question about blooming season

[charleyismydog]

I have a, probably silly, question about growing season. Does "growing season" mean when the plan starts to spike or when it is actually in blossom? If I have an orchid that blooms in fall, does that mean it should have started to spike in summer so that it flowers by fall?

[Tobi]

My interpretation of the growing season is when you are getting new growth
in Pseudobulbs, canes, leaves not necessarily spikes or flowers. I may be wrong and if I am, I'm sure someone here will set the terminology straight.

[tom499]

From what i've gathered, MOST orchids are from the tropics where there are no seasons. This means they grow and flower all year round.

In countries further north or south we have seasons of warmth and cold. orchids grow more in the summer and less in the winter. growth usually leads to flowers, as most orchids will flower from new growth only once.

Orchids therefore usually flower at certain times in the conditions that we grow them, but this is not always true, except for the seasonal varieties.


That is what i think is right, but i also would like some clarification

[kmarch]

When I hear people say "growing season" they are usually talking about a period of vegatative growth, apart from blooming. For example my Cymidiums are in bloom currently but after they finish they will start growing new leaves and pseudobulbs which will happen over the course of several months. There are no blooms during this period.

Most orchids go through complete growing/blooming cycles which vary from genus to genus. Sometimes the growth comes first as with a Cattleya, and sometimes the bloom comes first as with Coelogyne speciosa (I picked these because they are both sympodials that I currently have in bud/bloom). There's often a "rest period" somewhere in there too which is just a period of inactivity, neither growing nor blooming.

Monopodial orchids don't show their growing/blooming cycles as clearly but they're there. For example, a Phals bloom cycle is initiated in autumn when the plant gets a couple weeks of 10-15F drop in nighttime temps. Yet Phals can grow new leaves while they're in spike.

Pretty much all orchids in the wild go through growing/blooming cycles based on their environments. In tropical areas where it is fairly warm year round this takes the form of wet season and dry season, while in other places the seasons are more pronounced.

[Hummer344]

kmarch,

Nice explanation. Clear and concise & pretty much what I thought it was. You put it in words very nicely.

[charleyismydog]

Thanks Kevin. That does help!!