally don't let them get too cold. I have dozens of them growing up trees, up to 22 metres high. Pieces always get broken off so I just put them up against another tree and off they go. But I find if the stem gets planted into soil that part below the soil rots away and only the roots actually go down into the soil. Where they run along the ground it's usually only in the leaf litter. They like strong light but not too much direct sun. Flowering is at the top of the vine once it gets a bit of length. I've read of people growing them indoors with the vines running across the ceiling. Looks impressive but isn't very practical. The trellis idea is better. The vine never branches so if you want a bushier look you need to start more cuttings.

I potted it up in a 6.7" Clay pot...Wish me luck!!

This cutting has very large leaves...one is 8"...

Thanks again for all your help!

I would get a stick as high as your door and put it in the pot so it can come out in the spring. It doesn't like the loop at the top. It needs to be straight.

Not quite, but kinda like growing an elephant in your backyard. I like elephants but I do not have the space. What and where was the mother plant?

Oh okay thanks! I will put the pot outside the middle of March...after our threat of frost/freeze is done. I've placed the pot leaned it against the wall to keep the vine straight while rooting...

Supposedly, the Mother plant was growing outside in our area...my friend received several cuttings from her Orchid Society...from what I understand the very large vine was growing up a large Palm tree and it needed to be trimmed a lot...so they offered free cuttings to the members.

This post was edited by puglvr1 on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 7:27

On a different note..one of myOrchids that a friend gave me is blooming. I've only been growing orchids for less than a year so I'm very excited to see this one blooming :o)

This post was edited by puglvr1 on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 7:28

I like your red catt. Nicely grown.

The vanilla needs to be watered every day. Spray water and fertilizer on the roots. That means your wall will discolor. And the roots will attach to the wall only to be moved in a few months. Put a 1 x 2 x 6.5' in the pot and train it to the stick. Move the pot with help, outside during the winter when there will be nice temps over night. Then finally after the threat of cold is gone plant it outside. Or some variation. Or grow it on the wall...

Congratulations on getting the Catt to bloom :) it's lovely!

I purchased a variegated vanilla plant from a speaker at our OS, it's in a small 4" hanging basket and growing in all directions. It just looks like a pretty ivy. Are there mini vanilla plants?

Like shavedmonkey said those roots will adhere to your wall.
I had one in a bathroom that grew all around the window and attached itself quite snugly to everything it encountered.

When I finally pried it off and stuck it in a tree (SoFla) the thing took off like gangbusters.
My only caveat would be to let it go up somewhere that you can actually access the flowers to hand pollinate if you intend to try and get bean pods/beans. They like to flower really high up, and standing on top of a ladder halfway up a tree is no place to try and pollinate flowers!
I did get a few beans though, so totally worth it.

Good luck!

Once you get the seed pod (bean), the work is just beginning. There is a very long process from bean to cake or cookies. I watched it on TV. Not for me. It is made in places where labor is cheap. I'm expensive. I just like to grow it. However the process could be a very interesting learning event. Just give me the cookies.

Thanks again...I was only planning on leaving it on that wall for 5 weeks till I can place it outside. Do you think it will root and start growing in that short time?

I saw my 10 day forecast...70's during the day and nothing colder than 40 degrees at night...is this too cold to leave outside while rooting? I can bring it in when the temps go below 40 degrees...

I'll look for a bigger stick today, thanks again!

Thanks for the nice comments on my red Phal...its a very pretty Orchid, one of my fav's :o)

If the orchid is not growing it will suffer. It will need to be sprayed with water the entire plant every day. And fertilizer every week or 2 also. It is warm enough in your house to grow. It is too cold to take it out as a cutting. I'm sorry to be putting you in a difficult spot. But vanilla requires a lot of space. Perhaps more than any other orchid.

Due to the potential damage to your wall, give it back and get another cutting when the threat of cold has passed? I feel like you are between a rock and a hard place. Every turn there is an issue. Either way lots of luck.

Thanks Shaved...at least it didn't cost me anything. I do appreciate your help though :o)

How is it now?

All the leaves fell off except the very bottom closest to the soil line but It has rooted and hasn't grown a single leaf...I think its a goner lol...

Still have hope! If there is roots its alive

If you have roots growing in the pot, and the stem is still green, be patient till spring and watch out! If you can pin the vine to something porous (treefern totem for example) so the dried up root stubs are touching it and are stable, misting those roots often will stimulate them into growth. Be careful though, those roots will grow in any direction they think there is water, and as others have cautioned, they will attach to most anything, with the full intent of setting up permanent residence!

Sorry to intrude (?)... I'm new to this site. I also find it hard to tell if and how these plants are doing when they have no visible roots. In early October I bought a vanilla orchid and a cutting. The plant had roots but, due to my tendency to overwater and my desire to keep this one alive, I must have under-watered it and the roots shriveled. It also got too cold, the tip started to rot, so I had to cut it off. The plant, which is about 8-10 inches, is now starting to grow a terrestrial root (If have it in a combo of mostly orchid bark mix and with some spaghnum moss) but no aerial roots yet, and no obvious signs of any other growth. The cutting, which is approx. the same length, came to me with shriveled and brown aerial roots. I put cinnamon on the tips and let it dry before attempting to root it. I have tried rooting it in water, as I read somewhere about that being successful, and when that didn't work after a few weeks I tried laying it in spaghnum moss, which is where it now is. Still no roots or any signs of anything growing. I mist them at least twice per day, water them when the moss is barely moist, they receive bright/dappled sun in morning to mid-afternoon, and the temperature is about 75 during the day and between 65 and 70 at night. Sorry for the rant - I'm wondering if anyone had any ideas about what else I should be doing, or what I could be doing differently? Also, I've been using aquarium water on occasion (water has not been chemically treated with anything). Not sure if I should also be using an orchid fertilizer and if I should be misting the plant with the fertilizer water or only the soil? I would really really appreciate some input from all of you who have been able to grow these beautiful plants successfully!...

You may not have read everything you want to know about Vanilla. Here is the link.

Note that the author lives in Rockhampton Qld which has a tropical climate.

Vanilla info.

I have only ever seen one plant and it was wandering hither and yon up near the roof of glass-house set up to grow Phalaenopsis. Sorry, in my opinion a lot of effort for not much reward.

Laying it on sphagnum moss with high air humidity is a better way of getting it going. But don't drown it with water. The sphagnum holds a lot of water. Ideal temperatures for good growth are around 30C, they will still handle higher easily if shaded with high air humidity. Bottom of their temperature range is 15C to 20C and that's where growth would be very slow, or maybe
non-existant. So, they'll survive those cooler temperatures but don't expect much growth.

OK, thanks tropicbreezent and arthurm. I have the orchid and the cutting in a south-facing room where a wood stove is always on, so it gets fairly consistent heat although not up to the high 20s or 30s as mentioned. The only humidity it gets it me misting it daily, and I also have a make-shift dome with air holes over the cutting. For consistency's sake, I wonder if putting it in an aquarium where it will get continuous heat/humidity would be best for it - that is, until it gets big of course - any ideas on that?

Sorry - and any idea how long it might take for rooting to happen?

I think your aquarium idea would be better. The effects of misting are only short term as far as air humidity is concerned. With root growth, that will be temperature dependent. So it's a bit of a "how long is a piece of string?" type of question. Warmer = faster. As long as you've got green leaves and stem it should be okay even if not showing much progress.

OK, thanks. I've been looking into creating an orchid terrarium and have a large aquarium I could use, so this might be the best bet. I've read that mounting the vines to go up and downg increases its chances of flowering. Are there any specifics to this (eg. Long spans needed vs curled over a mount)?

Apologies for my "Not much Reward quote"..... much of the hobby consists of trying to grow the Ungrowable. Just wondering if there are some dwarf clones available that are more suitable for indoor culture.

The stems are brittle, so be careful to not bend them too tightly. Although, if they do break you'll have another plant. Some of mine are up over 20 metres in trees and it took a while before I found out they were flowering up there. Later I planted some on a much smaller tree stump (about 3 metres tall) . They sprawled around the top a bit and flowered at that height. Some I've got on a 1.5 metre stump haven't flowered at all. Whatever height they need, they also need to sprawl and hang down a bit. If they've still got room to go up they'll keep climbing and not flower.

I did see a comment on a forum once (and only once) of there being dwarf varieties, but I don't know how accurate it was. Or maybe they were thinking of a different species of vanilla.

Thanks. Re: the 'ungrowable', I can relate. I love the plant and was given it, along with a cutting, however I live in Southwestern Ontario so obviously not an environment conducive to these plants. Setting up a terrarium is sort if the lesser of 2 evils as I think it may be the only chance for them to grow or hopefully thrive. As for the dwarf varieties, I did some searching and found the Cloud's Orchids (Toronto area) sells approx. 2-3 dwarf varieties that they claim flower at about 6 feet. Definitely something worth considering.

I have heard that vanilla can also be made from Lepotes bicolor seed pods. They are a lot easier to grow especially indoors, I have one flowering in a 4" pot and the flowers last a few weeks instead of 1 day as with Vanilla.

James - Really? Do you know where to get the seeds? Did you grow yours from seed or buy it? How long does it have to grow in order to flower?

Here is a pic. of Leptotes bicolor. It is the plant growing on a tree-fern mount positioned at the front of the display.

Leptotes bicolor

Wow, that is nice. So does it actually produce vanilla beans? Are these readily grown from seed?

The University of google backs up what James said. Wonder if the quality of the Vanilla is as good as that produced from the Vanilla vine.

You can probably obtain an established plant from a US Orchid Nursery. Best grown on a mount here and is "easy", Southwestern Ontario ???????

I don't know the quality of the beans. I've tried to make vanilla beans from a vanilla plants a few times and they never turned out good. I would assume that since commercial growers don't use it , it might not be as good or hard to get in large quantities.

Andys Orchids has it for $20 , they also have a 20% off this weekend.

OK, thanks. Is worth a try and a good side project...