New Member, first foto

[Sempervivum]

Dear Pleione lovers,
I'm new to this forum and this is my first post. My name ich Ulrich and I'm living in northern germany, near Hannover, city of the EXPO 2000.
I've been growing Pleione for many years, with varying success. In the last years I had them at the windwosill of my kitchen which is northside. There they didn't develop very well: The bulbs got smaller and smaller from year to year and few were blooming. But this year I put them into the garden, in the shadow of a hedge and things changed: The bulbs developed superb and in late november my Pleione praecox 'Berggarten' which had never bloomed before, produced two flowers. Here is a foto:



Now I'm looking forward to spring as now I can expect a much better bloom than in the past years. And I look forward to the flowers of the new ones.
Best regards - Ulrich

[Maggi Young]

Hello Ulrich, welcome to the Forum.

Great to hear that your change of method has been good for your flowers. I hope that in future years you will go on to more success with these beauties.

[Paddy Tobin]

Hi Ulrich,

A wonderful photograph.

Welcome to the forum - I do hope you grow some nice plants! Snowdrops?

Paddy

[ranunculus]

Welcome Ulrich ... you will enjoy this wonderful forum, especially if you post more images as beautiful as that!   

[angie]

Hi Ulrich,

What a wonderful picture, my Pleiones were the same, my bulbs to got smaller and smaller and some even disappeared . My mum managed to keep them for years. I am going to try and do better this time around.

Angie

[JPB]

Welcome, Ulrich. Do you have details on this particular clone of P. praecox?

Keeping Pleiones outside in summer works well here in NW-Europe. I found that a few hours full sun in the morning is beneficial. Provided that they are out of the full sun before noon.

 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Welcome Ulrich !  You'll be in good Pleione company here in a few months !! 

That's one perfect picture of a wonderful praecox !! 
Would you have a front view as well ??

[Maren]

Hallo Ulrich,

da sind wir wieder.

Nice picture, I trust your new pleiones will be just as beautiful.

[Sempervivum]

Hallo at all and thank you for the nice words.

Would you have a front view as well ??

Yes, I have:

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks Ulrich, it's a "Schönheit" ! 

[Sempervivum]

Hallo,
in the past I had another problem with my Pleione: The flowers often "stuck" (is this the right term? "blieben stecken") and did not open completely. I have a foto of P. Berapi to illustrate this:



I have no idea what is the reason for this and in the german orchid forum nobody could help. Too wet or too dry? Too cold or too hot? Regarding watering I read that one should start watering when the blooms start to "nod" ("nicken"), but I suspect that this is too late. Does anybody have an idea how I can avoid this problem?

Best regards - Ulrich

[christian pfalz]

hallo ulrich,
auch von meiner seite ein herzliches willkommen hier im forum,
schöne bilder, von schönen pflanzen, hast du auch freiland orchideen
wenn erwünscht können wir uns darüber einmal austauschen.
viel spaß weiterhin...
lg
chris

[Maren]

Hallo Ulrich,

it sometimes happens that pleione petals/sepals stick together and do not separate to open up. It's hard to say what causes this, it could be lack of moisture in the air, or a sudden rise in temperature, resulting in a spurt of growth, anything really.

As I grow rather a lot of them I can confirm that this tends to be specific to a plant, not necessary to an entire species or hybrid.

If it happens, you can try to gently pull the petals apart although this doesn't always work, depending on how strongly the petals are fused together. In my experience it's just a bit of bad luck, not nice but nothing one can do anything about.

[Sempervivum]

Hallo Christian,
ja, ich habe auch Freiland-Orchideen, aber diese laufen nur so nebenher. Ich beschäftige mich nicht allzu intensiv damit. Im vergangenen Jahr habe ich zum ersten Mal Cypripedien gekauft. Leider haben sie nicht alle geblüht und eins war auch etwas anderes als was ich gekauft hatte. Jetzt bin ich gespannt, wie sie über den Winter kommen. Ich habe sie in Töpfen und diese habe ich im Herbst eingesenkt.

Hallo Maren,
thank you for your explanations. This seems to be a difficult problem. I'm curious about how this will develop in next spring.

Best regards - Ulrich