Enjoy! How long they hold the bloom - and how often they bloom in a year?

Wow ... that's gorgeous ...

I am jealous of the red beauty!

Beautiful! Cattleya types are my favorite orchids. I grew many of them years ago in the greenhouse of my former home. Now, I only have memories. But I love seeing them!

As long as it is as beautiful as that,,,,be OT all you want!!!! Lovely! Rosie

Irina_co(z5 CO)

Enjoy! How long they hold the bloom - and how often they bloom in a year?

Both are once a year bloomers. Very common situation especially for species plants such as the Habenaria. Dark Waters is consider a "compact catt" with mature height being around 9inches. It typically blooms like clockwork in Feb. which is nice as a rich splash of color during the grey of winter. Not sure why it bloomed so early this year. *Note: Many of the mini-catts (plants which should remain under 6inche tall when mature), IME, can bloom two to three times per year depending upon speed of growth. (Each growth blooms but once.)

The Habenaria has been in bloom since sometime in Dec., I think. Really should have written that down. Flower still looks good as of this writing. Usually, Dark Waters will remain in bloom for 4-6 wks for me .... depending upon sun, humidity, and temps. (Blooms last longer for me if I do not place the blooming plant where sun shines upon it -- which I find typical for pretty much any type of flower -- and if temps are on the cooler side while in bloom -- 70s and 60s. Again pretty typical for most flowers unsurprisingly. Humidity can also make a difference. In very arid conditions like my apt with RH around 10-15%, flower lifespan may be shortened considerably.)

@Jeff: Wish you could see it in person, Jeff. It is MUCH more impressive that my photo captures.

TerriLou, there are any number of catts which could grow on a windowsill and there are minicatts which would not require a huge amount of realestate.

Thank you for the pleasure of seeing them.

Yes, Paul, I have grown a few compact Catts but I always preferred the big ones and my windows mostly hold gesneriads these days. I hope you don't mind if I post this picture of Cattleya mossiae from last spring. It is now my only Cattleya.

The only thing I find objectionable, Terri, is that that is your only catt. heh Lovely, btw. I've always gravitated toward the mini and compact catts ... allows me to have more of them as they take up less space. Plus, it seemed that the flowers on the smaller catts often last longer than the standards.

That is a beautiful orchid. Makes it a lot easier to find space for it as a hanging plant. Not being familiar with orchids, can they be grown indoors year round? I see them hanging from trees and on patios around where I live.

Hi Terri!!! I have two phalenopsis. Just two. But they do well, and I do summer them outdoors on my porch for the entire time. Seems that time outside rejuvenates them so they can survive being inside for the winter. And they do well! Rosie

@Violet: Most (?all?) orchids can be grown year-round indoors provided one can meet their needs and space requirements. However, as Terri mentioned, there is something to be said for summering outdoors. Most plants -- not just many orchids -- seem to find the fresh air and sunlight rejuvenating, IME. (I've known folks who put their AVs outside for the summer and they've told me the same even applies to them.)

Now there are some caveats, of course, anytime one tries to make too sweeping of a generalization. For example, there are orchids native to mountain cloud forests where the humidity is always high and the temps almost never exceed the low 70sF and never drop below the mid to low 50'sF. Needless to say if one lives in Texas or Arizona, it would be a death sentence to subject such a plant to a summer outdoors. Then there are orchids native to deserts. Trying to grow them outside in Louisiana where the humidity is so high the air can be sipped through a straw would not end well for the orchid. Then there are the terrestrial temperate lady slippers (Cypripediums) many of which MUST have a cold winter's dormancy to remain vital and have some rather stringent media requirements. Those should be left out year-round in the ground and never removed from the wild unless their habitat is going to be destroyed. (It's actually illegal with hefty fines to remove them from the wild.)

That said, because the orchid Family is so vast (it's actually the largest of the flowering plant Families) and so diverse, there really are orchids that can be suitable for almost any home environment. Just depends upon what conditions one can and is willing to provide.

Yep,,,that would be me. I put my violets outside when I only had about 10-15 and before I started wicking. Oh they did so well. And made it through the winter better. Just my experiences! Rosie

Alternate choice? ................raise the windows, air out the house set the orchids in the sun and fresh breeze while blowing out the winter dust and germies. : )

Somehow, I don't think it would be the same. But hey,,,,a little bit of something is better than a whole lot of nothing!!!! Rosie

I see your really pretty awesome blooming plants and raise you...a few ugly lithops, soon to split for the first time. :)

OT for a second,,,,,those are lovely little lithops!!!! I love them and kill every one I get. heavy sigh,,,,,(killer) Rosie

Wow, have never seen anything like that before. So interesting!

I killed several of my lithops this past summer. Had them outside which wouldn't have been bad in and of itself, but the pot got too much sun and I fried at least half of them. (Had around a dozen.) Still working on mastering their watering needs.

They r amazing. I saw another post of a really mature one. It looked like a brain .... maybe or something like it. Pretty cool tho.

The one at the top (the orange-y red one) is Lithops hookeri and the gray ones are NOIDs -- I don't know enough about them to fish for an ID. Hookeri may yet die -- I've lost two of them since a chipmunk uprooted them late August...boy they do NOT like their roots to be messed with.

I've had great success with potting them in straight pumice and watering pretty much whenever I feel like it. Mostly I just forget about them.

Wonder what those roots look like? Hahahaha- now I want one. - thx - hahahaha I don’t need anymore learning projects.

Well I don't know how the roots are SUPPOSED to look, but the roots of these guys were about three inches long and looked/felt kind of like horsehair.

For such a succulent plant, the roots are -- as Tiff said -- very thin and IME quite sparse.

Interesting

I have always wanted lithops, since the first time I saw them in a book. I don't think I can give them what they need, though.

I keep mine in rainy Oregon with nothing but outside sun during the summer and a spot on my light shelf during the winter. The hardest part about lithops is not doing anything with them. They really do not appreciate being fussed with, at least, mine don't.