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Phragmipedium besseae

Discussion in 'Orchid Species' started by gnathaniel, Jul 1, 2013.

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  1. Jul 1, 2013 #1
    gnathaniel

    gnathaniel Lurker Supporting Member

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    My only Phrag but one of my favorite orchids. Initial photographic attempts produced colors in the 'eye-bleeding' range, after fiddling with in-camera color and saturation settings this one turned out pretty true to life.

    What's the maximum file size I can upload and host here? If it works better for others I'll resize and upload rather than linking to my flickr account.

    afarm4.staticflickr.com_3712_9187747576_f45c84980f_c.jpg
    Phragmipedium besseae     by gnathaniel, on Flickr
     
    Kipper likes this.
  2. Jul 2, 2013 #2
    Torrish

    Torrish Active Member

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    Stunning. I passed on one of these at the RHS London show and wish I had not. For a relatively small plant you get a lot of bang for your bucks.
     
  3. Jul 2, 2013 #3
    Marni

    Marni Well-Known Member Staff Member Supporting Member

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    Brent will know the maximum size. In the meantime, I have a habit of posting things that are 800 pixels on the largest dimension and those post without the "click to enlarge" note. But I know that many post larger and if you have detail you want people to see then the click to enlarge with 1200 certainly allow that. If they are huge files, then when they are opened I can's see the edges of the image on a large monitor and they take a long time to come up. Others may weigh in here on what size they like.
     
  4. Jul 2, 2013 #4
    KellyW

    KellyW Orchid wonk Staff Member Supporting Member

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    It's kinda the Goldilocks quandary isn't it. Some are too small, some are too big, and some are just right. I definitely agree with Marni about the ones that are too big are just unwieldy. I tend to post in the 800 to 1000 range to show detail. If it is just a plant shot I tend to do 800 or less. However, I think only Brent can tell us if there is a maximum size allowed.
     
  5. Jul 2, 2013 #5
    piotrm

    piotrm Well-Known Member

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    it looks I posted even 1600 x 1200 few times, in post itis resized any way, just after click you see full size picture, Well and I never thought about it but what you any of us see and how big it depends what screen resolution we have ;-)
     
  6. Jul 2, 2013 #6
    spiro K.

    spiro K. Well-Known Member

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    I have a seedling, so far so good.Can you please share some cultural info. from personal experience?
     
  7. Jul 11, 2013 #7
    gnathaniel

    gnathaniel Lurker Supporting Member

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    Thanks Giles! I'm glad I grabbed this one when I did, it was the cheapest I've ever seen one offered.

    Spiro, here's the general culture I use:

    --Medium: came in peat and perlite in a 4" plastic pot and I have yet to repot, will probably put it in s/h or some variant later this summer
    --Water: municipal water plus a monthly soak and flush with distilled has been okay so far, the water here and the last place I lived is decent quality with medium/low mineral content. In warm weather I sit the pot in a dish of water that's changed weekly and when cooler I water from the top every week or two but never let it dry out
    --Nutrients: I fertilize lightly (50-100 ppm N) no more than 4-6x/year with dyna-gro or K-lite. I've seen very little leaf-tip burn on this regimen, though the plant also grows slowly.
    --Light: tolerates pretty bright but also seems to grow and bloom well in relatively shady conditions, I think anyone with a bright windowsill could provide enough.
    --Temperature: the plant showed some leaf damage when leaves were wet during overnight lows of around 40 F last winter; afflicted areas died and dried out but didn't rot. Daytime air temps last summer were in the upper 90s F for about a month and the plant seemed to go dormant (stalled growth) without other apparent stress, but it was always in a dish of water and in good breezes so root temps were likely cooler than the air. My casual observation has been that it seems to grow best in temps between about 50 and 85 F.

    Overall I'd call it an easygoing plant, I give it a lot less attention than I do most of my orchids.
     
  8. Jul 11, 2013 #8
    Ricardo

    Ricardo Slave of demanding bird

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    What a beauty, almost makes me want to sacrifice one to the orchids cultural deities, just to see if it can grow in my climate.