Beautiful blooms and beautiful grand daughter
My first bloom
Agreed on both counts! What a sweetie!
Definitely, both gorgeous!
Found this latest Neon Smile blooming today--7-8-13. bob
:-)
14 blooms tonight from 2 Oxypetalums. Beautiful!
Glad I can look at yours! Mine is blooming too, but if I went out there with a flashlight to see it, there would probably be a police helicopter hovering overhead soon. LOL!
I love it! I have 3 new buds on my epi strictum, but none of the others have bloomed.
oh my those blooms are beautiful
I have a pagoda frame in my yard that has 8 large epies Oxy hanging around the metal frame. Tonight I have 23 blooms around the frame. I had 10 last night. Beautiful1
more
More:
Gazebo plant house
Beautiful!! And what a great place to put your plants. What comes around to pollinate? Moths?
Bats are the natural choice but I do little to encourage them!
That is a beautiful site.
In my mind I see a tea glass and a swing and wonderful smells. Being very peaceful and the world just passing by. .
Now I gotta buy lumber to make me a pagota or frame of some sort for hanging flowers.
I also need to win the lottery.
When should I start changing the fertilizer ? And what temp,drop should I bring them in.?
TIA
Lavina
Wow! That is stunning. I gotta show your pics to hubby! Mine are looking better and I have one epi strictum that finally started blooming. It had 5 flowers at once and that was amazing.
I can't believe this ackermani. Bloomed all Spring and now budding again.
This plant has bloomed 4 times this year. Picture 1 is today's (Jan 2, 2014) single bloom. Pictures 2 and three are from August 2013. In August, it was hard to count the number of blooms! Blooms in mid winter are truly a blessing and help bridge the long wait for spring.
Wow! They must love that green house! Mine only give me one season per year.
April Showers is budding like crazy. epies are on the way!
Well, we seem to have skipped winter this year, so I'm getting buds here too. Way early...
This is great forum. I've been growing three diff types of Epis for about 8 years and look forward to buds in April each year. About three years ago a bought a bunch of cuttings from a grower in CA and this year I'm getting buds in February. I had some bloom in January.
Am I right in thinking that with enough diff. varieties I can have blooms all year round.
Do other Epi growers have this same obsession I have that I need to keep making more plants and taking more cuttings. I'm running out of space.
Microb: Epies are an obsession that won't let go! I now have around 600 plants and 395 hybrids. In Hawaii, you may be able to grow your plants in the trees year round as long as they are shaded and temps don't freeze. Epies love cool weather down to around 36* F. They love it outside whenever possible. I rely on a home built greenhouse which serves me well right now. There are a number of hybrids that have been slow to grow from the start and take very little space. They have not bloomed, however, which I really need to study on. Last year, I had around 60 different hybrid blooms that I was very excited about. I tried to share most of the blooms on Dave's. I really like the epie you featured above. Do you know the name? Is it possibly E. Crenatum? Or maybe White Splendor?
Orchidman -Thank you for the encouraging words. Obsessed I will have to be. Do you have any pics on line of your greenhouses. Must be amazing with all those plants.
That yellow Epi in my pic is neither of those shown. Mine definitely has a yellow center, no white.
Planned a 360 sq ft extension to my deck yesterday but my wife and I agreed that although it was a doable project we cannot afford at the moment. Will have to remain a dream.
I have space in one of my greenhouses (plastic sheeting roof over metal frame with screen sides) for about 50 pots of cuttings if I squish the Amaryllis pots a bit closer together. Thinking - do I take more of my own cuttings or buy some different varieties. Mine and free and others will average $3 plus shipping. Hmmmm.
I have three 200 sq ft greenhouses and my front and back house decks. Probably 200 plants total. Expecting over 500 blooms this year. More buds appearing daily.
Growing them outdoors is a nice idea in our climate but we live in a rain forest with 100 plus inches of rain a year so have to control the water.
From your post, I thought you had just started with epies but you now appear quite accomplished! Beautiful pictures. I have approx. 500 feet under glass. some pictures are listed in this string and in my earlier strings. i'm sure my plants are too crowded but still seem to do well. They share space with around 150 or so orchids.
I started off slow. Initially I was happy with a dozen pots on the front deck. The obsession started to become evident when an orchid grower neighbor went halves with me on buying 200 Epi cuttings and then during the last couple of years, after those cuttings started looking good the obsession began to take hold. Now its uncontrollable.
This morning I happened to pay a visit to my neighbor and he is so busy with his orchid nursery business (two locations, at least 1/2 acre under cover) he has neglected his Epis. They are growing strong (drip feed watering) but need repotting. I will be offering to repot for him with the reward of cuttings.
Thanks for chatting
A question for anyone but probably Bob - I have a neighbor that lays his cutting flat on the potting soil so that more young plants are created from each node. Another idea if its feasible - can the cutting be sliced vertically as well as horizontally to get more plants from the same cuttings.
Any thoughts. I may experiment.
Mike
The strong point in using 8" cuttings is much stronger, larger plants are created. I know I root everything that I find on my greenhouse floor which may be a small branch node or large link. You can root an epie cutting from either end or from nodes laid down flat (I don't like this way). Yes you can cut and root vertical slices as long as you allow them to scale over first.
My best advice is 8 inch cuttings. You can increase your number of different hybrids by joining http://www.epiforums.com/forums.php and asking for trades on the internet. For postage, you can grow very quickly. bob
Thank you Bob!!
Just thought I would pop in and say hi, I am back among the living. ( not too much of an understatement there). Anyway, I am waiting for buds and enjoying your pics in the meantime.
Ibarto
I received the assortment of epies and sclums you sent and have added them to the collection. All arrived safe and sound. Thanks so much and let me know what you would like from my group. Our season is once again beginning---below is Alchemy. bob
This message was edited Apr 11, 2014 9:47 AM
Bob, I am so happy all arrived safe and sound. I will send some of the others as well as soon as they recover a little more. It's my favorite time of year! LOL
An early 2014 bloom: April Showers
It bloomed today on my daughter April's Birthday!
What a nice present! happy birthday to your daughter April.
I am trying to create a new thread for 2014 but can't determine how to do this. Please let me know if you can. bob
Three Oranges
Chrissy
Exuberant
German Empress
Germania
This is how I did on the clutter forum.
1. Start a new topic
2. Come to this thread and copy the link above
3. Go to your new topic and edit your post, first line, say something like we came from here, the click paste, which you will have when you copied in no. 2
4. Go to new post , then copy the link above
5. Go to your old post, edit button, which is this one, and say something like, we are going here, then click paste.
If you want, let me know what your title will be and I can start a new one for you.
I hope there is someone here that can explain it better.
Antoinette
Just love those blooms Bob. German Express seems like a very prolific bloomer. If you see any on my posts that you would like let me know. Maybe we could trade.
Purchased my first three cuttings of Strictum today. Will be a while before I see them bloom but it will be worth it.
I started my new post by going to the list of Orchid Cactus forums and going right down to the bottom. There is says start a new thread. Good luck.
Mike
I jumped in and started a new thread, not realizing what you were trying to do was link them. I am sorry.
Ibartoo, I'll add the new thread
New thread here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1357432/