Hello Greencurls: My S. japonica is from J&L and is now about 5 years old. Originally I tried to keep it in its plastic pot but it eventually got root rot after just a few months. Near death's door, but with a few leaves, I shifted it to a fresh pot and coarser medium and put it in a terrarium to boost humidity. I watered it very little through the pot, but I let one of the dangling long roots touch the bottom of the terrarium on which i made sure to keep a film of water - it was like drinking through a straw. When it looked like it was recuperated I took it out of the terrarium. I finally found that it perfers to be mounted which keeps it well drained. However, at the same time it wants never to dry out for too long. Finally, after observing other orchids and the way they were grown, I hit on this: mount the littel diva on a somewhat horizontal mount (mine is a wood piece that has a cup-like and channelled surface that drains quickly, then cover the roots very loosely with living moss (from my wood pile). The living moss does a couple of things - it covers and keeps the well drained roots from shriveling beyond the point of no return, lets the roots breath, and if the moss keeps living, it tells you that you are watering enough. A divine balance! Keep the mount dryer in winter but raise humdity and let it have strong light as if it is living in a deciduous tree. Keep it cool, and I mean cool - my tiny greenhouse falls to 45 degrees. I water with a dilute solution of seaweed extract, a little commercial fertilizer, and leftover coffee or tea. During summer when it goes outside (in partial shade), chicken manure is added to the mixture. (All my orchids get this treatment) Do not let her totally dry out when in spike or the spikes will blast! Right now the little diva has 5 spikes - oops I hope I didn't jinx it by mentioning that. Following the instructions on the New World page is a good method of growing both S. japonica and Neofinita. Once I got them out of the plastic pots, which seem to suffocate their roots, I had much better performance from them. You might Use a basket, or perhaps a clay pot which has numerous holes drilled into the sides. Good luck! Maryanne in WMass

"gosh it sounds funny when you say you screwed them"...LOL...sorry but i have a little giggle when i read it...*giggle again* Yep HDD it sure will be a learning experience thats for sure and im kinda excited about it....and very very nervous at the same time...we could almost say im a virgin at this....*giggle again*....Hahahaaaaaa Now...Lisa, im kinda tempted now to just hold off on my Dear ole passion mum and try doing it to another one...a less loved...ugly....maybe burnt or squiffy one thats has no place in my brom house just to get me some experience up my sleeve, also then it will bring me to spring time instead of doing it just a few months before winter too...ohh gosh dont know havent decided completely on that one. But the longer i leave it the longer her stem gets too.(obviously still havent decided on the time) In that picture up there you can see a couple of Bosa Nova neos beside her...well those broms are actually sitting IN her pot at her base, she is on a huge lean and then obviously has a slight turn in her stem. Do you think that if i put the screwdriver down her throat and came out her stem at the elbow of her lean/bend that she still might pup?It would also then be easy to keep ckecking on her hole for drainage....During this thread and while we are talking about doing it im feeling more and more growing apart from her and letting go....lol....i have gone through months of feeling like chucking her out and then holding on to her...then chucking her out then holding on to her, Ive had her sitting in my care for years now... hmmmm this post is showing alot of mixed emotion and mixed decision I dont know or have the ingredients to make her flower to then make her pup..so i think it definately has to be done with the screwdriver method There is a lady down the road who sells lovely broms on ebay who also has heaps of passions that just NEVER pup...the stalks are about 20 to 30cms long already, all they are doing is sitting in her brom house doing nothing but growing up, she has had hers for years also. So im thinking obviously there will be no natural waiting for things to take their course. It has got to be done artificially Im talking out loud here and going over stuff in my head by the way but also letting you know what im thinking so i can get some sort of approval...LOL I now am only concerned for her bend in her stem and if i can do a short cut and not go all the way down the throat/stem and just do half the job?...I suppose ive got nothing to lose huh? I have one beautiful daughter(who will probably never ever pup herself either)to carry on the beauty in the brom house i guess so i wont be losing the showiness. takes a big breath Yep im feeling more comfortable with it now....*smile* I would love to see photos of your progession one day , thats would be amazing...(if you remember)hheheeee maybe i could even take photos of mine too just for keepsakes...lol *gawd i love me...

Hi everyone - I do agree with what you've all said and my own opinion is that the plants above are worthless, unless (as I did) you let it grow to prove to other growers that instability can and does exist and more so in some brom's than others. I would never sell such a plant but I did hear a story of one unsuspecting lady who was new to brom's and who paid big money for a supposedly "very rare albino brom". (It was from an Ae Gamosepala) The picture accompanying the advertisement showed the albino pup still attached to the mother plant which was in full flower and of course looked like a "real winner" to the inexperienced. Obviously, once it was separated from the Mother plant it soon died. The poor lady went to a brom grower she knew for advice as she was sure she had done something wrong when she potted the plant as she said it was alright when she received it. When it was explained to her what the problem was she wrote a letter to the seller at the return address on the parcel but (surprise, surprise) it came back "NOT AT THIS ADDRESS" Just how low can some people stoop? The grower she went to for advice did give her a pot of Ae. Lucky Stripes which made he feel a little better, but the fact she had been cheated still left a very bitter taste in her mouth and probably made her very cautious of all brom growers......... I guess you live and learn. All the best, Nev.

Gee, Andrew, I guess I'd better get your second book! I don't suppose you'd want to send me a copy........? No, didn't think so. ;-) Never mind, someone was kind enough to email me a photo of the page in question. It's kind of hard to see enough detail to determine the texture of the leaf though, and there's no inflorescence on the pink one on the right, which I assume is what you are referring to. Frankly I'm not convinced that is in fact a form of N. cruenta, despite what the tag may say. I'm not seeing cruenta for mine either. The petals are more of a pale lavender blue than the typical cruenta sky blue, and the floral bracts don't have that characteristic in-turned scoop shape that cruenta inflos have. And again with the leaf texture and growth habit-- every verified true species cruenta I've seen has leaves as tough as rhino hide, and is somewhat stoloniferous as well. This is neither. And I've never seen a real cruenta that blushed pink in the cup. My guess is that a lot of what you're seeing as that species has been misidentified or is of hybrid origin. Much as I'd love my plant to be a new species, Kerry, I'm starting to get some indications that it probably is a hybrid. I did some crosses with it, and although they're still small, the seedlings are showing a degree of variability and unexpected pigmentation that points more to mixed ancestry. Next time it blooms, though, I'll take some more detailed photos and even dissect a flower and see if the BIC has anything to say about it.