Schomburkia humboltii hanging from a wire

[Ricardo in PR]

A fully expanded flower, individual flowers last only a few days.

Newly opened flowers have a deep color but quickly become lighter colored as they expand and become older.

I have a large plant of Schomburkia humboltii growing on an avocado tree. A large piece fell last year and I decided to hang it from a wire to see whow it would grow. The the plant grew well with no media at all, although the pseudobulbs didn't grow as large as those in the tree. To my surprise the piece hanging from the wire bloomed with two inflorecences including a branching one, a rare happening.

[Tuvoc-Rno]

Impressive, Ricardo. What a neat 'high wire' act.

Kim

[Ricardo in PR]

Growing this plant hanging from a wire makes it possible to enjoy the flowers better as they end up opening at eye level. The piece of this orchid still attached to the tree produced inflorescences but was at eight feet of height, combining that and the lenght of the inflorescence meant that the flowers were about eleven feet up high in the tree. Last year I had to use a ladder to take photos of the flower and the inflorescences. I will see if smaller pieces also do well when grown this way.

[Mike_B.,Alexandria,VA]

Beautiful! How adaptive orchids can be...
Mike B.

[Jan-Miami]

WOW! What a gorgeous flower!
Have a Schomb. Bryssiana x Humboldti (how it is on the tag) that I attached to a small piece of tree fern about 4 years ago. For the first time, it has two long spikes with blossoms forming. Hoping they are even close to as beautiful.

[tenman*]

Wonderful! How tall is an individual growth at maturity? I want to know how long I have to wait for mine to bloom!!

[Marci in SoFL]

Good idea. Nice to be able to enjoy those lovely blossoms. These schomburgkias really do like to reach for the sky. I get a stiff neck from looking up watching the inflorescences on my tibicinis as they bud up. LOL

[Ricardo in PR]

The plant is in my mother's house, when I visit her next weekend I will measure them and give you an answer.

[Ricardo in PR]

On a close examination of my plant I found that pseudobulbs as small as four inches tall can try to bloom but the inflorescences are always aborted after they have elongated less than an inch. I have only seen full sized inflorescences in canes that are taller than six inches. Due to the conical morphology of the pseudobulbs of this plants the difference between a four and a seven inch one can be huge. Unfortunately Schom. humboltii plants can be shy blooming for reasons that are not clear to me. My plant reached quite a large size, with more than a dozen of pseudobulbs before it started blooming reliably every year.

[tenman*]

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