Orchids back from the brink...

[Orchidflowerchild]

SO, having lost my collection a few years back, and managed to hold on to just a few plants from that collection, I got to thinking when this bloomed:


Brassavola cucullata

Do any of you hae any orchids that have come back from the very brink of death? I know this Brassavola, my Dockrilla teretifolium, and an Encyclia alata are juust now starting to do well after four years of neglect, bad light, and horrid temp fluctuations. THings got pretty dim. My Dockrilla has maybe thre leaves, but the new one is is growing is larger and brighter green than previous, as well as strongly rooting. The brassavola is down to just a wee clump of six or eight leaves, and was once a big giant pincushion of leaves on it's mount. Enc. alata now has two fat new pseudobulbs, but was down to one bulb, last winter.

Does anyone else just sometimes feel the need to brag about their 'chids, when they start doing well, after a long time of struggling?

-Cj

[robb]

well my poor rescue-phals have been on the brink of death since february when i bought them. since then, all have put out new leaves, and only one has had all the roots fail due to rot (though it did grow a new leaf, hoping to see a keiki, or else it's dead). so it hasn't been 4 years, but these 6 rescued phals have definitely come back from the brink of death!

[snowballsarebad]

I did have one that was coming back from the brink. When I got this cattleya, it had no roots, and was horribly dehydrated. It's new growths would continuously blacken and die off (rot I think or dehydration, not from sunburn). I finally mounted it to see if it would help. After a month, it started showing some positive resutls...two new growths were hanging on, and developing a lot of roots and getting beigger, and the leaves filled out and weren't so wrinkly. I was soooooo happy! Unfortunately...I was watering it the other day...and left it uot on my balcony by accident. 95 degrees that day, heaps of sun, and I was off on a four hour shopping trip. All the leaves are black now. The larger new growth is toast. The other new growth has black areas. I'm hoping it holds on. So...if this plant pulls through, it will be brought back from the brink TWICE! I sure hope so. I was sooooo distraught when I found it outside in the sun and heat. :'(
I do have another goood story though. I had a phal on the brink...NO roots, very limp leaves. Well...it FINALLY started a new leaf about a week and a half ago, and has two little roots starting. SO happy. Makes me feel competent, too.
Actually, much of my collection is from the brink. I purchased a "lot" from e-bay, 13 or so plants for 30 bucks. Owner had to get rid of them because his greenhouse had flood damage. Many were suffering...but now, those that didn't die off, are all doing quite well! Let's see...I've got 9 of them. 1 is the one I first talked about, and all the rest are great...except one, which still ahs no roots. I'm not sure how it is still alive after a year.
Yes, it does feel good to brag a little about the survivals!

[chefatplay]

I think talking about the successes are an important part of this forum. Here is where you can talk about these things and we understand,empathize, cry, cheer and otherwise understand. Keep up the good talking.!

[BillC]

Hi CJ, you can brag as much as you wish after producing the bloom on the cucullata. That is quite special!!

Bill

[Tess1]

Yes mine did, they were taken out of their house and put beside a shed. The sheep ate their leaves off and then the dunes covered them with a foot of sand. I dug them up three years later and found the pseudo-bulbs, some had tried to get their head out of the sand and had made a bulb on a long stem to reach the surface. I cut off all what was left of their dead roots and potted them up. Out of approx.120 plants I found 75 still more or less alive. Nearly all of the cymbids survived, none of the masdevallias, zygopetalum and paphs. Of the few sarcs only one looks reasonably healthy the others are sick, the dendrobes did not do so well but I did save a few, apart from the den.speciosum, that one had only stalks but bloomed when put in the orchidhouse. Conclusion, cymbids are tough, but the toughest is the den speciosum.

[snowballsarebad]

Tess, that was a sweet story about the buried orchids! How did you know they were there?

[Jo_Pyeweed]

CJ, others who have brought back orchids from the brink of death to a flourishing and flowering state - you are absolutely entitled to bragging rights ! I am waiting for the time that I can share pics of some lush and flowering cymbids - I have growths from dessicated cymbids that I found abandoned in the house that I moved to (posted in this thread).

Everytime I gaze at the growing shoots I ponder on the tenacity of life. Amazing, really.

And, Cj, what a fitting post for this day - Sept 11. I see your Br***avola cucullata bloom as a tribute to life and to those who lost theirs this day 6 years ago.

Cheers,
Jo

[Orchidflowerchild]

*snicker* I just noticed that the forum software is filtering out the 'a' and the double 's' in the genus name! Heh. Technology...oy vey!

-Cj

[fred]

Originally Posted by Orchidflowerchild

*snicker* I just noticed that the forum software is filtering out the 'a' and the double 's' in the genus name! Heh. Technology...oy vey!

-Cj

Its not the forum software

[Orchidflowerchild]

Originally Posted by fred

Its not the forum software

heh. Well, it gives me a chuckle, either way. Good, I think, that we can't ***ume anything, here, because as you know, to ***ume makes an *** out of u and me.

-Cj

[sandra]

I'll look for this thread in a couple of months and hopefully will add my little story. Right now I'm painfully but optimistically hoping for my favorite phal to pull through. I uncovered it last week when I noticed it sulking, to find one root. I've since added additional stress to it, trying to find the right solution for it in this condition and have changed the media twice but it's now resting comfortably and confident now that the advice I received for recovery, will pull it through. Fingers crossed....

I just today got a ( )Br***avola...Bra$$avola Maikai (pink/white) to celebrate the new shelving unit I bought.

These are great success stories. Can't wait to add my name to the list.

[Tess1]

Snowballsarebad, the orchids were my own pampered plants, but we moved and I put the orchids along the shed on piece of land we owned, and where we intended to build. Meanwhile we lived somewhere else and the orchids were abandoned for three years, the time it took us to get permission to build our house.

[snowballsarebad]

oh, it must have been hard for you to leave your plants like that, not knowing if they would survive!

[Anton]

I have a (Colmanara) Odontocidium Wildcat that decided it was not long of this earth.

I checked the roots and they were really healthy, so I thought "What the Hell!" and put it in a rectangular plastic food container that you get salads in, and filled it with sphag.

Last night (2 weeks later) I had a look and there are several small white, round nodules forming within the root ball.

The PS look buggered, but the roots have greened up, and forming new ones as well, so I think it is on the road to recovery, probably a long one, but this is the first time I have tried sphag n bag and the way things are panning out, looks like it may end up successful.

I'll post updates every couple of weeks.

[Gladys47]

I bought this catt. when I was just starting out . Almost lost it twice. Then I mounted it. 90% improvemnt! I tried to get a pic of all the roots it is puting out but as you can imagine the weather here Galveston way is terible! Itis doing s much better even tho I did burn one leave at the firstof spring. Gladys

[MariahK]

I have a noid oncid that well umm had a rough foe months, it was knocked over by my cat, then when I repotted it it lost one of it's pb's to rot and then was wobbly in it's pot and just didn't look good color wise, I was sure it was going down. So I treated the bad ares and repotted alittle deeper to give it more stability, and treated it with worm tea! Well this morning I was taking a look at it's roots to look for any sign of growth and It has green new roots growing and then I noticed It has a new growth of leaves peaking out of one of the old leaves I am so happy I really thought it was going down, especially when rot had set in!