Found these, found this website, advice needed!!

[AndyS]

Hello everyone,

I'm hoping somebody could please offer some advice.
In early 2012, I bought three pleione bulbs from an online general plant supplier. I believe these may have been formosana???
Anyway, I planted these in little pots. Two flowered & one just grew leaves.
As I was away on holiday, none of these lasted long as they kind of 'baked' in the conservatory.
Thinking they were probably dead, I poked them into a large flower box in the garden.
In 2013, they all flowered, producing a lovely pink / purple flower each that lasted about 8 weeks, this prompted me this year to buy a load of bulbs from ebay (approx 120), these are currently planted in pots of 'orchid compost'. Most appear to have grown leaves.

Moving back to the three original ones, today, I cleared out my planters & found these (see attached pics)
Panic time……. what do I do with them now? replant immediately? I'm sure I read somewhere that they are kept in a cool dry place until early next year?
To give an idea of size, the paper they are laid out on is approximately A4.

I'm now worried about doing anything with the other ones (I think there are some hybrids etc in there) until I learn a bit more……

Any 'simple' advice will be thankfully received.

I am fairly new to gardening & plants as a whole, let alone more specialised things, & I don't appear to have very green fingers!

Regards,
Andy.

[AndyS]

Oops, sorry about the size of the pictures…….

[Maggi Young]

Hello Andy! You've come to the right place - there are a great many very experienced Pleione growers around the place 

You can get a start here : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=2961.0, here : http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=wisley   and also in Paul Cumbleton's site http://www.pleione.info/
 - but the pleione lovers will be along to advise soon, I expect. 

[Graham Catlow]

Hello Andy,

Maggi has of course given you some great links to one of the forums expert Pleione growers to which I would not add my name. I am an enthusiast and like you started without any real knowledge but over the years I have gained experience from trial and error and from the advice received from this forum.

In the future leave the plants until the leaves have dropped off on their own and then you are sure they are ready to be disturbed. Never cut the leaves back or off.
For now:
Allow the collection to dry out a little and either remove the roots or trim them back to about 2cm (this allows them to have an anchor when you re-pot them).
You can then store the bare pseudobulbs in a cool (frost free) dry place until the spring or you can re-pot immediately in your chosen compost (they seem to be doing well in what you are using). We all have our preferences and you couldn't go wrong if you use Pauls mix (I use one I developed myself).
If you re-pot them now make sure the compost remains cool, dry and frost free until the spring.

Hope this helps.

Graham

[Maren]

Good advice.

[AndyS]

Thank you for your replies & advice, my apologies for a slow response.

All of the bulbs shown in the pictures are now devoid of leaves & I have trimmed the roots back as described, thank you Graham.

I now have some time to decide what type of compost I should use for next year!
Up to now, they have been growing in, what I would describe as standard dirt in my garden boxes!
I decided to drop them in there as described in my previous post.
As they appear to have done pretty well there, I may repot some into the same area, & some into another kind of medium.

As for the other 120 ish that are currently potted in an 'orchid' compost mix, I have decided to leave them in there for this winter, stored in a cool & dry area.
Many of them were very tiny bulbils, about 70% grew leaves, but some did not. Although some grew extremely tiny leaves, similar to a very small blade of grass. I have decided to leave them potted & take my chances, for fear of 'losing' some of the very tiny ones when I empty the pots out, hopefully I won't regret this!
I'm assuming that any that didn't grow leaves are probably not viable, but due to my lack of knowledge, am unsure wether they may just be dormant & have a chance of growing next year, maybe somebody could shed some light on this?

Regards,
Andy.

[Maren]

Hi Andy,

as you have already potted your haul from ebay, there is nothing for it but to wait until next spring to see what happens. Keep them cool and dry during the winter and look forward to the big surprise.

In the meantime you could look at the culture instructions on my website. They have been written with the amateur / beginner in mind.

Any more questions, I'll be happy to help.

[AndyS]

Thank you for the link Maren, some good basic information…… exactly what I need…… being new to this gardening lark, the complicated stuff just baffles me. 

I kicked myself a little when I got to the perlite bit.
Three years ago, I had 10 to 15 tons of excess perlite in 1 ton bags that I couldn't get rid of for love nor money.
Now I've just seen what it costs to buy in little 10ltr boxes!!
I read somewhere at the time that it was used for aiding drainage/water retention & managed to persuade a local farmer to take it for free.
I'll have to call in & see him to see if he still has it, my guess is it's still sitting in the barn I delivered it too….

Regards,
Andy.

[Maren]

Hi,

if your local farmer still has the perlite and you intend to use it, make sure to wear a mask or the fine dust will get into your lungs.

My favourite way of dealing with this is to dump a sackful (approx 100 litres) into a large dustbin run the hospipe into it until it's all covered with water. Then when I need it, I use a hand sieve, like the ones I use in the kitchen for draining boiled potatoes, and I sift the perlite out of the water. There will be no dust and it will readily mix with whatever other compost ingredients you are using.