What are your wintergreens doing?

[mark smyth]

Tony I take it you would recommend your 8cm clay pots? What height are they?

[Tony Willis]

Mark

they are standard clay pots from the garden centre and are the same deep as the diameter. I find they suit a single ophrys tuber ideally. Enough compost to grow well but not overpotted  and soggy.

[mark smyth]

I think I'll make the change this summer. It will also create more space 

[mark smyth]

I got my 8cm clay pots yesterday. They are small! What mix do you use in them?

[Tony Willis]

I got my 8cm clay pots yesterday. They are small! What mix do you use in them?

this was covered in posts 324 and 325 of the terrestrial orchid thread

[Maggi Young]

this was covered in posts 324 ,325, 326 of the terrestrial orchid thread

Starts here on page 22 of that thread
 http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=8036.msg292208#msg292208

[mark smyth]

Tony said "I grow all my plants,crocus galanthus cyclamenorchids etc except cyps in JI no 2 and some extra grit. The orchis/ ophrys are kept just frost free. I water if necessary round the edge of the pot after tipping the grit of a couple and seeing how dry the compost is. In summer I put them in the garage to keep them cool and dry until repoting and watering again in about September."

Thanks for the link. We cant get John Innes over here except for what some companies call JI which is a mix of sand, grit and peat. Some of you may remember the settlement test I did by adding JI and top soil to water to see the different layers. I cant find the photos just now.

Today I received some orchids in growth off ebay. Fantastic packaging - I should have taken photos - of pots inside plastic bottles and taped in place. I'm unhappy because they are going over and I cant enjoy the flowers. Are they over because they are at this stage in Greece?

[mark smyth]

In the greenhouse O. italica, and something else, are sending up flower spikes helped by the unseasonal warm days we've been having. 10c here today and 12c at the weekend

[goofy]

hello,
I think they are in this stage in Greece.
but the problem MIGHT be,
that they are digged from the wild, only pressed into the pot.
waiting for bidders on ebay :-((

look under the soil, whether you find a living root system
and at least a new tuber for next year.

make a reclamation AND NEGATIV FEEDBACK !! .
good luck.

some sellers are not so serious on ebay.
its always a risk.........................

[Steve Garvie]

I have a few ophrys in flower but none are showing any signs of die-back as yet and none of the Orchis are flowering.

Hopefully your plants are from cultivated stock but I fear that Goofy is correct in his suggestion.

I would tip them out of their current mix & repot in barely moist perlite keeping them in a bright, cool but frost-free place under glass in the hope that the new tuber can absorb as much sugars as possible from the dying top-growth and old tuber, then detach the new tuber before any rot sets in.

[SteveC2]

I very much doubt that these are wild plants; people that I trust tell me otherwise. 

Like you I have received plants looking totally stressed by their journey, but surely this is the gamble that you take when you purchase plants shown to be in flower already?  Take most plants and put them in a package for perhaps a week to ten days, then send them through the post and they are likely to arrive in less than perfect state.
The key question is have next year's tubers formed?  That is the calculation I do when making purchases like this.  Forget about this year's plants / flowers.  I work out how much am I paying per tuber, then compare it with the price of a dormant tuber in a few months time.  Add in the likelihood of such tubers being available and decide whether to take the gamble.
But accept that it a gamble.
By the way, you have a fourteen day return period, so if you really are not satisfied return them.  I have found all three ebayers currently active in this market to be very reasonable people.

[mark smyth]

Definitely reliable seller. I'll knock them out later but as you can see one arrived broken.

[mark smyth]

Definitely reliable seller. I'll knock them out later but as you can see one arrived broken.

Shocked at the pot contents especially after the seller has supplied great tubers and plants in growth in the past. This years new tubers are OK

I suppose from now on it will be dormant tubers only

[Tony Willis]

Mark

I had never heard of that one but I see it is just a renamed Ophrys fusca. I never stop being amazed as to where these names come from.

Anyway it seems to have suffered in the post but it appears to have a new tuber and if you do as Steve suggests I think it will survive

[mark smyth]

Anyway it seems to have suffered in the post but it appears to have a new tuber and if you do as Steve suggests I think it will survive

For now they are in slightly damp gritty sand. I'll get perlite tomorrow and relabel them. Thanks