They will never re flower from a node that produced flowers in a previous season.

Most flower from a cane that grew "last year" and you will never get blooms again from that cane.

However, there are some so-called Yamamoto types that will bloom from the newest cane.

Worth growing in the San Francisco area?...might be easier growing south wards in LA or San Diego. I am down to one...too much fiddling around.

Peak flowering here late spring and they are a feature of the late spring orchid shows.

Nobile/softcane bloom overload

They can do well here. I had one bloom in January outdoors a few years ago in the warmth of a winter drought. It died 2 winters ago..I think I let it go too dry and we had some near freezing temps. The combo.

I'm thinking of getting 3 or 4 more and put the lot all together to make a bigger show. Are they bark growers? Or Sphag? Funny that isnt answered straight out on the internet. I really am taken with the D.nobile as they might be common in the real subtropics..but they are not like Cymbidium's here seen on every other patio in the mild but not subtropical bay area.

The word mild depends on where you live.

The ancestors of the modern hybrid come from a monsoonal climate. Warm, wet summers, drier winter.

They are hardy "outside' here down to about 2C. and seeing that the average winter day temps here is Min 7C Max 17C they are no problem to grow.

The monsoon forest tends to lose all its leaves in the dry season so the orchid needs high light to flower.

Some of the modern hybrids are more tolerant of less than ideal conditions.

Growers here use treated Radiata Pine bark as the base of various mixes. Mixes in more tropical places tend to be more arid because bark breaks down quickly in tropical places. So you will get info. that varies according to the source.

Use spag? You can grow anything in spag with the right conditions. Wrong conditions such as cold and wet lead to problems.

Here its cooler,6C lows in Dec-Jan,16C highs. BUT, unlike you...we can have a week in the worst winter of near 0c mornings,warming up to 10-16C by the afternoon.

I lost the best I had in a cold winter..and I pushed it to near bone dry on the porch. I read in your posts,and elsewhere- not to over do the winter dry thing. I think I did.