drdawg said:Like some of my ex-girl friends.

Promising, Ken? Or confused?

By now those girlfriends are old.

Some are deceased!

I hope you got your lovely bride a blooming orchid plant...

one of 14 plants that came back from Miami without her tag...
My best guess is Blc. Hawaiian Leopard 'Mei-Ling'..

This would be considered "long-range anticipation". This Vanilla planifolio is now three years old and the vine is perhaps 5-6' long. It is hard to tell because it has been wrapped through the cane lattice quite a few time. The plant looks very healthy. I will probably have to build a wider/taller lattice this spring for her. I hope to live long enough to see this Vanilla Orchid bloom.

Looks healthy, I can just see this a few years from now growing across the glass ceiling of your gorgeous O&P P.

(O&P P - Orchid and Plumie Paradise)

OPP has a nice sound to it, Ursula. A vining orchid sure is an interesting form. This plant is putting out all kinds of "tendrils" and I have a feeling that they won't attach to glass. I need to build a better/larger/stronger lattice.

Ken that Vanilla looks super healthy. I have variegated one that was doing beautifully until I repotted it and it has been in a slow decline ever since. If I can just keep it alive a few more weeks it can go outdoors where I think it will be happier.

Yeah, my vanilla orchids are yearning to get outside too. Like you, it will be a few weeks, if my sorry back will allow it. I promised myself that I would hang on to this one plant just to have the opportunity to see her bloom. I have made that promise many times and then broke them, one by one.

I truly understand how frustrated you are, nothing worse than back issues. Hang in there.

I would go crazy waiting that long!
You guys must have the patience of a saint!



Lc. Blazing Treat getting ready to give me a couple of flowers... This one came from our September road trip to APOPKA..Krull-Smith

With over 500 orchids, Lindsey, the Vanilla Orchid gets lost among them all. It does have an interesting growth form though, flowers or not.

That's one I've tried three times with and never had it succeed. But I've seen them blooming at a local grower's and also at Selby where they have a very large specimen that rambles about the roof of the big greenhouse. They give it a plastic coated wire to twine on - like clothesline wire, fastened between ring bolts.

Keep an eagle eye on it Ken, those flowers only last one day!

oh that would just kill me....waiting for years then missing the one day bloom because it's scrambling up on the roof!

I need some cheerleaders. I am slowly but surely losing faith here.

Elaine, what do you mean when you say that you have tried it three times and never had it succeed?

Talk to @Fred Rump, I think he posted some years ago about his vanilla plant blooming high up in a tree. I think if you want to see this one blooming, your best bet is your OPP.

Ken, I was given two starts a year apart, neither of which survived. They were the variegated one, which I think is a bit wimpier anyway. Then I bought a nice start from you that lived a year but didn't grow and died the next year.

It's a case of "if I knew then what I know now" but I'm pretty sure I just didn't keep them warm enough or feed them properly. I was more dedicated to growing my orchids outdoors year round back then. Now I know how much better they grow in the warm weather if I just coddle them a bit when it's cold. My fert and watering have improved, too.

I've also abandoned (or at least modified) my moral stand against using chemicals, and am embarking on a minimalist fungicide regimen that I hope will help my orchids survive the outdoor situation better. We'll see how that part goes this summer . . . that's an "Anticipation" subject for sure!

Nun's orchids starting to show a little white - just in time for cold weather this weekend . .