Yes, I do have a fan, but was going to try locating these in the shady border area under my biggest oak tree. It is almost always much cooler under there, and a nice breeze funnels along that side of the house, too. The Miltoniopsis is fragrant, though. My experience is the scented orchids attract critters, so I'm not sure about letting it out of the cage. Will try it there and watch it carefully for critter damage. My 'Little Stars' is in full bloom now with 3 lush spikes open. The scent at night is fabulous, and the local raccoon has been visiting at night.
I took the Milt. out of it's little 3in. plastic pot and it seems to be growing in straight sphagnum moss. Since it has a large mat of roots outside the pot on top, I'm thinking I should pot it up - more moss, or use some other coarse medium mixed with moss??
We'll see how the new babies do over the winter, and if still looking healthy when the weather warms up, I'll make a decision on it then. I haven't had great luck with either of these types, but both my skills and the growing area have improved a bit since I tried last so there's hope for better success this time.
Anybody have an opinion on ants living in/on my Schomburgkia cross? These are known to be ant host plants, but I think these are carpenter ants and are living in the cork that the plant is mounted to. I have two nice spikes on this plant but when I submerged it in a tub of rain water this morning, a bunch of fairly large ants crawled out onto the foliage to stay out of the water. Didn't really see where they came from, but I don't think they were inside the pseudobulbs. Ants don't usually harm the plants, but ??
Bill!
