Australian native terrestrial orchids

[Darren]

Maren,

 I found that Siranthes sinensis was excellent at choosing a home for itself - it used to seed around in neighbouring pots in the greenhouse very easily. But it was next to impossible to transplant elsewhere without it dying so I was content to admire it wherever it popped up. Have not seen any since we moved though.

[Maren]

Did you take the pots with you when you moved

[Darren]

Yes  but greenhouse is in a much sunnier position and is also much less humid (on solid concrete rather than ankle deep in water like the old one sometimes was!). So conditions for seeding are perhaps less favourable. Also the type of plants I grow under glass has changed and are now mostly summer dormant, so in dry compost. The Spiranthes especially liked pots of summer-growing bulbs in peaty lime free compost (e.g. Cypella) or pots of Protea etc which were also lime free and had at least some moisture all year.

[Maren]

Hi Darren,
our chat motivated me to look at my Spiranthes sinense. I tipped it out of its pot, expecting some nice fleshy roots, but there was just nothing but the skin in which the roots used to live.  Sniff.

But my pleiones are doing very well, thank you.

[SteveC2]

Anyone out there growing Leptoceras menziesii?  From a single tuber in 2009 I now have 4 plants, all seemingly very small, with single leaves between 1 and 2 cms in length.  Is this too small to flower?  All the photographs on the web seem to concentrate on the flowers, which is fair enough, but I can't get any idea about how big the leaves actually grow!

[Peter Maguire]

I don't grow it - yet, but this link shows a rather poor picture of the flowering plant in the wild:
http://florabase.calm.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/15418

It seems to flower at about 50cms height with a basal rosette (if that's not too grand a word) of leaves.

[SteveC2]

Thanks Peter.  This page didn't appear when I googled the plant.  Not sure about the scale, but interesting that some have only one leaf, others a rosette.

[Paul T]

Apparently Leptoceras menziesii needs to be stored dry with a ripe banana (or old banana skin) to get it to flower regularly in captivity.  It IS a small tuber as far as I know.  I lost my previous one to frost and just got some more recently, they're about to come out of their 3 week banana holiday! 

Here's a Diplodium coccineum that is currently in flower for me.  Nice to be starting to have some of the terrestrials flowering. 

[Darren]

Maren,

Sorry to hear about your Spiranthes.  I don't think any of my plants lived more than a couple of years which is why I was glad that it seeded about.

By the way - Rareplants (Paul Christian) have now produced their list of freshly imported Australian terrestrials. Some nice stuff, including Corybas.

[Banksia_Man]

Hi Everyone,

I had given up hope ... BUT Paul Christian in Wrexham has recently put up the Aussie orchids catalogue.

I have just placed an order, including for Leptoceras menziesii.   

For SteveC2, Paul Christian also recommends the "banana skin" treatment to provoke flowering (see his site)

[Paul T]

I discovered this in flower in my shadehouse yesterday (I didn't even know it was in bud!  ).....

It's a Chiloglottis species but not sure which one.  The flower is about 1cm across, but oh so cute!!    I've included a few pics at different angles etc to show the flower.  Much more impressive in the pics than in real life, because you can see so much more detail.

Enjoy.

[SteveC2]

nearly all my Aussies came from paul Christian, so I've tried the banana skin trick, and I reckon that my paraffin heaters are very nicely simulating regular bush fires!  But what concerns me is the size, or lack of it, of not just my Leptoceras but of several other Aussies.  I know that they are tiny tubers, so expected the plants to be quite small, so I was trying to get some idea of what size is a "flowering sized" plant.  So far my experiences with Aussies is that Pterostylis are quite happy here, flowering regularly and increasing, but the others, (Diuris, Caladenia and Thelymitra) whilst bulking up on number of tubers, are very flower shy.  I was just interested to know what others think?
Just another thought; whilst I know that the flowers are the main attraction it would be helpful to see whole plant photos with some idea of scale.

[Paul T]

Steve,

I included the pic showing more of the Chiloglottis for reasons of scale.  Details for both I've posted on this page are as follows....

The first is Diplodium coccineum (formerly Pterostylis coccinea).  Flowers stand at about 20 to 25cm tall or so (I haven't actually measured it, just from memory) and the flower is about 2.5cm or so.

The second is a Chiloglottis species.  I have no idea of the species unfortunately, as it was given to me without one.  The flower is around 1cm across, standing maybe 10cm tall.  I've provided some different angles just to show different details.

Is that a help?

[SteveC2]

Very useful, thanks very much.  When not if, I must be positive, my aussies flower I'll try to do the same thing.

[Banksia_Man]

Anyone out there growing Leptoceras menziesii?  From a single tuber in 2009 I now have 4 plants, all seemingly very small, with single leaves between 1 and 2 cms in length. 

Hi Steve,

L. menziesii was originally classified as Caladenia menziesii (wikipedia). According to The Australasian Native Orchid Society Victorian Group,
"C. menziesii rarely flowers in the wild except after a fire" (p. 72) They too recommend ethylene gas (banana skin) treatment for dormant tuberoids which should be placed in a plastic bag with the banana skin for two weeks prior to planting out and indeed particularly for this species (p. 63) where "spectacular results" have been obtained (photo on p. 71)

They also say that C menziesii need repotting annually and that in the growig season the mixture should be watered sparingly. "Only just moist", never remaining wet, never drying out completely.

Good luck, and I will let you know in 2 years time how I get on!