Three cool climate Coelogynes in bloom!

Well, hello plant lovers. It is Matthew in Melbourne, welcoming you to my orchid channel. Thank you very much for finding me here on YouTube, where there are a lot of people to watch. So thank you for choosing me. And here on my channel, I try to grow cold, cool, intermediate orchids here in Melbourne, Australia, without any equipment. So no greenhouse, or heating, or humidifiers, or fans. Really just me and them, managing my outside conditions, or not at all. So plant lovers of the world, if that sounds like your no-nonsense conditions, hit subscribe, because I do post every week on a Friday, quite amateur ramblings, but you never know, it might help you in your orchid journey. Which, as you can see today, is very firmly stopping at cellogenes. And I love cellogenes. And a lot of mine are in bloom at the moment. So I thought, you know what, why not? Let us just do another quick cellogene video, because this one is a newish plant for me. It has never bloomed before. There's one at my feet I'll show you in a minute, which is just about to go over. But these two are old favorites. But who cannot resist a pot full of cellogenes? Actually, I'm going to turn it that way, look at that. Aren't they just incredible? I mean, any which way you turn, that is a plant that is covered in blooms. And you know, my abiding ambition with orchids is to grow them into large specimen plants, so that you do get a ton of flowers. And I will say that cellogenes are very rewarding in that regard, because they do bulk up fairly quickly, and they flower. Once they're happy and you've got it right, they flower like there is no tomorrow. And this one is no exception. So cellogenes, the word cellogenes, sometimes I love an orchid name, because it can be poetic or reveal the name of someone who discovered it. Cellogenes, no, comes from two Greek words referring to some very obscure part of the stigma of the flower. So cellogenes, we can elide over. But as a genus, they're spread pretty far and wide. So they start in sort of Northern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Assam, all the way across into Southeast Asia, and all the way across into the Pacific Islands. So quite a wide range of distribution, which means, of course, there are cellogenes, and cellogenes, and cellogenes, and not all of them are gonna be perfect for you. And not all of them, of course, are in cultivation, because many are perhaps a plant that only your mother grew. And a whole ton of other orchids have been recently put into the cellogene genus. I think at the moment it's about 598 species. And you could roughly say that they're divided between the cool climate, high altitude ones, and the low-lying, more tropical ones. And there are a few that are in between that can straddle both, in fact, this one being one. But essentially, the cellogenes that I grow are the cool climate ones, with one exception, which is Cellogene usatana. I'll drop in the picture of my old plant. I managed to kill it by not reading the instructions on the label properly, because that is tropical. So it's taken me, I think, four years to find another plant. And it's here, inside all the time, in tropical conditions. So keeping warm. Now, it hasn't put on any growth at all since I bought it about three months ago. So, hmm. Anyway, all of these cellogenes are the cool climate ones and hybrids thereof, and they are high altitude. So they really love Melbourne's conditions, as long as you just get the light, heat, and water right, which is kind of the same for any orchid. So they have been in cultivation for quite some time. I think the first one was named in about the 1824-ish. The early part of the 19th century, because they are so flashy and beautiful, and then hybridized to some degree. And so quite a few varieties and forms. And in fact, I have a fantastic one called Cellogene Janine Banks. I'll drop in the picture here. Now that does bloom, oh, sometimes three times a year for me. And it usually blooms counter seasonally to the more sort of classic cellogenes. So that will pop into bloom at all manner of the time. It's not in bloom now, but it was in bloom early winter, I think, so about two or three months ago. That is the most stunning plant. And in fact, as we're talking about that, let me just show you this one down here, which is not dissimilar. There we are. This is a hybrid called Pyribilli Ellen. And it is just going over, which is why I'm not gonna focus on it too much. The flowers have been out now for over a month, and they're just getting a little tired, like the best of us. But this is a beautiful hybrid. But as you can see, perhaps not that different to every other cellogene. So yes, they all do tend to be whitish with an egg-yolky interior to the lip. Beautiful. So saying, of course, this one is more bronzy. And this one is an alba form, which actually does have a lemon yellow tip to the lip. But anyway, but essentially, they do all tend to look the same. So my advice would be, if you're just wanting a cellogene, then go for one, because they will probably all do exactly the same thing. Now, the other thing about cellogenes, or all of these anyway, is that, and we can't generalize, because as I said, there's 598 species at this point covering a vast part of the earth. So they aren't all the same. But the ones that you'll find in cultivation do tend to have the most beautiful fragrance. And it's quite light and jonquilish. It's quite springy. It's a beautiful fragrance. And I've got all these three plants in here at the moment, and the fragrance is beautiful. It's not overwhelming. They're like Yves Saint Laurent opium in the 80s, that fragrance. No, it is subtle and charming and beautiful and light. So if you're a fragrant orchid person, then cellogenes are for you. Now, the other thing is, they basically, the species ancestors, come from very similar parts of the world to a lot of cymbidium species. So if you can grow cymbidiums, and most people can, then you can certainly grow cellogenes hanging above them. So cellogenes are really generally classic epiphytes. So they do want plenty of air movement and to be a little higher, a little lighter and brighter. But if a cymbidium was beneath it, they basically want the same conditions and they would suit very well cohabiting together. All right, now you're dying to know what these are. Now, this is a form of a very famous and quite easy to get cultivar called Unchained Melody, which is a cross between cellogene flaccida, this one, and cristata. And I'll drop in some images of mine. So my cellogene cristata is just going over and it only had two spikes this year, I think because I didn't give it enough light in summer. So we'll get to that in a minute. But my cristata has had seasons. When it is covered in blooms and it's a really beautiful flower. Now that one is sensational. It's really large and frilly and beautiful. So that was combined with this to give you this cultivar and this is the alba form. Now alba generally means white, but it doesn't mean white. But as you can see there, the flowers do have a little touch of a pale lemon to the lip, but isn't that beautiful? Now just look at that. This plant flowers without fail every year and it is covered in blooms, absolutely covered in blooms. Now we are in spring at the moment in Australia and this is when it blooms. Look at that. It's a stunning plant, isn't it? So that's this plant, Unchained Melody, alba form. Now behind me here, which I will try and get for you. So this one is Unchained Melody, the regular form. And as you can see, the lip just has much stronger gold color and same fragrance and same floriferousness. Look at that, absolutely covered in blooms. And I love the form, the pendulous form of Slogeny flowers. They're really gorgeous. So this one, Unchained Melody Classic, Unchained Melody Alba and it's a combination between Cristata and Slogeny bacillus. So this one is a species and look at that. Isn't it so elegant? And again, covered in flowers and actually quite an interesting sort of bronzy color to the flowers. And this is a new-ish plant for me and it's the first time it's flowered. Isn't that wonderful? And yes, Tillandsias. Tillandsias are also great companion plants for many an orchid and orchid basket because when you're watering orchids, you tend to water them less in winter and the water's gonna flow off quite quickly, particularly in a basket. So it's kind of the perfect conditions for Tillandsias. So if you have the right environment, then why not stick a Tillandsia in the side of your pot in the cocoa husk that's lining your pot and when they bloom, they are amazing. And I don't know, it's kind of a nice contrast to the orchid. So this one is a Himalayan species. So from that northern part of India, Bhutan, Assam, around there and I think it stretches across into China. They all cover very, very similar territory but as with most plants, although they're quite close geographically, there'll be huge sort of mountain ranges and valleys between each group and each species. So they've been separated for a long time, even though they can be quite close together. So Flacida has a smaller flower and it has this lovely sort of bronzy tone to the flower but the same fragrance, absolute beautiful and flowering at the same time. Okie doke, well, let's get to some basics. So I hang all of mine and some are in baskets like this one. Others are in classic orchid pots like this with piercings and this has a metal wire that enables me to hang it up. So they do like to be elevated and breezy. So if you do grow cymbidiums, as I said, your cymbidiums tend to be closer to ground level, your slogens can hang above and they want bright indirect light. So not too shady, but not too strong. Now, when we moved, unfortunately, mine, which is a year ago now, but these leaves do last a while, you can see I've got quite a bit of sun damage and I've actually, quite cheekily, I've just trimmed the ends off a lot of the leaves because they really were quite badly sun damaged when we moved. So they really do not want bright direct sunlight, but they do want bright indirect sunlight, which is the regime that Mariana from White Hill Nursery uses. So she moves her slogenes in spring and then in autumn. I don't because I'm lazy, plant lovers. Also, I don't really have that much room. So mine tend to stay in the same spot and I think my cristada has suffered a little bit this year because it's too shady. So I will move that into a better spot. So they want bright indirect light, even though you might read that they are sort of a low light plant. Like many things, that's all relative. If you imagine the misty cloud forests where they come from, they're getting bright indirect light filtered by a lot of clouds, rain cover, humidity, and dappled semi deciduous forest leaves. So all you've got to do is replicate that. The other thing that they like, well, that I find that mine like is consistent watering. So for me, they don't have a dry period or a dormancy period. And in some books you will read that they do, particularly slogene and cristada. Now, the wonderful Rachel from Gardening Induenza in Ireland was the first person I came across to grow these when I was first looking at YouTube orchid videos. And Rachel and I did a video together, actually many, many months ago. And she confirmed that she waters her cristada all year, including throughout winter. And I do mine too. So all of my slogenes get watering throughout the winter as well. Now, when I am watering in winter, I am cautious. So even the plants that do want it at that time of year, I try to make sure that I do it on about 10 o'clock in the morning, on a brightish breezy day, so that the plants aren't going to stay too moist in terms of particularly on the leaves. And that there's a good chance that a lot of it will have evaporated, particularly off the surface of the plant by the end of the evening, the end of the day, and that the medium will dry out a little bit so that it's not going to be cold and wet as you get into a particularly cold night. Don't overthink it though. Quite simply, I water my slogenes all the time and I just dial it down in winter, dial it up in summer. And in the warmer periods, that's when I start weeding. And like all mine, I don't really have a special regime for many things in spring, topical application of slow release fertilizer. And then during the warmer seasons, I try and give it a liquid top up. So either a liquid orchid fertilizer diluted or a seaweed based solution. And the product here is called sea salt, S-E-A-S-O-L, not sea salt. And that's more of a tonic for the plant. So either way, throughout that growing period, a little top up stimulus of some food. Now, the other thing perhaps you can see is on this plant, can you see here? Let me just see if I can see, there we go. So they are quite rhizoming, a little bit like say, Miltonia. So their rhizome will creep, which is why they're great for baskets or sort of hanging vessels because the plant will then form a ball around the vessel that it's in. They say that they resent being disturbed and repotted. Now, I wouldn't know because I haven't actually repotted any of mine, but I have planted divisions that have flowered the following year. So I'm not sure about that. I think if you repot at the wrong time and you're repotting correctly, then yes, the plant is probably gonna salt, but who wouldn't? So I'm not sure we can sort of label every slogeny with that same dislike of being repotted. Now, my Unchained Melody, this one up here, is going to need to be repotted because it's one terracotta pot in another one. So stop it falling over because it got quite big. So I am gonna have to repot that. Now, I, with most things, will do it in spring. So any minute really. Once these flowers have gone over, a great time to repot because the new growths will start to emerge once all the flowers have gone. So the flowers emerge from the base of last year's matured pseudobulb, which I'll try and come and show you. So here, this is where our spike is coming from and this is the base of the old bulb. So a little bit like many other orchids, so particularly, say, Cymbidiums or Oncidiums, when your growth has matured, it's ready to flower. Now, that bulb won't flower again, but that bulb will produce probably multiple growth points, which will then mature next year. So one bulb can grow exponentially. Hence, you get these amazing specimen plants relatively quickly. And if you were to propagate, then the thing to do is quite simply snip off one of these rhizomes with a couple of bulbs and a little bit of root action and pop that on. And there you are. If you were to do that, I would keep the medium dry-ish until you can really get a sense that the root system has developed. And if you're repotting in the warmer period of time in spring, fine with your watering, but if you do have to repot in winter, which is perhaps why the plant might sulk, I would again keep it on the drier side until the roots have really settled in and they probably aren't gonna start really growing and developing until the warmer period. So I would try and repot in spring when the flowers are done. Now, medium-wise, nothing fancy, whatever works for you, depends how you're growing them. So mine are, of course, outside all year. Now, they are undercover, so they're not being rained on, and they can certainly take my winter nighttime in a month, which is the litmus test for everything, obviously, because otherwise it will be dead, which is why I do like a high-altitude, cool-climate orchid plant, obviously, because they do tend to sail through Melbourne's winter. Conversely, they can easily take our summer heat as well, as long as you do keep them cool and moist and hydrated and plenty of humidity. So when it's going to be a real stinker of a day, and last year we had a 45-degree centigrade summer's day, which is, I think, 113 Fahrenheit, hot, hot, hot. Luckily in Melbourne, that sort of weather doesn't last long, maybe one or two days, and then there's always change. So it did change quite rapidly, but there was two successive days of extreme heat. And on days like that, which are rare and few and far between, thank goodness here, but as things shift, we are seeing that old patterns aren't consistent. Anyway, on a day like that, I just water twice, morning and evening, and I really drench the whole area. So there's lots of water pooling on the floor and dripping down, everything's really sodden, so that we just create a lot of airborne humidity and moisture, which just helps, A, hydrate everything, and B, keep the temperature down. So although they are cool growing, they can certainly deal with those occasional heat bursts, and generally they manage our summer quite well, as long as you keep them hydrated and humid. And I just do that by literally hosing them, so nothing special. In summer, I just have the hose on a spray setting, and the medium that they're in, again, depends on what you're doing. So in a basket, baskets really dry out very, very quickly. So I would use, what I tend to do is line it with cocoa, and then line that with sphagnum, and then use a medium bark. But it just depends how and where you're growing them. You could use pure sphagnum, you could use whatever it is. Depends whether you're growing those indoors, outdoors, what your conditions are. But for me, I use a medium orchid bark, nothing special. And if you wanted to, you could bung in some perlite, some charcoal, sphagnum moss, really depends. Depends on your pot and what your ambient conditions are, whether the plants can dry out really quickly. Because cellogenes are not a plant that will really love drying out a lot all the time. And then flowering, well, as you can see, it is spring and they are flowering for me. Now, these flower once a year. So Unchained Melody flowers once a year for me. But I also have other species, cool climate species and hybrids, and they have flowered at various points of the year. And Cellogene Janine Banks, as I mentioned, flowers about three times a year, and it never tends to be open at the same time as these. But that's great, because I always have a Cellogene in bloom at different periods. So really depends what hybrid you've got or species you've got as to when it's going to flower. And of course, your particular conditions will affect that as well. So there we are, plant lovers, cellogenes. It's such a fantastic orchid. It's really rewarding. So if you can just get the spot right, they are just set and go. They really do not need much attention at all. The only thing, actually, this one, the only thing that ever really happens to mine is scale. This one is outside, so it's quite unusual, but it got a bit of scale, and I noticed as I was taking it down, it came back. So I just use an old toothbrush and rubbing alcohol to get rid of scale and then keep your eye on it. And you can also give it a spray. So once you've cleaned it with rubbing alcohol and toothbrush, give it a bit of a spray and then keep your eye on it. Because for me, that generally knocks them on the head, but you don't want them, you don't want to miss the infestation coming back. But I find outside, things tend to find a natural balance. So I am quite fortunate in that I don't tend to get many pests outside, apart from munching things, so caterpillars, slugs, and snails. And munching things love the buds of any orchid, really. But most of these are hanging up, so it's really impossible for them to get to. But otherwise, mine pretty much pest-free. So there we are, cellogeny catch-up. It is a beautiful time of year. They are such stunning orchids. I mean, just look at that. Doesn't it just bring you joy and make your heart sing to have all of these racemes of flowers from a plant? How many spikes are there? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. I think 10 spikes on that one. Who knows on that one? And again, who knows on this one? Lots, let's just say lots. They are easy to flower once you get the conditions right. So flower lovers, I hope you've loved this delve into cellogeny land. I always thank Rachel at Garthing, Indonesia because it was on her channel I first saw cellogeny crustata and I adore it. So thank you, Rachel, for putting them in my way. And I'm very much looking forward to my cellogeny usatana surviving, thriving, and flowering. So we'll have to see what happens with that. I've also got a hybrid of usatana. When I couldn't find the species, I bought a hybrid of it. And that is doing really well. And it's just sending up a new growth. So I'm not quite sure what the flowering period of that might be. It's certainly a flowering size division. So if anything should happen with that, I will let you know, plant lovers. But I will also let you know that I post every week on a Friday. So if you want to know what I'm doing next week, you'll have to hit subscribe to see what mad adventure we might be. I know what I'm doing tomorrow. I'm going to the house of someone I've met through one of the orchid groups to film his Lycasty collection. So he's got the most amazing selection of hybrid Lycasties that are all in bloom right now. And I've failed spectacularly with that sort of Lycasty. So Alf, thank you so much. Tomorrow, I'm off to film that. I'm not quite sure when I'll air it, in a couple of weeks time. But I have one that I rescued from Joe Corker's collection, which has got a beautiful flower spike. So I might wait till mine is open and then link the two bits of information together. But anyway, who knows? You'll have to hit subscribe to find out when that video is going to land. I hope wherever you are in the world, all is well in this crazy world in which we live, but that your orchids are bringing you joy. And I always think of Dolly Parton now, joy and gratitude, her two mantras of life. I certainly am joyous and grateful. Grateful for you for watching. Grateful for you for finding me. Hopefully you will next week. But until then, I look forward to seeing you on Friday.