Thursday, June 17, 2010

Encyclia Mary Motes (Encyclia alata x Encyclia plicata)























I purchased this plant two years ago.  It was in a clay pot with lava rock as its media.  I did not pay much for it because the plant was small and it looked sick.  I continued to try to grow the plant in the pot in which I bought it.  It kept looking worse and worse.  So I took it out of the pot, trimmed off all of the dead roots, soaked it in Physan and then mounted it on a piece of tree fern plaque inside of a wooden basket.  It was slow to get started, but new roots started to appear and during the first spring that I owned it, it had grown four new bulbs. 

This spring flower spikes grew from each of the four new bulbs.  The spikes are long (they vary between 2 1/2 feet to 4 1/2 feet long).  The spikes have only these two blooms open right now which opened within the last day or two, but the plant has 143 buds.

I have been very curious as to what the blooms look like.  I looked the plant up on Orchidwiz.  It has information about the plant, but NO picture.  I have also searched the web and have not been able to find a picture.  Now I was REALLY curious.  Most encyclias do not have spectacular blooms or colors.  As encyclias go, this is an attractive blossom.  My curiousity is finally satisfied.


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