No sheaths on my Obdrs. pseudobulbs

[Lakshmi]

I have had an Odbrs. Fangtastic Bob Henley 'HOF Octopus' for about 3 months now. Overall, it seems quite healthy. I bought it in bloom and it just finished about 2 weeks ago. The roots are healthy; the pseudobulbs (there are only two) are not shriveled; and the leaves are a healthy-looking lime green. However, about two months ago, I was a day late on watering it and the sheaths around the pseudobulbs turned yellow and died. Since then, it has just sat there....doing nothing...with two completely bald pseudobulbs.

Since it has been busy flowering, I remain optomistic that it will start devoting some energy to actually growing in the near future. But, since spring is over and the summer days are ticking away, I am starting to get worried that it is going to miss an entire growing season. Any advice? Should I dose it with superthrive? Move it to the back of my collection and not expect anything from it until next spring?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Not all orchids start their growth in spring. The sheathing around your pseudobulbs are supposed to dry up, nothing amiss here. It is also possible that your plant was stimulated to grow and bloom out of season. So, be patient. Patience is the hallmark of a good orchid grower. If you want to do a little research, try entering the name Fangtastic Bob Henley into the pink search area of the RHS site: http://www.rhs.org.uk/research/regis...chidsearch.asp Type it into the grex box, then click on the word search in the pink are. Using this site, you should be able to find all the parents of your plant, then go to this site: http://orchidspecies.com/index.htm and look up the correct bloom season for the parents of your plant. Good luck, Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

[jerrymeola]

Odbrs. Fangtastic Bob Henley is a intergenetic cross of a Brassia and an Odontoglussum.

In general Brassia and Ondontoglossum types bloom only once a year. Other Obdrs I have only bloom once, so yes, you can put it out of mind for a year.

If you got ten weeks of blooms out of the plant that is great. In general spider orchid flowers only last about 4-5 weeks.

Give it some time. It is not unusual to not see growth on these types of plants until just before the new growing season. I would have expected the blooming season to be late summer but I have gotten 6 this month in bloom, so I do not know if they were forced or not.

I do not know quite what you are refering to as sheats. If you meant the two youngest leaves that surround the bulb, it is normal for them to die as the leaves mature. They did not die from you being a day late with water.