Now I have a new one - I bought it large and in bloom (a lovely Shenandoah Premiere from Brennan's Orchids) - the soil is just barely moist, (not too wet, at all) but the leaves and flower heads are starting to droop. Please advise. I'd really appreciate it.

Dorothea

You need to cut your soil with perlite - depending what is your AV soil is - at least 2:1.

When you pot them keep them on the top of the hill ... kinda.

You are overwatering them (my guess). They need to be on a dry side, they need to have good air supply to their roots - so that's why perlite - orchid pots with slits work too - and they do not like heat. It is getting warm and they droop if the temperature is above 80. Under 70 - is what they prefer. For me it is basement.

Disbud the strep by the way - it needs all energy to survive, check with water and temperature requirements - and good luck. Keep us posted

irina

I really appreciate the guidance.
I'm going to do what you say, Irina. Spasibo.

Dorothea

Dorothea - it is not that what I say is a holy truth -
just the most probable cause. I had them rotting for me rerooting and rotting again for some time - finally for myself I made a discovery - streps and AVS are different species - from the different areas of Africa - and reqiure different growing conditions. Not significantly different - but different enough.

Streps want it drier, even more loose soil, more light, cooler and higher Ph. But again - it only relays to the common hybrid streps. There dozens of species of streps - some of them - S. cyanandrus, S. rimicola - miniatures - require terrarium culture with a very high humidity.

Look at the Gesneriad Web
http://gesneriads.ca/genstrep.htm

Good luck and nice weekend to you

Sure - you are lucky to start with to live in a Bay Area - so you have good humidity, you can actually grow them outside - do you take your cymbidiums outside in summer?

It is different if it is too hot and too dry. You want to wick them to provide the water and increase the humidity - and oops - here the rot starts.

Irina from Colorado

Irina Z5, where it so dry that the backs are itching all the time, noses are picked all the time and dermathologists are booked for a year ahead. And we have -20 in winter, 105 in summer and down to 8% humidity sometimes. No cymbidiums outside.