Sunday, October 3, 2010

Cymbidium dayanum var. album

This is one plant that everyone must have. Anyone will like it for one reason or the other; clean white/ivory flowers, slender shiny foliage or compactness. I got the plant less than a year ago in January of 2010 in a 4 inch pot and it is already in bloom with two racemes. The flowers are short-lived, lasting only about a week ( it lasted about 10 days on mine).


I have it growing under 50% shade nets with about 7 hours of sunlight. It is presently in the tree fern medium i got it in but it should do well in any free draining porous medium: coal, bricks, coco chips about 1 inch in size. It usually blooms in the September-October period during the last month of the monsoons.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Prejith,
    Interesting blog. Will drop in often.
    Regards,
    Nirupama

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  2. Thanks. You are most welcome. No one is an expert in any field. Please feel free to share your opinion.

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  3. Does this species require the cold rest period as most of the Cymbediums or will it flower freely without any special attention? Anyhow this plant is magnificient!!

    Jose

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  4. No, it doesn't. It blooms just after the monsoons. This is the alba form. There is a red form too besides the regular form of the species. Even a specimen sized plant of 30 plus growths can fit into a small 5 inch pot. Very compact.

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  5. Is danyum Heat tolerant?
    For cymbidium aloifolium, what is your prefrence of media for Delhi climate? V.Hot and dry in summers and cool in winters.
    And please share your exp with Hybrids and Heat tolernt cymbs.

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  6. dayanum is heat tolerant. In Kerala once established dayanum can bloom throughout the year. Cym. aloifolium is an epiphyte so you can grow it in a pot with coal and brick pieces. Keep it very wet from June to Sep, moderately wet during Oct and Nov and dry during Dec and Jan with occasional wetting of leaves. Keep it at the border of the greenhouse where it would get a little direct sunlight for an hour or two in the morning. After that 50% shade should do. After it blooms in March, April watering can be resumed.

    Heat tolerant cymbidiums are too vast a subject. Unless you know the background heat tolerant cymbidium species, it would be difficult to understand the concept. Maybe over the next few years once the species get balanced out in the hybrids, then a common culture method can be developed for all of them.

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  7. O! Superb! Mi-as dori si eu!

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