Well, I'm no expert but I fertilize and water year 'round. My orchids are indoors, so they don't know what season it is except for the angle of natural light. If one is supposed to stop feeding and water less in winter, I can't think why...mine look fine and are blooming right now.

Maybe you should feed the little fella?

Maybe if you grow them under lights without a climate range they will do different things and maybe if they are modern hybrids they will behave if a different manner.

But here in nobile heaven most of them will flower in spring after a drier, sunny winter. Sure you might get a scattered flower or two but peak flowering is September, October, November (Spring southern Hemisphere) Just Natural Rainfall and nil Fertilizer once the new canes have finished growing in Autumn.

How much light is the den getting? In the winter when they're dry they need a cool temp and as much sun as you can give them.

To learn how to bloom nobile dendrobiums check out what the experts say on this site:

http://www.yamamotodendrobiums.com/index.html

The talk about stopping fertilizer after a certain month, until they bloom. They also talk about a cool period of 57 degrees or less for 28 day for an hour or two to get the best blooms. Search this site, you'll find lots of info.

Hope this helps
Bob in Albany, N.Y.

hello,thank you everyone who answered my question.mine sits under lites 14 hours a day as supplement,but no fertilizer ,my house sits at 65 degrees during the day,60 at nite.i only have to water it maybe every couple of weeks.i will check out the site you sent me bob8.i kept it outdoors in the fall,until it got to 40 degrees.well,thanks again,if you have any more ideas please keep them coming.

Hmmm. Well, Arthur sure is the expert; maybe that's what mine are - modern hybrids. They don't bloom 'spotty' or piecemeal. They bloom bodaciously!

Actually i'm not an expert. Do not love them because you have to fiddle with staking etc. and i only have 3 out of a thousand or so orchids. But here goes.
The main ancestor Den. nobile grows or grew in monsoonal forests in South East Asia. Summer, sweat on the brow, humidity, rain (in other words the wet season)
Winter, clear days, lower humidity, cool nights and days, not much rain, maybe some dew, lots of light because the trees lose leaves to cope with dryness.

The Yamamoto stuff, my understanding is that they have reduced the need somewhat for the degree of coolness in winter and the plant will flower from the growth made the previous summer rather from the one made the year before that. Very confusing, because Yukidaruma 'King' blooms from the 2nd newest growth and it was registered by Yamamoto. Not sure how many generations of Yamamoto have been breeding these orchids. But we are in debt.

They like to be out in the open air. Found this out the hard way when i was a newbie and managed to bump one of them off by watering it in a glasshouse at the wrong time of year.

The bone dry stuff in winter. This is the myth that must do in lots of newbies. My remaining 3 are in a shade-house and they can get rained on (heavily) at any time of year. Doesn't appear to make any difference to performance.

Here are some pics. Plus comments.
No! It is not a Yamamoto Dendrobium. Dendrobium Gladeview Sunset.
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Specialist grower's shadehouse with nobile type Dens in Bloom
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Specialist grower's shadehouse with nobile type Dens in summer
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This pic. is here to show a nobile type Den grown as a garden plant where the garden is just a little way up a hill from a frost hollow. Not sure what sort of low they will take perhaps just above freezing
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What is needed here are some comments from indoor growers in the frozen north who have had success with these orchids.

thank you arthurm,for the wonderful pix and more information.i did look up the yamamoto website,and learned more new stuff there.i was wondering how many pseudobulbs does the orchid need to bloom or will it bloom on just one bulb?thank you all again for the infos.

Just went out and measured Den. Yukidaruma 'King' and using Centimetre to Inch converter...
5 mature growths approx 16inches
2 new growths which will mature about the end of march and will flower spring 2013.
That is 7 canes/pseudobulbs in total. Currently getting all day sun filtered by two layers of 50% shadecloth. One layer removed early autumn.

included in above count. One fully leafed mature growth which will flower in late August early September this year. Yukidaruma 'King' is one of the first to flower. The remaining canes are leafless, have flowered, and are left on the plant to provide support and nourishment for the newer growths.

Climate.
Approx extremes for shadehouse.
40C High
2C Low
Why i have all this extra shadecloth on when Yamamoto says full sun? Well, it only takes one 40C day with about 10% humidity to frizzle almost anything that is out in the full sun.

This is all so confusing, but that is the challenge of orchid growing. You need info. from specialist growers in cooler climates.

hi arthurm,thanks for the new info and the beautiful pic.im jealous,lol!so my nobile only has 2 canes,one is 7"tall,the other is 5"tall.the original cane that bloomed last summer,died on me.so will it take years to get it to bloom?thanks again

Not a good as Arthurs photos but her is a photo of mine. Mine stand around 24 inches tall.

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That is a nice flowering, and, Den. Tomoflake was not bred by Yamamoto.
Must emphasise that the pics. in an above post are from an orchid society gallery and are not my orchids.

Have about ten seedling nobile type Dens to give out at the monthly society meeting tonight, so had a look at them, appears that you might need about five growths
before the plant starts to flower on a regular basis.

thank you arthurm,for answering again.i guess i will have to wait for awhile.too bad i can't come to your meeting tonight!