Stanhopea wardii is native to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. It grows on trees and on rocks in warm to cool cloud forests at elevations of 800-1600 meters above sea level...
Stanhopea wardii also called as Ward's Stanhopea, Stanhopea amoena, Stanhopea anfracta, Stanhopea aurea, Stanhopea inodora var. amoena, Stanhopea peruviana, Stanhopea wardii var.aurantiaca, Stanhopea wardii var aurea, Stanhopea wardii var. aureum, Stanhopea wardii var. flavescens, Stanhopea wardii var.stenoptera, Stanhopea woodii, is a species of the genus Stanhopea. This species was described by Joachim Conrad Loddiges ex John Lindley in 1838.
IDENTIFY STANHOPEA WARDII
Stanhopea wardii is native to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. It grows on trees and on rocks in warm to cool cloud forests at elevations of 800-1600 meters above sea level.
It is a medium sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with pyriform to ovoid, sulcate, 4-6 cm in length and 3-4 cm in width pseudobulbs and a single, apical, coriaceous, plicate, ribbed, elliptic-obovate, gradually narrows below into the elongate, petiolate base, 30-40 cm long and 15 cm wide leaf.
Ward's Stanhopea blooms in the summer and fall on a pendant, 3 to 10 flowered, 15 to 18 cm long, crowded inflorescence arising on a mature pseudobulb. The flowers are fragrant (very intense sweet smell), in form they resemble butterflies, they are pale yellow, green-yellow or golden with small orange or red spots on the sepal, while the lip is covered with darker (up to black) spots, about 7 in size cm in diameter.
STANHOPEA WARDII CARE AND CULTURE
Cultural information should only be used as a guide, and should be to be adapted to suit you. Your physical location; where you grow your plants, how much time you have to devote to their care, and many other factors, will need to be taken into account. Only then can you decide on the cultural methods that best suit you and your plants.
Light:
Stanhopea wardii loves bright sunlight (from 15000 to 35000 lux) and is able to tolerate direct morning and evening sun. However, in the hot summer noon, the orchid should be protected from direct sunlight.
Temperature:
This species is found both in warm and in temperate climates, so the choice of temperature regime is strictly individual, one plant is equally good at both high and low temperatures, while others prefer only a moderate climate. It is recommended that the orchids be kept under the following conditions throughout the year: day temperature not higher than 30 ° C; night temperature at 14-18 ° C.
Humidity:
In places where this orchid grows, the relative humidity of the air rarely falls below 70%. However, it should not be forgotten that in nature, an orchid grows with a bare root system, braiding branches of trees without penetrating into their bark; therefore, due to the high content of steam in the marine tropical air, the main absorption of moisture occurs (containing roots in tone) in periods when there is no rain. When growing orchids in substrates, their root system almost all the time is in a moistened state, so the need also in the high humidity of air around the plants is significantly reduced, and in many cases even goes to the detriment, causing decay not only of the roots (which do not have time to dry out) but also the bases of pseudobulbs.
It is necessary to regularly ventilate the room where the plants are kept, since wet, stale air is an ideal medium for the mass reproduction of various fungal and bacterial diseases.
Substrate, growing media and repotting:
In view of the fact that the peduncles of Stanhopea wardii grow downward, growing through the substrate, this kind of orchids are grow on suspended trellis baskets or on blocks. To protect the peduncles from decay, the substrate must be very good breathable, for this purpose, a very large bark of coniferous trees, with a small proportion of sphagnum (up to 20%), charcoal, stem and rhizome of some ferns (for example, genus Osmunda sp.). When choosing a container for planting, it should be borne in mind that their height should not exceed 10-12 cm, on the assumption that the peduncles will sprout through the substrate and come out from the lower side (the length of the peduncles is 15 cm). If the height of the basket is longer than the peduncles, they will remain inside the substrate or the opening of the flowers will occur at the bottom of the basket, which is fraught with deformation due to lack of space. When growing orchids on blocks to prevent rapid drying of the root system of the plant, it is recommended to make a small interlayer of moss between it and the block. Above the roots, you can also put live or dry sphagnum.
Repotting is desirable only when it is really necessary, for example, in cases of severe salinization or condensation of the substrate, at its critically high or low pH (5.5 to 6.5) or , when the plant will grow very much and the pot will become too small for it (pseudobulbs will begin to hang from the edges of the pot). The best time for repot is the period immediately after the flowering of the orchid.
Watering:
Watering this kind of orchids directly depends on the overall temperature of the content, the higher it is, the more often and abundant it is necessary to water. Plants growing on blocks, it is recommended to water daily in the morning, so that by evening the roots of the orchids could dry out relatively well. When watering orchids in pots, it must be remembered that excess water during watering should flow freely out of the pot, as the stagnation of water both inside the pot and in its pallet can very quickly lead to decay of the roots and the lower part of the plant.
Fertilizer:
During the new growth period, this type of orchid is fertilized once a week at 1/2 of the fertilizer concentration indicated on the package. At the beginning of the growing season (the appearance of new shoots) it is recommended to use a fertilizer with a high nitrogen content, and by the time when new shoots reach 1/2 of their normal size - a fertilizer with a high content of phosphorus. It is also possible to use fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in equal parts, for example, NPK = 3-3-3 or 8-8-8, etc.
Rest period:
To stimulate flowering, Stanhopea wardii needs a definite period of rest, which begins immediately after the formation of new pseudobulbs (when new young shoots develop sufficiently and begin to round up, becoming pseudobulbs) and is expressed in the fact that the orchids contain much drier and colder than usual, and do not fertilize. The total temperature of the content in this period should not exceed the mark of + 20 ° C (ideally not higher than 15-17 ° C), but if this is not possible, as an alternative, you can try to influence the orchid only by strong night cooling (contrast between daytime heating and night cooling), for example, to keep the plant in the daytime at a temperature of about 22-25 ° C, and at night to lower it to 10-14 ° C. Watering the orchids should be organized in such a way, so that the substrate not only dries well, but it is completely dry for about 7-10 days. With the appearance of new shoots, the dormancy period ends, the total temperature of the content increases, however, it is necessary to renew irrigation very cautiously, since along with the development of new shoots, also flower stems (1-2 weeks later) growing inside the substrate also appear; time will be excessive, they can simply rot.
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