Episode19 I had to split up my Bifrenaria harrisoniae 'Alba'

[@justtryandtaste8927]

I am always amazed by your collections, so much variety and in good condition. Mr. Howard, could you please next time give us tour inside of your greenhouse so we can have ideas how to put such a large collection in 'small' place? Thank you and very lovely video as usual.

[@michelleslifeonrepeat]

KZbin recommend your channel. Great to meet other orchid growers and KZbinrs. That is a beautiful flower. Thanks for sharing.

[@HowardRice]

Thanks Michelle

[@zs1dfr]

With tongue firmly in cheek, Howard, and bearing in mind their Latin names, pubescens reaches "puberty" and develops into a beautiful (bella) hybrid! Thanks for the wonderful descriptive videos. I am SO jealous!

[@Hlegzudas]

The Cattleya love knot is really really beautiful! Good you could save her!

[@HowardRice]

I saved one section and it is doing fine and flowering again but the smaller division that I thought I had saved ended up dying when some water lodged in a new growth. I'm really really careful now when watering it even in summer.

[@newmanmansell760]

I enjoyed watching😌🙏Your Bifrenaria is beautiful! I understand the shock such orchids go through when divided. My cattleya got an attack of rot after repotting 2 years ago and I had cut off almost every cane. I kept it on the dry side in a lot of airflow until after it seemed like a year it recovered and is now quite a specimen in my collection

[@HowardRice]

In hindsight I wish I'd just left it be and taken bits off the edge to grow new ones rather than completely redoing it. I've started doing this with my huge Prosthechea radiata. This is also in a basket. I think the situation is probably different if plants are grown it pots where the interior can degrade and become a soggy mass. So, conversely, these days I try to repot my potted plants more frequently than in the past. There's a lot to learn and everyones conditions are different.

[@tomfurmby88]

hi howard, I also got the harveyanum, for its supposed scent and it is there but extremely faint. A much stronger one should be the dendrobium aggregatum but one I can highly recommend is a dendrobium chrysanthum, you will love it, it grows really vigorously, big and has a very powerful fragrance but that one really is short lived.

[@elzooostland5833]

Subscribed and liked. Also like scented orchids very much. I’ve been watching your other video’s aswell. Now got several new orchids to look for:) Looking forward to your next video.

[@HowardRice]

Thanks for subscribing. Glad you found them useful.

[@LauraStansfield-tw7xb]

I really enjoyed this episode with the maintenance updates and hearing how you dealt with your orchids in troubling situations cause that’s a major part of growing and it can be discouraging when you think it’s just happening to you. But also wanted to say that is really cool about the cross pollination! I didn’t know you could send it off somewhere?! I just knew it was much too involved and scientific for me to try and take on and attempt. Would love to know how the seed pods develop. -L

[@HowardRice]

Hi Laura. Thank you so much for all your recent kind comments. I'm glad you find my vidoes interesting and enjoyable. I have, actually, just recently had a flask of seedlings back from the lab where the seeds from that cross pollination were grown. I've potted them up and will have to include a mention in a video soon. Thankyou for reminding me.

[@LauraStansfield-tw7xb]

@@HowardRice look forward to it! It’s nice to be acknowledged, thank you!

[@4leo1]

Teach us how to make those boxes!

[@HowardRice]

Good suggestion. I"ll bear it in mind for sometime in the future. In the meantime there are already several videos on making orchid baskets if you do a search.

[@4leo1]

@@HowardRice I KNOW but there’s something about your approach that’s so calming and down to earth. And you share an interest in Mini Orchids! Your green house is a dream!

[@MilanOfCreagan]

any update on those seed pods? this cross been registered in 1998 as Polystachya Rodney Ellis.

[@HowardRice]

I sent them off to Orchid Alchemy and they germinated but I haven't had any back yet.

[@VicariousAdventurer]

Orchids are slow to forgive and forget

[@carold.8782]

How do you get the Bifrenaria to bloom? I've had one for years, but never a flower!

[@HowardRice]

Hi Carol. I had this problem for several years. They need a dry winter rest. I now stop watering mine at Christmas and start watering again in spring when the flower spikes are quite well developed. This worked for me and also for Cambridge Botanic Gardens who also had the same problem. I hope it works for you.

[@carold.8782]

@@HowardRice Thank you for the reply. I did fairly recently repot and divide mine, it seemed happy enough, but will I need to let it get big before it's likely to bloom? And it's currently in a pot, should I get a basket for it and wait until next year to try to get it to bloom? Yours are gorgeous!

[@HowardRice]

@@carold.8782 The plants in Cambridge Botanic Gardens are in pots and they do fine. I just like the look of baskets and it seems a more natural way to grow them (if you have high humidity to go with it). I think they need to be well settled and almost bursting out of their container to flower well and they hate being divided. It will be another couple of years before mine perform as well as they used to. When I first bought it it was a 3 or 4 bulb division and it took years to get going.

[@carold.8782]

@@HowardRice Thanks so much! When I got it years ago, I couldn't find any information on how to get it to flower. At least I know what to do now! The divisions did send up new growth and roots quite madly so I'm reasonably sure they'll all do well, even if I have to wait for flowers.

[@bildahome]

Yeh, well Orchids are different to partners, maybe this one told you the same thing but its better to not propagate but embrache it. Love Hendrik