taiwan pleione // windowsill orchid

order: asparagales
family: orchidaceae
genus: pleione
species: formosana

First Story

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14 april 2014

pleione flowering at last, march 2014.

Staying together with another hobby gardener at home, I had to oblige to enter into an agreement which dictates that I can keep any plant I want except orchids and bromeliads, which are exclusively the fields of the other gardener. This agreement has been violated many times. When I started a pineapple plant, the agreement hadn't yet been drafted. When we purchased this outdoor orchid bulb in late spring 2 years ago, I was the only one who took care of it, which is why it gradually became an exception to the rule. The plant didn't flower in the year it was planted. Soon the winter frost hit us and we've forgotten to bring this poor thing in. We were left with 2 mashy bulbs. Having given up all hopes, we left the bulbs outside over the entire winter. What happened in spring struck us with joy: the plant came back to life. Each bulb sends out its one and only leaf with corrugated surface. Again we didn't get to see its flower that year.

This year, our pleione has finally made itself worthy of a post. When green tips appeared, you could almost see that there's also a flower bud on one of them. It took less than 2 weeks for it to develop into this purplish flower, right before I went away for holidays. By the time I came home 2 weeks later, the flower has already been spent. Now, the next thing to hope for for next spring is multiple flowers and/or the multiplying of bulbs.

Update

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15 march 2015

feb 2015.

This year I woke my pleione from its winter sleep earlier than previously by bringing it into my room by January where it's warm enough for it to resume growth. There are at least 8 leaves this year, each singly attached to a bulb or a new bulb that is yet to develop. It also gave me 5 beautiful flowers. I managed to take photos of the first few before going on vacation this time. When I came back 3 weeks later, the last 2 were at their best while the first three had been spent. I'm really happy with the progress the plant is making, considering that I started with just 2 bulbs two years ago.

I learned that the plants can actually be grown with some wetness in the soil which other common orchids usually resent. You can just go ahead and water it regularly without having to worry about over-wetness. (Don't drown it though!) Because of its ease of growing I became more and more enthusiastic about it.