thanks. orchid126: thanks for the advice, however i didn't get it soon enough as the first thing I did once the new ones arrived was to put them with the rest of my plants. arthrum: i'm in CA. I'm growing all of my orchids in a relatively sunny south facing window with no additional lighting. if there isn't enough light for the r. digbyana, i could add growing lights, i guess.

Mike, Suggest peeling back the white sheathing on the top portion of the new growth just to see how it looks. From just the image it looks OK. The wrinkled bulbs are older ones and will probably not recover. As with cattleyas the older bulbs do shrivel back as new growth arises and in time will simply die down to a brown dry looking stem. The plant may have been held much drier than your conditions in order to force it to flower. Be sure to rest it when new growth is done. Also perhaps a more exposed location in your greenhouse will be better for it. I believe these babies can be found growing in fairly harsh spots-in almost full sun.

Ideally, I'd love to have both of mine mounted. That was the main reason why I delayed all summer trying to get roots otherwise. It just wouldn't happen, for me. "...transparent plastic container w/ lid..." Not to be negative(I'm pretty unconventional, myself!), but do you think that the lid is a good idea? That could be a little too much. Sort of a killing them with kindness. Just a thought, but I'd maybe baby the root area and temper the top part. That might encourage it to put out roots w/o the worry of rot. It sorta feels like too much, to me. I like to harden off the new growths somewhat more. But, you do know your own conditions better! ;~) Still, keep a close eye out for problems with that much moisture. My root area is kept quite moist because my grow area is pretty dry. ...and my watering tends to be Monsoonal! ;~) ie: feast or famine! I know that my use of the sphagnum, as a cap, is either unusual or frowned upon. I started doing that after during my first summer of s/h. (3 or 4 years ago, I think!) As I've mentioned, I'm on a ranch and can go for many days/weeks unable to thoroughly check on things, let alone care for them. Even standing in rather deep water, things were drying out too much. The sphag cap gave me more of a safty net for those times. I had every intention of removing it, from most of them, for winter. Instead, I seriously bumped up the light and the winter heating. Initially, I used a seed starting heat mat and then just heated the room more, as I had too many for it to be practical. As yet, I haven't watered those two since the photo was taken. (I might in a day or so!) Most of my s/h does sit in standing water when practical. The difference being, I think, is that I generally use tall pots. Although the bottom layers are wet/very moist, the upper pellets are far dryer. My Bulbos, in s/h, really must have the sphag and I actually use far more sphag than I do with any of the others. (With the exception of the Pleurothalids!) This seems to encourage the roots to dig, looking for water, but not really be in it.(Unless they find it and most seem to like that.) The only way that I've ever been able to get roots this time of year is with a lot of heat and very bright light. To be more specific, root warmth looked to be a major factor for me. Regardless of the amount of light, s/h in my (specifically) winter experience requires warm roots!! I'm not sure about other opinions/experiences, but that made all the difference in the world for me. I first noticed it during my heat mat stage. The ones on the mat did so much better than not. They kept growning, while the others either started to fail or kept static. The water did evaporate quite fast and likely bumped up the humidity. What ever I do, is the result of taking knowledge from where ever I can get it and playing with it. Plus, a little feel for things. Maybe! ;~) That really does help. "Regarding the bud sheaths on these " Not only did I not mess with the bud, I didn't even know that it was there until I saw the flower. We were doing some construction and against my wishes, the power had been off (to my orchids) for days. :~( After I threw a fit, I got power back on and found the flower during an inspection. I wonder if the nearly week long semi-darkness was a factor in getting a bloom? I have heard that sometimes they need a shock or nudge to bloom. No idea if that's true. Good luck on however you end up doing it and I look forward to your blooms! :~) Scott

Thanks! :~) It's not that I think the smell is bad, it just has an artificial quality to it. I smells more like citrus extract, rather than zest or juice. More lime-like to my nose. Nope! These have been kept inside. I actually have two of 'em. This one, here, is a selfing and the other is an original division of the awarded plant. It's not mature enough to bloom and, although the roots are very healthy, I killed it's one new growth. :~( I'd like to compare blooms, someday, and see if there any difference in quality. I really was very suprised at the bloom. The idea of a cultural shock was mentioned to me as a trigger. I thought that most of my culture was pretty shocking!;~) The area is being remodeled and the lighting has been erratic, as have temps. I did find several other orchids in spike, so I could've triggered the lot of 'em or they're now going to all die!;~) I'm going on faint memory, Sharon! ;~) We've alway had far more important things to do than dust, anyway. All you really need, is a good hose and a leaf blower! ;~) Besides, I don't like having potentially dangerous chemicals in the air. Scott