Komi, that's great. So ugly it's cool. Hope you're not offended. One more reason I sincerely hope I can grow these. Whitecat8

Very cool, Komi. Neat shots of the progression.

Marci

Bravo! That is utterly fantastic. I'm highly impressed with the photos. Please tell me those were not taken with your P&S? Sweeeeeeeeeeeet!
-MB

lol. I'm torn. I think it actually looks nice.

MB - no, an SLR, but taken handheld with no image stabilization - just took pics while it was hanging in the case. Now your turn to cough up some pleuro pix.

Yea well, I'm glad it was an SLR because if I knew a p/s could manage such small flowers, when mine can't, I'd be sad. I can take some pics but there will be little chance of seeing any detail on the tiny ones :(

I may try to find a large magnifying glass....

hmmm...... I think you might be right. I think you just justified the purchase of an slr, heheh.

I was able to get close with the P&S, but I had to crop a whole lot more. And it helped if the general target was fairly big so the camera could focus - once focused, I could get some decent detail..... but clearly taking a pic of something like Stalky would have been really diff.

These are pretty much as small as I got. I have pix of smaller flowers, but the full sizes look totally blurry. (perhaps you should go rent an slr....)

Sweet!
I think that mine hates me.:~(
I've had it for a few years and it just sits there...
Loosing leaves...
Scott

Wow....*drool* Why must you torment me so??
And since when do you grow Restrepias? :)

Ok you MUST reveal what the second to last one is. Is that an orchid? That's really wild in an alien/HR Giger kinda way. Wicked stuff. (if you tell me that's a jewel orchid bud opening, I'll eat my hat)

~~*~~*~~drum roll please~~*~~*~~

Ladies and gentlemen, and dear fauna and flora, may I present the spectacle of this century, MrB eating his Ang-hat!

Tada!!

Lepanthes are SO cool! And something I would never, ever attempt to grow!

Sharon

*burp*

So, either I'm really good or its actually kinda obvious. lol

Sharon, I think you should try one! Some of them, maybe most of them?...are warmth tolerant and can be grown (so far anyway...) on an upside down clay pot that sits in a saucer of water and then has some kind of cover to keep the humidity up. I'm using a large (~2 gallon) opaque tupperware cannister that I burnt some holes in with a soldering iron. :)

Eventually live moss will grow on the constantly moist clay surface. Anything is possible, mostly.
-MB

Komi - wow. I've drooled over these - or similar - on Andy's site. Good growing.

MB, could you post a picture of your set up? It would be terrific to be able to grow these.

Komi, how do you grow yours? Whitecat8

If heat is a consideration, I recommend sticking to lower elevation ones, say, 1000 m or so. Lep gargoyla is said to be from around 900 m.

Wc, I haven't had it for long, but so far so good. It's hanging near the bottom of a case I set up about 3 months ago. Here's a pic from late December, soon after I started putting plants in there.

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Plants get sprayed down every 2-3 days (or sometimes less frequently). I soak the mounts about once every 6 weeks. Air circulation = opening the door ;-) (I'd meant to install an auto mister and fan, but I didn't waterproof it enough to do the mister.)

It's mounted on tree fern with a bit of sphag. I added a wad of sphag before the winter break as I was out for about 2 weeks - they only got sprayed once a week during that time.

Perhaps I should also say that before this case, I used to grow pleuros on tree fern or wood mounts in open air (in uber-dry winter air) by dunking them in a tub of water every 1-2 days. They actually did fairly well, though the flowers wouldn't last long. It was a pain, though - miss 4 days of dunking and there was damage.....

Now, MrB will hopefully post some pics of his setup. ;)

Komi, that's lovely. I've got my 1 Lepanthes (L. manabina) in a big glass cannister kinda thing. The plant's been here about 6 weeks. About every other day, it's still damp but not wet, and I spray it then.

It was in spike and bloom when it arrived, but the buds blasted. All the leaves that were small have gotten larger. There's a Masde species in there, too. After losing a few leaves, it's got 6-7 new ones.

Minimal air movement. What do you think?

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Thanks, WC8

Ok, here is an older pic of one way to do it. It is an upside down clay pot that sits in a saucer of water. I'll post a pic with the cover as well.

You might be able to tell that i used a soldering iron to make small holes in the tupperware cover. Minimal air, but there is *some*

Another way to grow those kinds of plants in less than ideal conditions is to mount them on some kind of clay tube/pipe that will hold water. Eventually moss will grow on the clay and make a perfect substrate for tiny moisture loving orchids. This one:
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...is now almost totally covered by live moss. The plant on the right is a L. gargoyla (thanks Ki!). Later I'll try to get a pic of what it looks like now. Granted it does not sit in my windowsill, but I *don't* have a greenhouse, so these kinds of things can be made to work in a household environment.

Voila:

In that pic you can see the long leaf on the right side which is the furry flowering leaf of the Lepanthes. The other leaves that are close to the moss won't flower. You can also see the yellowing leaf tips of my Aer. ellisii *cries* Don't know if that's too much light or lack of magnesium... Oh and, that clay tube thingy lives smack dab in the middle of this mess:

I really like moving humidity around with hoses. LOL

you know what? I miss bada. *weeps*

OTOH, half the time I curse the day ... lol. I mean, when I have a little paper bag with $$$ of orchids in it, I wonder why I got into this mess and the answer is simply 4 letters.....

I think MB's setup is crazy. I mean, what's with all thoses hoses and s**t?

(MB and I are on good terms, btw. At least, I think we are....)

So what masde do you have in there? I'm growing them again. I found I could grow them mounted, but not in pots... The only one I've kept alive in a pot is Masde discoida - anyone looking for a drought and heat tolerant one and doesn't mind a "botanical" type flower, take note. I'm now growing another in a pot, and am about to (I hope... if the SEPOS show goes well) add a few more mounted masdes to my case.

WC - I think your setup should be good enough. I know someone who rebloomed an ang in something simlar, and has a one of the small relatively fragile pleurothallis in a similar setup. I am a fan of open tops, as I think a slightly wet to not-so-wet cycle is good for almost everything. But I am rather stubborn in my ways....

Masd. nidifica is on the upper left of the clay tube thing, if that's what you mean.

Yea we WERE on good terms...until you called my Ang haven "crazy" grrr....its not crazy, it is ...dynamic. Ever changing. The more Angs I get, the more crazy..er, i mean dynamic, it becomes.

MB, thanks for the pix. What's the white, fluffy stuff inside the clay tube? Is the tube sitting in water?

Hmmm - maybe I could put Lepanthes on small clay pots inside glass cannisters. RH in the orchid room is from the teens to mid-40s in the winter.

Hoses? In the house? Or are you just kidding?

Komi, if you were asking about the Masde in with the Lep, it's erinacea (horrida). Are you familiar w/ it? Loooove those ugly little flowers. This one from Andy's came w/ 5 dried up spikes. The spikes were almost an inch longer than the leaves.

You may be thinking of my Ang. fastuosa, which is re-spiking in another big glass container.

Hope you aren't outraged by the arrangement, MB.

WC8

Here is a link that might be useful: Masde erinacea (horrida)

That white fluffy stuff in MB's tube is water absorbent polymers like Terrasorb or Watersorb.

I did a short-lived trial run with a clay tube by SwampStick, and it did not go well. The top would dry out too fast, and the bottom stayed too wet. The lower two plants were reduced to half size before I finally put them back on tree fern. But MB suggested that the water polymers would really help - I should try it again.

LOVE erinacea. It's been a frequent visitor to my shopping cart for years, but somehow always manages to disappear before checkout.

And you're not the only one with Angs in such containers. The person I was thinking of has an aer mystacidii (I think) in a cookie jar. It sent out 1 or 2 lovely spikes.

You know, I've been thinking for a while now that, for plants that grow in mossy/lichen forests, deep under the canopy, especially tiny plants which could be some Aerangis, Aeranthes, or other Angs...but could also include the tiny pleuros or really ANY type of orchid that grows that way... (this sentence is already really messed up)... Anyway, I think/wonder if the universal truth that good air flow is required, is not in fact, wrong, in some situations. In a house where the air is so dry, especially if a ceiling fan is running, I wonder if total enclosures with no fan (possibly using some fungicide) couldn't work long term? I guess time will tell.

I think long term is tricky, and in the short term, it depends on temperature and humidity (too much of both is really bad, and anything outside of comfort-zones is risky), as well as the plant (duh). Fungicide-sensitivity is an issue, as well as how quickly a plant can succumb to rot.

As my temps are high and I can't bring in fresh humid air, I keep my humidity lower than I want, and air circulation low. (My tall case is not sealed well at all, as the front door has gaps on all sides.) No air circulation, too warm, and high humidity is like a recipe for disaster. And the wrong plant is also a bad idea.

jmho.

I wish I had better conditions for these things! Time to move to the N. SF bay area!

Very cool flowers folks.

Komi, I also think L. gargoyla is attractive so you're not alone. :)

MB, I've never seen the clay tubes before. Interesting idea. Where did you happen across those? And thanks, Komi, for IDing the water crystals in the tube -- I was wondering if that's what they were.

you evil people are exposing me to more neat mini's! My poor 90 gal terr is full enough as it is!

Paul

There is a very creative grower in Sweden who goes by the nickname Micholito on the Orchid Source Forum. Go there and search for his posts or for "nano viv" and you will see amazing things.

For a taste, go to google images and search for "nanoviv" and click the second image/website.

He uses clay drainage pipes and seals one end so they'll hold water. The moss grows naturally within six months or so. I gave up trying to find them here and ended up stealing my mom's clay wine chiller. It is hand-thrown clay as opposed to the readily available smooth sided wine chillers one can buy online or in stores. Sadly, those don't seem to work, but could perhaps be 'tweaked' in some way to make them work. Have fun!

Here is a link that might be useful:

I have never seen such crazyness! :) Love it!