Hi everyone!
Don't know if I will have any Epis coming this year or not. Tomorrow I should be able to tell whether or not I'll have any pretties this year. I haven't been to the old house since before Christmas and all the big tubs of Epis are in their winter quarters in a sheltered corner outside the sunroom. It will be interesting to see what has survived our recent 3 week deep freeze. I have all the cuttings here, plus the big pots of Queen o' the Night. LOTS of damage to the cuttings and major damage to the big pots. I'm sure the large ones will survive, some of the small ones NOT. I haven't done any cutting yet, waiting for warm weather to see how they have really been hurt.
So I should know tomorrow what has happened to my old timers and whether I have buds??!! In the meantime.......let's see your BUDS for 2007!
"The Epis Are Coming, The Epis Are Coming!! 2007"
Hey there, Candycane! I'm sorry to hear about all of your damage. We had one night of 28 and several nights of 32. All my epi's are outside under the semi-covered patio, and some leaves of my E. pumilum are a little yellow, but I don't see any mush, which is good. I can send you some cuttings to help you re-build your collection in the spring. I look forward to hearing your report about your old timers. I'll get some pictures of my buds tomorrow. They are pretty small so I would guess it will be April before they bloom.
Just read your old thread and have a question. As long as it doesn't freeze, do I understand it is OK, even preferable, to leave them outside?
Well It got down to 33 here last week and I just grouped the Jade and Me Epis in a circle and threw a cover on them and they are fine Nuns Cap Orchids to. Corky
ceejaytown, I leave mine out all year every year on my semi-covered patio. It normally doesn't freeze here, but it did a couple of times this year, and several cold records were broken. Mine were not exposed to the open sky, and that is probably why I didn't get damage. Other elements helped to add to the microclimate such as lots of rocks, concrete, and a brick wall. I'm not sure it is preferable to the plants to leave them outside, but it is probably preferable to the gardener who doesn't have to haul them in and out. Since mine stay outside every year, I might get buds and perhaps flowers just a smidge sooner than others, but I'm sure various conditions combined together produce various results so it is hard to say what is preferable. Some growers say never to let your epies experience the temps that mine get. If I get buds, I'm just pleased that something worked as it is supposed to.
Here are the bud pics I promised:-)
This is probably the largest bud:
Some of these pics are a little blurry in some places -- sorry about that.
Here are some more buds:
They are pretty tiny, but you can see the bright pink on most of them.
Candy, I hope you found some buds today.
Ugh, I sure hope I will have something to show in this thread this year. We had 5 days in a row of 18 degrees.....and even though my epis are on the front porch, that was just too cold. I went out and cut out all the yucky damage and some of my plants are reduced to three, three inch pieces in the center of the pot! Ah well, I've given them all some fertilizer and spring has sprung here now so I should know pretty soon! In the mean time I'll watch all your lovely plants!
Karen :~(
Hey sorry for being so tardy in getting back here. :-) Just lotsa gardening and other things to do around here. We did get down to the old house/garden in early Feb and found that nothing had been damaged in the deep freeze that hit all of Northern California in January.
Love your buds Clare! Lots of pretties to come for sure! Karen, ditto on the ugh........I've never lost so many succulents as I did this year here at the new house. Partly the cold, but also they didn't have time to establish themselves and get strong after being put in ground around Nov 1st. It's a learning experience! (Yeah, right.)
I do have lots of buds on the potted Epis I brought up from the old garden, the plants themselves are a little ratty looking from being ignored since October. I do grow them "hard", but they are rattier looking than usual. I hope to find a permanent home for them here in some of the big pots that have been emptied. Am working on a place that they can live happily all year long without being moved around. The trip in the truck and just slinging the pots around moving them does a pruning job on them.
My Epi oxypetalum plants that I moved up here in the fall with us, took a major hit from the cold temps. Hindsight tells me I should have left them in the old garden for the winter. They will survive, but I had to prune at least half of all the growth from these 5' tall plants. Started some cuttings from the trimmings and time will tell whether they will root after being cold for so long. We had low to mid 20's every night for a couple of weeks.
A couple of bud pics, first one is the white.
And these should be pink.
I left my cactus orchid outside thru the winter,luckily it has survived the coldest nite and now since it has buds for two months , the large one should bloom pretty soon. and funny thing is I still dont know what kind of cactus it is. I hope some one can tell me after it flower.
Here is another pic
Lat
I'm so sorry to hear of your damage, Karen and Candy. We had a bunch of nights at 32 and one night at 28, and some of the jade plants and brugmansias outside were looking pretty awful for a while there, but most things that I have are recovering with the exception of a couple of tropicals. Some of my brugmansias had to be pruned back pretty severely. My epies were on my semi-covered patio and received no damage thankfully. I had two plants, Selenicereus anthonyanus and Selenicereus chrysocardium, under the tangerine tree out back, but they look okay too. I have yet to see buds on them though.
Candy, your buds look great! I too cut back one of my Epiphyllum oxypetalum plants severely just because it looked so ratty-looking. This is the one that was given to me by my neighbor. I see that it is starting to put on new growth so that is good. It is very stressful and difficult to move so I understand what you are going through. I worry about the day that I have to move, and I am a renter so it is coming one day. I just know that my epi's will have a tough time with a move. Breakage is bound to happen.
Lat, that looks like an Epiphyllum hybrid. Identifying it further than that will be nearly impossible due to the thousands of hybrids being cultivated today.
K, will someone repost the website to purchase Epi cuttings? I crashed last week and favorites got ate. Tanks, Cork
Cork, here is a good one: http://www.epies.net/
Thanks, Corky
Hokay, I went into Pats Epi's and ordered 5 of them. I am so excited, can't wait to get the cuttings, Luvs to all, Cork.
Congrats, Cork! Last time I went to that site, I ordered five of them as well. They were nice healthy fat cuttings, which all rooted right away. Tell us which ones you ordered!
K, I ordered, clown, golden fleece, connie mayer and the cryptocereus anthonyanus?
Nice selection there, Corky! I have the Selenicereus anthonyanus too and just love it! It lives underneath my Tangerine tree all year. Here it is (on the left) with Selenicereus chrysocardium (on the right). I'm still waiting for buds on these:-)
Wow, I got the plants yesterday--fast huh? All the way from Calif. Healthy and good size. The ric-rac has roots allready. I better get busy huh? Corky
Wow! I am just "Lurking" here and am stunned that y'all have real cold weather in zones 10a & 10b??!!! I never thought it got that cold in those zones!
I have one Queen Of The Night that I've had since the mid 70's and some smaller Epi's that I got from cuttings from other DG'er's. Don't know the names on any of those received in trade though. We had a real mild winter here. A couple of nights it did get down to mid 30's and one night we had a little frost. All of my epi's along with many other plants were on a covered deck, and I just covered all of them with old blankets as always when cold is predicted. Here in this part of Florida in the winter, people's yards look like Halloween .... with so many sheets and blankets covering soooo many plants!
Sure hope y'all don't lose any of your epi's from those cold temp's you had.
Well, This was a weird winter here. We had 3 freezes and two of them got below freezing for 5 to 6 hours so that's why the damage done esp. to the tropicals. Actually it was a learning experience as now we know what can survive vs. won't . I had double sheeets yadda on a lot of my tropicals and they still got bit esp. my nuns cap orchids. But they are coming back and blooming. I think I will put nuns cap in a big pot and have on carport, that way less risk of damage. I do have a lot of new sprouts on it. I am rooting both epi's, ones red and the other the vanilla flat leafed one--I don't know names either haha. I do have names of newbies tho, so I can keep track {maybe}. K, gotta go now and try and get two more Gingers in the ground. Corky
Congrats on your new arrivals, Corky!
Yes, we broke cold records here too. Normally, it doesn't drop much below 40 here during the winter, but this year, we had one night of 28 and several nights at 32. A lot of tropicals are looking pretty sad around Los Angeles, but hopefully, most will come back. My epi's were on my semi-covered patio and didn't suffer any damage thankfully.
I have a bud about to open any day now. I'll post a picture of it when it opens.
Well, Gingers still in pots. We had a lot of rain yesterday so s/be easy now to get in ground. My problem is I don't remember how big these two plants will get, so I better give them lots of space huh? I do that--plant stuff w/out checking to see how big it will gwt. I have a ornamental Cotton Bush next to a huge cactus and it is okay, they are compatible and happy. Crazy cotton bush/tree? is blooming again w/ cotton bolls on it. Lots of seeds here. Okay Musy get in gear. Hagd all. Cork
Corky59 ... I've never heard of a Cotton Bush ... do you have a photo you could post? Sounds like a neat plant. Do those seeds get scattered around and sprout up all over? That part doesn't sound appealing. I am always pulling up some sort of laurel tree seedlings in my yard that blow over from our neighbor's and sprout up in my flower beds!
This is the real cotton plant bush tree hybredized--still makes cotton and the seeds-of course are in the cotton--I got mine from Sugarweed last year and had no clue how big they got. We had to whack mine as it was up over the top of garage. It has white/pink/blue blooms. I will get a pic in awhile. I have tons of seeds if you are interested. "The Cork"
Well, took pics of cotton bush. Stupid camera pluggy thingy is stuck in port and I need to move it so as soon as I get hubby to unplug hopefully I can download pics. GRRR Corky
Hokay, I finally got the camera working. Here are a few of my buds and newbies from Pats Epis. Corky
A baby--two of these already had roots and I have the other two rooting. Corky
Nice buds there, Corky! I should have flowers to post any time now.
Tanks, Clare. I haven't put the night blooming one in the full sun but--it has 3ft. tall new leafs and it is so easy to root. Pot is so heavy I hafta have help moving it. Corky
Corky, I don't think you have to put that one in full sun, do you? I could be wrong, but I think part sun or filtered sun or bright light should be sufficient for blooms. I move mine around as needed, but right now, I have my Epiphyllum oxypetalum plants in mostly shade with some very late afternoon sun.
Clare, that's what I do. I moved it and have it on the side of the house where it gets morning sun and afternoon shade. I feed mine the horse feed fertilizer and they go nuts. Do you know anything about the Nuns Cap Orchids? I have one and it bloomed some but the last freeze nipped it and leaves etc. have spots? also looks puny to. I do keep it watered per nursery instructions and was just wondering if this is characteristic of the? Corky
Corky, I don't know anything about Nuns Cap Orchids or any orchids for that matter! If you post a thread over at the Orchid Forum, I'm sure someone can answer your question there.
OOPS< Okay will do. Tanks, Corky
It won't be long now...
