My Slowest Growing Orchids | Species vs. Hybrids - What's Better? 🤔

[@rickl.orchids]

NIcole, you always come up with some great ideas for a video.......I really enjoyed watching and listening to your chat.....slow growers are in every collection....My slow growers are probably the Phals.....they grow well, just not as fast as some other genus.......sometimes its the plant, and sometimes they are missing something.....the 4 you showed are worth the wait, and effort........ some things to consider... the Digbyana I had was mounted and grew like a cattleya....it didnt like being potted...... .....many Paphs are called "Limeys" due to growing on limestone cliffs, and they need a more alkaline media to grow well...Mine were in moss when I got them....I repotted them in lava mixed with limestone chips,.....after reading up on them......the plants grew many shoots and the mottling in the leaves got more color......they also due poorly under LED lighting....stomata issue with red and blue spectrums... .....that Cattleya walkeriana is a sought after orchid, what a beauty....a very nice one....and its also a limestone cliff dweller...again a great show, I love the talks you do......

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@rickl.orchids @rickl.orchids I appreciate your comments as always Rick! Good to know that the Digbyana does well mounted. Someone also suggested that I grow it in a clay pot so it can dry faster. When it's time to repot I'm going to go that route. I'm glad that you figured out your "limeys" that's very good troubleshooting. To get mottling on leaves to improve and better growth by figuring this out, now that's what advanced growing is about. Thank you for sharing all of this, a lot for me to ponder and adjust. Just goes to show you have to be really in tune with species and certain kinds of orchids and what works for the general population, may not work for all of them Have a wonderful weekend!

[@emmanuelV37]

Species do grow so slow but definitely well worth it! Something so special about a species! Also, some slow species that I'm growing are phragmipedium species....they are so picky!

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@emmanuelV37 I hear that a lot about phrags! I had one once and lost it :(

[@emmanuelV37]

@@NicoleDeanna they are tough for sure!

[@shirleyholt898]

Hi Nicole. It’s good to know that I’m not the only one with slow bloomers. I have L. tenebrosa alba `Thanhauser Treasure’ x Brc digbyana alba Mrs Chase. I’ve had it for about 4 to 5 years now and it’s never bloomed. I have 1 Phrag. and 9 Paths. They are slow, but eventually they bloom. My Pathiopedilm Delenatii had 2 blooms on her spike this year. She won’t bloom again until the new growth gets large enough ( 7 to 9) leaves. Thanks for sharing. 👏🥰💐

[@NicoleDeanna]

That first cross sounds beautiful! When they bloom they will be so worth it! Gosh paphs are slow, I need to do better with them :)

[@TerryMcGearyScotland]

Thanks for opening up the world of orchids collection for me. I buy from supermarkets and occasionally garden centres. But the variety is somewhat restricted: phalaenopsis (miniature or large) and Dendrobium . All hybrids I guess. I never see a choice of species. The most exotic I have is the occasionally scented Oncidium (‘dancing lady). Have a super week.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@TerryMcGearyScotland 🤗 you too! Thanks for watching!

[@dsiegel22]

I have a Rhyncholaelia Aristocrat purchased 2 years ago. It had three huge green flowers fragrant strong citrus. It has a large root system but hasn't produced any new growths. It has upright healthy dark green firm leaves. Due to our exceptionally hot weather in SE FL. I am not chancing with too much sunlight exposure. The plant is getting larger but I don't expect any flowers because it isn't showing any new sheaths. In the winter months I plan on slowly acclimating it to more indirect sunlight.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@dsiegel22 that one sounds wonderful. I think it's a cross between Digbyana and Glauca. I hope it blooms for you soon!

[@bmanthegreat00]

Paphiopedilum philippinense for sure. Multiple years for a growth to mature. Surprisingly the flower spike and buds grow fast 🤷‍♂️

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@bmanthegreat00 that's a long time! Man, paphs are notorious for taking forever huh?

[@Joe-nj3bb]

My fastest growing orchids are in an enclosed, eastern facing porch. For July, the average temperature was 79F and the average humidity was 60%. My slowest growing orchids are the hybrid paphs, miltoniopsis, and a pupurata cattleya. My Amazing Thailand cattleya is also pretty slow and it's in the porch.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@Joe-nj3bb I'm not surprised about the paphs! Your summer temps are enviable compared to what we get here 😂😭

[@easyrider8089]

Love tis clip !!! Good info...But your Nails are the Bomb!!! 😵‍💫🤣😵‍💫🤣Aloha and Mahalos from Hawaii ...Love all of your presentations...👍🤙👍🤙💯💯💯

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@easyrider8089 I appreciate that :)

[@bthyme]

I got Rhyncholaelia digbyana x self from Hausermann at least two years ago, maybe more. It has its first flower right now. Awesome. As far as fragrance goes it is infrequent. If is very powerful, but if you are not present when it happens you might not think it has a fragrance. I experienced it in the middle of the day; if it happens at night too bad I am asleep. The leaves look different than yours--more terete like Brassavola. Seedling variation I guess. Also, I have Paph. primulinum that I got from Akatsuka in bloom about a year and a half ago. It is also a sequential bloomer and just kept pushing out new buds on the stem for months. It is taking a rest too, so no bloom this spring. Or maybe I did not give it everything it wanted. We'll see next spring.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@bthyme oh man you're lucky it bloomed so quickly! I can't wait for mine to bloom 😭🥹

[@mirelatrica1892]

Hi !Got a glauca that blooms every 6 months on 2 directions. Got it from Akerne orchids in Eu for 15€ and love it' s night parfume.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@mirelatrica1892 very nice! Can't wait to smell mine!

[@stefpix]

Digbyana grows fast for me, but never flowered. Had it for years. I saw a large plant at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It is very high up. Close to the glass of the conservatory. I saw also a nice plant in the Yucatán. Some lady had it on a branch hanging on the wall of her home. In flower. Likely collected. Although there I saw Brassavola nodosa/grandiflora and Myrmecophila species much more common as orchids in home gardens. I started to fertilize more with kelp and orchid pro. I will see next year. I hear one of the slowest orchids is the Agraecum sesquipedale. I think there is a primary hybrid between R. digbyana and glauca. Also another with Brassavola nodosa. Those may be easier to flower.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@stefpix thanks for sharing! I hope yours flowers soon! I have the brassavola Digbyana cross and it blooms easily! It's the Bc. Jimminy Cricket. It's wonderful! Appreciate you watching :)

[@stefpix]

@@NicoleDeanna what an enabler! I bought one now on eBay. Nice size. And a Dendrobium unicum, which I lusted for years ago. Amazing how the Brassavola is dominant in hybrids with Cattleyas etc. the way the plant looks without the typical pseudobulbs. I just repotted my Brassavola nodosa 4n from Lowe’s and I noticed a spike. It was growing in all directions. Rhyncolaelia Aristocrat is the hybrid between digbyana and glauca. The flowers do not look as striking. But maybe it flowers more easily. Better than no flowers at all! I put my digbyana outside with southern exposure. I give it a lot of light. But I found out some orchids don’t bloom if given too much light. It was useful to see species in situ in Mexico. Even the full sun Myrmecophila species were growing on the lower branches of the red mangroves. The spikes with the flowers were very long, raising above the canopy. But the plant itself was in some shade. Anyway your videos are very inspiring. You have a very good set up, approach and organized set up. Thank you!

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@stefpix I smiled reading you message, I'm so glad you enjoy the videos. Thank you for watching 🤗

[@RobertaOrchid1]

Yup, makes a lot of sense! I have a few species that are slow to grow and some that I am waiting to flower after many years… phaphiopedilum phillipenense, laelia purpurata ‘carnea’, laelia anceps ‘vietchiana’ to name a few.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@RobertaOrchid1 they are rewarding when they bloom though :)

[@justinsdutchtropics]

Spot on Nicole! I used to be such a species snob, best thing I ever did was to start growing hybrids though I do still love the species. Keep up the good work, love your content

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@justinsdutchtropics I like a mixture of both, but if I didn't have hybrids I'd probably give up on the hobby lol

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@justinsdutchtropics and thank you so much for the lovely comment ☺️

[@user-yj9tx9xg8b]

I love your channel, the plants are so beautiful 🎉

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@user-yj9tx9xg8b TYSM ❤️

[@kat1984]

My collection is young. So far, my tolumnias are the slowest.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@kat1984 I need to try tolumnias again, I only had one and killed it long ago lol, I must try again!

[@zeldakasumi]

I have an Oeceoclades Yoko. It puts out about one new growth per year for me, but that's a-okay because I grow this special miniature for its leaves. I also have a Paphiopedilum delenatii, which is well know to be slow growing even for a Paph, but I also grow it for its leaves, so once again, I'm pleased just looking at its lovely leaf mottling.❤

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@zeldakasumi I want that one! I hear it smells good too (Delenatii)

[@zeldakasumi]

@@NicoleDeanna I'm looking forward to the scent being a nice bonus whenever it does manage to bloom. Its leaves are pretty and striking in pattern, so it's not a boring looking Paph in the meantime. I grow it next to a window, so it's naturally growing away from me and facing the window, but the back/underside of the leaves has a different pattern than the front so it's fun to look at from all angles and inviting to pick up every once in awhile to enjoy the different patterns.

[@SVKLOrchids]

Is it possible to get the digbyana, glauca, and walkeriana into hotter and brighter conditions? You might also consider getting them into clay pots when you repot them next time so they dry quicker. They should grow more quickly under those conditions!

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@SVKLOrchids they are definitely in hot and bright situations, but I can repot them next time into clay! They were both in semi hydro in the beginning so maybe that's what stalled them! Do you find they grow fast for you? Seeing mixed comments with some folks agreeing and some folks do better with them! Will let them dry out more! Thanks Svk!

[@rutherosado8718]

I found some interesting information regarding walkerianas and that is that they need total darkness at night in order to bloom.

[@SVKLOrchids]

@@NicoleDeanna Yes, mine grow extremely fast in the Texas heat and sun! It’s definitely possible the s/h set them back. Still, one growth per year is really slow. Hopefully they pick up the pace as the root system gets larger.

[@SVKLOrchids]

@@rutherosado8718 Yes, this is true for the pure species. The alba that Nicole has is a known hybrid with loddigesii, so the night light issue should not be a problem.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@SVKLOrchids thank you for this. Gosh, I wish I knew semi hydro had these draw backs before I tried it 🥹 Appreciate your feedback! Let's see how it goes!

[@LaplaceDaemon]

There is a good chance my slowest growing plant will be R. glauca i only had it for 2 month so i don’t really know how fast it is yet. Otherwise i‘m only growing orchids that are fragrant species orchids, but from genera that grow very quickly (mostly Masdevallia and Sobralia) and they generally all quadruple in mass each year. I do however have orchids that take their time with blooming and am having the funny experience that you probably only get with Sobralia where your orchid is taller than you without its pot, but hasn’t flowered yet and might in fact not be flowering size.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@LaplaceDaemon it takes time for orchids to adjust, sometimes two months isn't enough. Masdevalias are so cool, I wish I could grow them here but my temps don't suit them well.

[@LaplaceDaemon]

@@NicoleDeanna You can if temperatures are the only issue. Masdevallia is a very big genus and although a random Masdevallia is more likely to be cool growing than not there are as many warm or warm-intermediate growing Masdevallias as there are phalaenopsis species. The very fragrant Masdevallia mejiana for example comes from altitudes of only 500-800m and doesn’t even like it cool. It’s just the large flowered neon-colored ones (ignea, veitchiana, coccinea…) that are consistently cool growing but those aren’t fragrant so i am not interested anyway.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@LaplaceDaemon thank you for that, I'll look into this!

[@f.dangerfield3549]

Have never gotten a Richard Mueller to bloom...

[@judycook4314]

Me either! Why????

[@NicoleDeanna]

They are easy growers usually, the biggest troubleshooting thing I find is that light is usually not enough when you're not getting blooms and it's pushing out decent growths. I hope they bloom for you!! They are some of the most vigorous orchids in my collection

[@richarddrake9650]

Ive got a slow grower.

[@janicelindegard6615]

I feel like they are ALL slow, except for a dendrobium hybrid and an oncidium I bought from Carmela's Orchids at least four years ago. None of the cattleyas have bloomed. :( I think 2025 could be the year. Lol.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@janicelindegard6615 it will be the year you get them to bloom and you will be over the moon!!!

[@jacklin5661]

Your pharg’s leaves are limp might be too much light. It happened to mine and when I moved it, the leaves returned their stiffness.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@jacklin5661 thank you for that, is definitely on bright light, I'll try to pull it back!

[@susanh9082]

Please tell me where you get all your Richard Muellers. They are beautiful and I have only found three

[@judycook4314]

Ebay has them if you want to try that route. Maybe Etsy also. I got some from Sunset Valley Orchids.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@susanh9082 sunset valley, Hausermann and Bag Babies :)

[@judycook4314]

I really, really don't appreciate it when I get two orchids in a pot to make it appear as though the "plant" is larger. Also, it seems that so many sellers only have seedlings. I'm 72 - I don't want seedlings!

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@judycook4314 I completely understand! I think sometimes it's not on purpose but they are tangled within each other. I didn't notice it until the plant was larger and I was able to separate them!

[@MSgrismelda]

Definitely the digbyana is soooooo slow I had a seedling and after like 3 years in semy hydro she die... So. Have other bigger now from Letstalkplants and she looks amazing

[@MSgrismelda]

Also the Glauca Maria gave me one that bloomed for me and was gorgeous

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@MSgrismelda I can't wait for them to bloom for us!!

[@hillbillyorchids]

Great video! My digbyana grows pretty fast. It worries me yours isn't healthy cause of where it came from. 😢 glauca i recently received so i cant attest to how fast or slow yet. Mine is smaller than yours though 😂 so that worries me!😂😂😂

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@hillbillyorchids thanks for that Paula! That's helpful to know. I'm seeing mixed comments on this one! Svk said it may grow faster if I get it in clay and let it dry. How long did it take for you to bloom it?

Nicole, também acho as walkerianas muito, muito lentas. Tenho algumas mudas e, com sorte, soltam um broto por ano, apenas. Nas condições do meu apartamento, as mudas de vanda e uma muda de cattleya tigrina são ainda mais lentas que as walkerianas. Por outro lado, as oncidiums e phalaenopsis são muito rápidas e vigorosas, mesmo quando são mudas.

[@NicoleDeanna]

As especies sāo assim ne? Eu tb acho que as phals e oncidiums sao muito mais facil de cultivar. Um beijo amigo!

@@NicoleDeanna Como só cultivo orquídeas há dois anos, ainda estou aprendendo como elas se desenvolvem. Sobre as oncidiums, essas são impressionantes aqui no meu apartamento, já tive 4 delas se desenvolvendo a partir de um único bulbo cada uma.

[@denisesase]

One of my hariba type Vanda falcatas purchased as a tiny single growth, it's painfully slow 😑.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@denisesase oh man! I understand that haha

[@denisesase]

@@NicoleDeanna 😄

[@crazykittensmiles]

The only orchids I can buy where I am are 9 times out of 10 seedling. They show them full grown and then you receive something like 3 inches big. It's frustrating. 😐

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@crazykittensmiles seedlings take so long 😭 Hybrid seedlings grow much faster, but I understand this struggle!

[@lisaallen7219]

I have a rhynchostylis gigantea red. 12:05 I was told that it's a slow grower. Is amazing Thailand Rainbow orchid a slow growing? I have a seedling the new leaf is growing slowly.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@lisaallen7219 I'm not familiar with Thailand rainbow, but I've heard of rhynchostylis being very slow 🦥

[@crazykittensmiles]

What does species orchid mean?

[@denisesase]

It means that this type of plant exists in the wild. You'll also see them referred to as botanical orchids. Most species orchids on sale are grown in a laboratory since it's usually illegal to harvest wild orchids. You'll see non-species plants (such as man made crosses between different species, or even natural crosses) referred to as hybrids. There's a lot of intricacy to this such as hybrids between different genera, but hope my basic explanation helps.

[@NicoleDeanna]

@@crazykittensmiles what Denise said is correct :)