Often, there can be one place in the home or greenhouse where a single specimen plant can be accommodated in solitary splendor, on a side table in a light corner or a special place in the conservatory or living room.
Often it is easier to find space indoors than in the greenhouse, where the temptation is always to cram a few more plants in, which is not always the best idea. Growing to specimen size is not always possible, however, with large growing orchids such as cymbidiums.
Certain orchids, among them miniature coelogynes, such Coelogyne fimbriata, and bulbophyllums, including Bulbophyllum can be contained in their original for several years, even though they produce numerous new growths. 1 trick here is to peg down the growths within the confines of they as they grow, carefully pushing them down in between or on top of existing pseudo bulbs.
Compared with other plants, orchids suffer few problems. From the start, make a habit of practicing good hygiene in the greenhouse, for example, by sweeping up dead leaves and other plant material from the floor.
Sometimes plants have to he divided where they have grown out in various directions, leaving a dead centre in the middle of the pot that cannot be disguised. When this happens, the best remedy is to remove the whole plant from the pot and divide the pieces into single plants, discarding the dead pseudo bulbs at the center. You are then left with several plants, each of which is probably the size of the original purchase.
You now have a number of replicas to swap with your friends or to give away as gifts. Many a new orchid enthusiast has been enrolled in just this way! Where you have the room, and you are happy to watch your plants increase in size and flowering ability over the years, there is no grander sight than a very large orchid frothing over with flowers developed from heaps of pseudo bulbs piled high.
The delightful and effervescent Coelogyne cristata is just such a plant. If you have this species in your collection, given a free hand it can grow to monumental proportions.








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