Rhynchostylis gigantea

[christinek]

Hi Everyone!


I just got doing my weekly watering of my orchids.. And I decided in mid stream to repot my Rhynchostylis Gigantea White.. It was planted in moss.. And the moss was starting to turn green and one of the roots was getting a black mold on it.. The moss was drying etc.. but i suppose it was time to change it.. Glad I did , because I found some dead roots inside that were just turning into compost more or less and alot of live roots.. All seemed ok.. Just that one root on the outside seemed to be the problem.. So i repotted it and used a different medium instead of moss..

My question is.. Will my plant be ok? It's such a beautiful orchid and just gorgeous when it blooms..

[ryanjoe888]

that will be perfectly fine christine, your plant looks very healthy and there will be no problem on the "runaway" root that you have there.

as per my vandas, not a single is on a mix, they are all mounted on drift woods...

and i see that your plant does have new roots which is a good sign that your plant is now on the process of growth or in short your plant is already established.

just don't over water the medium so roots will not rot or will not catch fungus

[christinek]

Thank you Ryan! I was just worried that my baby here might like moss rather than the new medium. But it had to be done. Because one root was actually getting fungus. And I didn't want the entire plant to suffer later on down the road..

As for my fly away root! LOL I actually had to cut that root a month or so ago. My poor mother was getting scared and said the root was coming after her.. AHAHAHAAA and now it's starting to grow new roots from the cut root as you can see..

Living in the philipines must have its advantages huh? The heat and humidity and being able to mount your vandas on drift wood.. wow.. I would love to see them.. Your orchids are just amazing Ryan

[kmarch]

One clarification on the name of your orchid. The correct name is: Rhynchostylis gigantea. Note the small "g" - species names are not capitalized and note that I dropped the "white." "White" is not part of the name, it's just something the nursery added, probably so they could remember what colour the flower is.

[patticake]

It looks good! You might want to water it a little more to start, just because it's used to the wet moss. gently taper off so you don't shock the poor thing. That root is cool! You should let it grow as it's collecting moisture, etc. for the plant. Tell you mom it's a "friendly" snake! Thanks for the pictures. I can't wait to see the blooms on this puppy!

[christinek]

Thanks PattiCake! Thanks for the good advice.. And I'll be sure to take more pictures when it flowers.. It's just beautiful when it does! As it is.. I keep checking on it to make sure it's ok.. LOL

And I'll be sure to tell mom! LMAO She just cracks me up with her and that root! hahahaahaha

And thanks for the correct spelling and lower case for my orchid Kmarch! And yes.. The flowers are all white.. And very very fragrant!

[missann]

to add to k-marchs remark-the white is referred to as "alba"

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by missann

to add to k-marchs remark-the white is referred to as "alba"

Well maybe, not always. The term "alba" is a descriptive term meaning "without colour" - not necessarily white - and is used in varietal names. It is not the case that all white forms of typically non-white flowers have been taxonomically described (as in botanically described and published in a recognized publication). To my knowledge, at this point, no Rhynchostylis gigantea var. alba has been described and published so it would not be appropriate to tack "alba" onto this name.

Orchid names operate according to a system of rules. Check out my thread on orchid nomenclature for more info.

...and there's no hyphen in my member name.

[solay]

It looks very healthy to me. Can't wait to see the blooms. How big is the plant? Looks really big.

[christinek]

Hi there Solay,

Yes, it's getting big.. I'm hoping to get it to look like this one other Rhyn. I saw that was the same one like mine.. This is the biggest that I've gotten this particular vanda yet.. I have another gigantea too.. "Gigantea Spots" She's young. But is growing and happy so far.. I'm hoping to get it as big as my "alba" in the pictures. But it's definately at blooming size.. So i'm hoping come this late fall it will bloom too.. I'll be taking pics for sure! hehehehe