Want a Fragrant Orchid? Grow This Easy-to-Care-for Variety Now! (Prosthechea (Encyclia) radiata)

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

For more orchid content (especially for those growing in a similar unsuitable climate!), head over to this playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLQKwmNwb1T5AoQ8ULP0fzpLOJu7RWlw0G

[@nancyjohnston4661]

The easier it is to grow the better I like it. I love fragrance too. Thank you for the video.

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

I totally agree!😁

[@irinagorlovitski-orchidsho1561]

I don't care what others say, if I like it I grow it. And I do!!!

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

That's the way to be. We're not sheep after all...🤷‍♂️ 🐏 🤣

[@mkuc6951]

x1000 absolutely

[@gloria225]

The fragrance sounds great and yes I would have one for my small collection 😊

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

Glad to hear it. Gloria, although some people hate the scent! 🤷‍♂️

[@TrishsOrchidLife]

It is a beautiful orchid…glad it is doing well for you.

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

I have to have the odd success now and again...🤣

[@TrishsOrchidLife]

@@Grow_Up_Man55 more success than “opportunities”

[@lucythecat529]

I have one of these that is doing well. Enjoyed your video Geoff! It is a pretty hardy plant and I don’t find it too fussy!

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

It certainly seems to to have quite a wide tolerance outside of 'recommended' care requirements. Couldn't ask for more.🤷‍♂️

[@jaybudd1617]

I'll have to see if I can find this orchid over here across the pond.

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

That's where they grow so you wouldn't think there'd be much of an issue. Hope you find it, Jay!

[@patsones6950]

Thanks for the video - very interesting to hear how you care for it. I have Prosthechea radiata "Winter's Lace", a winter flowering clone. This year it flowered in March. I think the fragrance is fabulous. I will look out for the basic species like yours. My thoughts are that I want to grow orchids well, so if they are relatively easy to grow, all the better. Please could you show the Dendrobium farmeri in your next video. I bought a mature plant earlier in the year but no flowers yet. A video on the care of this plant would be useful to me.

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

Thanks Pat. I've just google that one but it doesn't appear anywhere in the results so it looks like you have the only specimen!!🤣 As it happens my next video is sort of a July update on things - just a leisurely wander around the changes and new blooms and the very first plant I picked up was my Dendrobium farmeri. I'll add your suggestion to my list - thanks for making it - they're always welcome.

[@patsones6950]

@@Grow_Up_Man55 I bought it from Burnhams Sept 2019.

[@lesleyannhartman762]

Lovely plant and I’m not put off at all if it is easy to grow (i’m just branching out into other species from Phals and Dendrobiums). Thank you 😊

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

Good for you Lesley - me neither!😀

[@maxineevans9179]

Hi Geoff, I think I'll definitely have to add this one to my collection and I'll blame you entirely for making me get one 😁. Nothing wrong with a hard to kill /easy to grow orchid at all. I do like a challenge and it's definitely very satisfying growing a rarer, harder to keep plant but nothing wrong with keeping stress levels low and choosing something you can almost forget about 🤣. Speaking of stress levels 😩, my Stardust (aka the hardest orchid ever lol) is still hanging on in there! The three low down keikis have rooted well in the pot and are now producing their own new growths at bark level too! Even though the main canes are just desiccated sticks in the pot lol, I'm leaving the keikis attached and not removing them. I've not been able to grow any off the mother plant and I've had loads to try and experiment with! Fingers crossed I'll get a decent looking plant again one day and one that actually likes my environment as what's left has effectively all been grown in my care now 😊. Happy (and hopefully) stress free growing to you 🏵️🌿🌻🌳🌹😊

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

You can't have one Maxine - it's very rare - I have the only plant in the northern hemisphere 🤣. Well done with the Den. Stardust - I think you must have the secret sauce. Let me know when it bloometh and we'll crack open a Bollinger to celebrate. (No idea what a Bollinger is, nor if I'd like it, but it makes me sound sophisticated.)🍾

[@maxineevans9179]

@@Grow_Up_Man55 Ooooo... Get you 😂 You sound amazingly sophisticated Geoff 😁 and we'll definitey do that when we find out what it is 🤔🍾🥂😂. I'm gutted that you have the only one in existence and that I'll never get one 😁😉... Guess I'll stick to stress inducing plants fur now then and just hope that I'll find one of these amazingly rare plants sometime soon 😁.

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

@@maxineevans9179 Always tricky to sound sophisticated with a northern accent - maybe I need elocution lessons. How now brown cow... 🐮

[@maxineevans9179]

@@Grow_Up_Man55 I think your accent is great 😊. If we all sounded the same, the world would be a very boring place! Keep on being you 😊.

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

@@maxineevans9179 I tried being Brad Pitt once but failed miserably...

[@edwardwiper1323]

You heard the saying "suit the wearer bugger the carer".If it gives pleasure i don't think it really matters about the ease with which its grown🤗

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

Never heard that phrase in 52 years, Edward! 🤣 Maybe it's a Cumbrian thing?? Yeah I agree it's all about what brings you joy. Like money. Although I have more success with plants than money...🤣

[@edwardwiper1323]

@@Grow_Up_Man55 Probably just a Yorkshire saying😁

[@babyashy0802]

Very informative 😉. I only have 1 encyclia in my collection and that is Enc. Rioclarense 'Cordigera'. Need to add a few more.

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

Thanks Niury!🙏 Mine isn't an Encyclia any more of course - even though it looks like one. I've just looked yours up - lovely blooms.🌺

[@babyashy0802]

@@Grow_Up_Man55 yeah I heard that 🙂 Thanks for stopping by 💞

[@davedelgado708]

I love your prosthechea radiata, I find it so compact, mine blooms with more separated flowers. Also, I've never smelled 2 that smell alike, they vary in my opinion from horse manure to vanilla marshmallows to cinnamon. Very curious.

[@davedelgado708]

Also, about the rarity, it was my first not phalaenopsis orchid, and a persistant and always awaited bloomer. If you look for rarities there are other anacheililium like trulla, fragrand or baculus, but they're not as classic

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

Haha! Well, there's quite a difference in scent there - no wonder some people claim they smell of sewer gas! Pleased (and relieved!) that mine smells of all things nice. Although I'd like cinnamon one - who doesn't love cinnamon??👃

[@sazji]

“Gardenia or sewer gas.” 😅 Amazing how differently people can perceive scents! (I have a hoya that one friend finds to be delicious and floral, but to me it smells like straight-up cat litter box…) As for rarity snobbery: I grow the plants I like. Focusing on rarity as a virtue in itself can, I think, blind us to a plant’s beauty. I might not fill my space with white grocery store Phalaenopsis that I can see every day, but if that’s what someone loves, then that’s what they should grow! (I’m old enough to remember the days before tissue culture, when those weren’t considered boring at all!) I do find that many “musts” in horticulture can be taken with a grain of salt. Someone succeeds with something and then people assume that that is the only thing that works. Thanks for your information and observations!

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

Yes agreed. Rarity is subjective and also an ever moving target as tissue culture steps in. I always try to talk culture from my own perspective and in my own conditions as you say - even a slight difference in any of a multitude of growth factors can play a significant role in success or failure. And thank goodness otherwise we plant folks would have nothing to talk about!🤷‍♂️🤣

[@lucythecat529]

I equate rare with a fussy plant so it may most likely put me off. I don’t care as long as I like it and that it is something I think I can grow.

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

I guess if something's truly rare it's unlikely to be for sale on Ebay! 🤣 What puts me off purchasing very often is if I consider the cost to be too much of a risk. Nepenthes are good examples of that where they can be well over £100 for a teeny tiny plant but it's not guaranteed they'll survive, and you could be waiting years for it to actually grow. A step too far perhaps?

[@lucythecat529]

@@Grow_Up_Man55 I agree!!

[@leafman2312]

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

😀

[@michaelmccarthy4077]

It isn't the fact that it isn't rare that puts me off, I just don't happen to like it. Now prismatocarpa I do like and they are fairly similar in their cultural requirements.

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

Just looked that one up - lovely thing. Can't find it for sale anywhere. The nearest I came was a Prosthechea cochleata which although looking very different is still a rather nice bloom. Seeing as they grow native near you, can't you just nip round to the local park and grab one off a tree?🤷‍♂️🤣

[@SemihydroponicswithSma]

Love it. First I don't like the word rare. Is used too much in the plant community for anything ignoring his real meaning.... Anyway, I will grow anything that I like🙃 like that orchid that you have and I don't 😒

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

Haha! A lot of the blame comes from Spicesotics - the ebay seller who preface every one of their orchids with the word 'rare' - although I have some sympathy for them with my business head on. I agree with you totally - but you've got to admit, it would be nice to have something in bloom that everyone else says is impossible to grow! Maybe that's just me being ambitious...🤷‍♂️

[@SemihydroponicswithSma]

@@Grow_Up_Man55 agreed. They are using the word way too much. And almost nothing is actually rare....but they come with a good amount of spider mites, mealybugs and scale 😒 What is the most difficult plant that you couldn't manage to grow in the greenhouse?

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

@@SemihydroponicswithSma I'd love to get into succulents but it's just too humid in there and they'd all rot! Plus, you really can't grow everything. 🤷‍♂️

[@SemihydroponicswithSma]

@@Grow_Up_Man55 I grow succulents and they are doing great. Maybe you should try stapelia. But do you have a plant that you bought more times and didn't manage to grow in the green house or she didn't thrive?

[@Grow_Up_Man55]

@@SemihydroponicswithSma I think you already know about my ups and downs with Miltoniopsis. They look great for even up to a couple of years then decline within a couple of months never to return! 😩