Australian native terrestrial orchids

[Darren]

You have done a great job of photographing that Paul. It is an awkward little thing to photograph isn't it? . It doesn't do too well for me, and I only get flowers occasionally. Though it does set seed I don't get any volunteer seedlings either. 

[Darren]

Paul, could you tell us about the compost you use for these orchids please? I'm always after ideas!

The Victoria group of the ANOS produced a great little book some years ago on growing Australian native orchids - do you follow this with your cultivation? The terrestrial compost they suggest seemed a bit complicated to me.

[Paul T]

Darren,

Yep, it isn't an easy one to photograph.    I think mine regularly set seed.  Mine came in naturally from outside somewhere originally, and I saw them regularly in client's garden when I used to run a garden maintenance business as well.  They multiply quite healthily vegetatively as well I find.  I haven't actually set up a pot of them for display purposes or anything, but probably should one year as I think they could be rather nice in a mass.

[Paul T]

Darren,

I buy a commercial "native" potting mix (i.e low phosphorus), nothing special at all and available in bags at most nurseries.  I don't do anything special for them at all.  I am unsure whether the phosphorus could be a problem at all to them (I don't think so to be honest) but I play it safe by using the native mix.  When potting I give them a bit of pelletised chicken manure and a soil wetting agent to stop the mix becoming hydrophobic..... which is exactly what I do with all my bulbs, except with those I add a bulb food in there as well.  I basically treat them just like I do my other potted plants.

I also realise that probably isn't a lot of help to you.  I think the main thing is to have good drainage, and good light.  I grow mine in a shade house, but on the top shelf so that they get plenty of sun.  They get repotted the years I get around to it, often about the time I notice leaves starting to appear and I realise that I haven't gotten to it (always much easier at this point to find the tubers as well, because they all have shoots on them and are clearly visible).  I have to repot everything this coming year as I have shoots coming out of the drainage holes at the bottom of pots all over the place. 

Is any of that info useful?

[Darren]

Yes Paul, it is useful actually. I'm pretty sure I underfeed mine and your use of pelleted chicken manure is interesting. I've not tried using anything like that with mine (they get dilute liquid feed when I remember). I may give it a whirl next year thanks.

I think bird manure is so high in phosphorus that you must be correct about the orchids not minding it too. Would you add chicken manure to non-orchids that really don't like phosphorus - such as the Proteacea, if you grow them? I think my own attempts to grow Proteas in pots failed because I was too scared to feed them!

I know what you mean about repotting too.  I can't leave it for too long though. The compost I use for these plants makes a great seed compost for every weed in the vicinity. Once it gets to the point where I can't tell what is a thelymitra leaf and what is grass then I am forced to do the whole collection at once otherwise the grass seeds in from the untouched pots and I'm back to square one.

[Paul T]

 

The pelletised chicken manure is safe for low phosphorus plants.  Obviously enough there needs to be a level of care using it.... I'm sure they'd die if you planted them into straight pellets.    Certianly things like my Proteaceae will get the pellets when repotting, along with a low phosphorus granular slow release fertiliser.

Having my native terrestrial orchids in the shadehouse at least helps keep some of the main seeds out.  Even in the sunshine at the top of the shadehouse I still get lots of moss in winter, but it soon dies off again in summer when the moisture levels are cut right down.

[Darren]

Mine are in the greenhouse too Paul but there are always grasses around in other pots or usually in the sand plunge to provide seeds. I am fairly convinced that they arrive in poorly sterilised loam based compost. They do die off in summer but seedlings reappear at the first sign of moisture in autumn. Usually not too many but they build up over a couple of years and I can't keep up with weeding them out..

I tried to fool them one year by watering and then waiting until the seeds germinated before going over everything lightly with a hot-air paint stripping gun before the bulb/orchid shoots appeared. Worked for a while

[daveyp1970]

heres my P.truncata
im sorry about the size but haven't worked out yet how to do the thumbnail thing

edited by maggi to add photo as thumbnail


click the thmbnail to enlarge

[Darren]

Nice one Davey. Fascinating little plants aren't they? And the flowers last for several weeks too!

[daveyp1970]

Darren they are fantastic its the first Pterostylis that i have flowered and i am hooked,are they all fairly straight forward to grow or is there tricky ones i should wait until i've gained enough experiance with the easy ones first?
Cheers Maggi for that i will suss out how to thumbnail.

[LarsB]

SOme of my Pterostylis has started to flower. As previously proven: I'm a lousy photographer.

Pterostylis obtusa:



Pterostylis truncata:

[Paul T]

Lars,

I find the Pterostylis are particularly hard to photograph well, regardless of how good or bad a photographer you are.  They're an odd shape and colour, and it isn't easy to represent them well.  Your pics are just fine!!

[fredg]

I had Pterostylis coccinea ( or is it Diplodium coccinum?) In flower in August / September.
I have P. truncata and P. curta preparing to flower.
I must say that they're very slow to develop the flowers, it's like watching paint dry.

[Paul T]

Fred,

Yeah, they do seem to take a while don't they.  Although some of them are far quicker than others.  Very nice pic by the way.

[Darren]

Davey,

I find they are easy for a while..... Then for some reason some seem to just 'crash'. I've had this happen a few times. I do wonder about virus (Pterostylis are supposedly vulnerable to them) but never saw any mottling or other warning signs. Ironically I recently got P. coccinea back from a group member I had given plants to before losing all mine.

You are doing well already - the autumn ones can be trickier to flower than the spring ones so I'd certainly recommend P curta or the hybrids 'Nodding Grace' or 'Bantam' if you can get them. These have persisted with me  for 15 years now.