Pleione 2012

[ThomasB]

Some colourful Pleiones to brighten a dull and grey day here:

Kenya 'Bald Eagle'
Orizaba 'Fish Eagle'
Quizapu 'Peregrine'

[ThomasB]

Shasta
Kilauea 'Curlew'
Santorini

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Karel,
I take your point, I think it all shows the difficulty of identifying things when there is some reason to doubt. There is no way to be sure about these (the supplier believes he sowed scopulorum, but of course a bee may have been in the flower before him...). Maybe when we get to the days of "Home DIY genome sequencing kits" we can make some progress!!

Kind regards

Paul

[karel_t]

Hi Paul,
Yes, you are right, there is no way to be sure about these. We can't say anything about an authenticity of the parents. The supplier can believe, hi has the true plant, however, we all know, that many of plants in European nurseries (mainly in Germany) origin from China (Chen Yi etc.) and there is too many mistakes with authenticity  .
So, let's bury the hatchet  

Cheers

Karel

Here are some the first swallows from my greenhouse:
Eiger 'Snowflake'
Kituro 'Sulphur'
Lhasa 'Blushes'
forrestii
Sharon Ann Winter 'Marsh Owl'

[Maren]

Hi Karel,

good decision. 

You've got some nice pleiones there, Sharon Ann Winter 'Marsh Owl' is a new one to me. Looks lovely.

[karel_t]

Thanks Maren. Sharon Ann Winter 'Marsh Owl' is nice Ian's selection with really robust and wide lip. It's flowering for me the first time.

Last time I touch back the previous problem. I think we should label all plants like this as Pleione aff. scopulorum to sign - it could be, but we are not sure.
K.

[ThomasB]

I do like Kituro 'Sulphur' a lot! Something to look out for. 

Some new ones are flowering here: Deriba (surprisingly small flower), Zeus Weinstein and the most beautiful Santorini beside the clone 'Yellow Wagtail' (at least in my opinion  )

[ThomasB]

I almost forgot one I'm not sure about it's identity.
Got this as the cross speciosa Red Leaf x forrestii. If P. speciosa is just a form of P. pleionoides the grex name would be Tacana but it looks entirely unlike the pictures I found online. 

[Slug Killer]

Pleione Santorini Yellow Wagtail. Low in the pot as I was running out of bark and these were the last to be potted up.

[Darren]

Pleione Santorini Yellow Wagtail. Low in the pot as I was running out of bark and these were the last to be potted up.

That's lovely David and one to look out for.

 Your bark shortage reminds me that the best potful of Pleione I ever grew was a few loose bulbs of formosana 'discovered' (well into growth) after I'd finished my potting up some years ago. I had nothing free-draining enough to pot them in except we had a sackful of quite strawy horse manure in the shed so I plonked the pseudobulbs in a potful of this. I expected to roots to die off in contact with such a medium but to my surprise they made great roots, leaves 45cm long and new pseudobulbs the size of a satsuma with three flower shoots each.

I've never had the nerve to repeat it!

[Slug Killer]

May have to try some horse manure in my mix now.

Unregistered cross between Ueli Wackernagel x Shantung by Peter Bradbury.

[monocotman]

Darren -it sounds like we've not really tapped the potential of pleiones for growth with current techniques.
I remember Maggie saying they fed and fed some pleiones as an experiment some years ago and produced huge bulbs but which subsequently didn't flower that well.
Maybe you've found the secret! A very airy rich free draining compost. I will probably try feeding some of my plants this year along the lines of hybrid cyps - full rate every couple of weeks and see what happens.
Anyway - the photo is of a couple of clones from Paul of the hybrid Muriel (aurita x grandiflora).
Again these are flowering on smallish bulbs so should improve in size next year.
Flowers are pretty similar to Maren's posted recently. I really like this cross - the flowers are like a pale aurita and sit up well,

Regards,

David

[Tim Harberd]

Hi Folks,
   Here are a couple which aren't full pans. Both shot without flash, so the inner lips are a bit shaded:
   The wonderful ‘Ducat’ (R6.35), a real gold standard! Here at full stretch (105mm across) I guess most of you know it, but I'm so pleased to see it again… I only got one flower last year. (Rather a lot of pink on the side petals this year.)
   The other one is an un-named P. marco polo (H168.2) A bit on the small side (It will go to 95mm). I’m a sucker for any pleione which faces up on a decent stem. This one’s only fault (as far as I’m concerned) is its slow to multiply.

   Regarding David comments about growing pleiones… I gave some to a friend who grows them in her bathroom. I’ve not seen them myself for some years, but she says  they’re doing fine, with, as far as I can work out, no special ‘orchid’ care at all. I’ve commented before on this website, how, when photographing P. bulbocodioides in the wild, I took great care to keep the Coelogynes out of the frame! Another thing: I don’t think its possible to raise Pleione seed without supplementary heat. The only success I’ve had is when I gave some phials of media to my father (as a joke present). My parents keep their place much warmer than I do, which (to me) begs the question about what ambient temperature Pleiones prefer.

Tim DH

[Graham Catlow]

Pleione Santorini Yellow Wagtail. Low in the pot as I was running out of bark and these were the last to be potted up.

That's lovely David and one to look out for.

 Your bark shortage reminds me that the best potful of Pleione I ever grew was a few loose bulbs of formosana 'discovered' (well into growth) after I'd finished my potting up some years ago. I had nothing free-draining enough to pot them in except we had a sackful of quite strawy horse manure in the shed so I plonked the pseudobulbs in a potful of this. I expected to roots to die off in contact with such a medium but to my surprise they made great roots, leaves 45cm long and new pseudobulbs the size of a satsuma with three flower shoots each.

I've never had the nerve to repeat it!

I read a couple of years ago about Nic van den Bosch, in Tasmania who used horse manure topped with sphagnum moss for his orchids. It appears the article is no longer available but I found a link that explains it.
Has anyone other than Darren ever tried it?

[Slug Killer]

Tim my flasking cupboard is around 20 degrees Celsius.

Pleione Mageik 'Black' seems to be stuck and will not open any more.
Pleione Kyoto which is another from Paul.