Picked up a bloomed out NOID Cym last spring from Home Depot which was heavily discounted, 3 spikes right now and I can't wait to see what the bloom pattern is.
K

Cym. Peter Pan 'Greensleeves' and Golden Elf are so called warmth tolerant Cymbidiums and bloom here late summer and autumn.
They may have a different blooming pattern in Zone 5 Northern Hemisphere.

Main blooming season for Cymbidiums is late Autumn through to early spring but it depends on the ancestors with some of the "warmth tolerant " blooming early and some with Australian Native Cymbidiums as ancestors blooming late spring.

My cyms are spiking, too! Wonder how long it takes before I see blooms.

Xuan

Arthurm,
Pardon my ignorance, but can you tell me more about native Auatralian cymbidiums, i.e., a few names and origins and culture? Thank you in advance,
Ann

The three Australian native Cymbidiums are;
Cymbidium. canaliculatum, suave, madidum
Primary hybrid numbers
With canaliculatum 39
with suave 23
with madidum 62
Available in the USA ?????
Culture, sorry i do not grow any of these but i imagine that you would apply normal Cymbidium culture as per your collection.

Lots of new growth on mine. No spikes yet!

Regarding culture of the Australian natives they each have quirks that mean typical Cymbidium culture isn't necessarily appropriate. They are all mostly epiphytic so use a bark mix over the heavier mixes some people use for Cyms. All are tropical to subtropical species although cold tolerance varies between species. They should all be OK with warm to intermediate conditions. Cool conditions can work with a bit of effort.

Cymbidium madidum is probably the most likely to adapt to Cymbidium culture. Unlike standard Cymbidiums it is a somewaht intolerant of cold weather. Keeping them dry over winter can help increase your chances but here in Melbourne, where Cymbidiums grow like weeds, I have lost a lot of madidums to cold weather. If you live in an area that is too warm for most Cyms to perform their best you should have better luck with it. It will also flower in lower light than most Cyms. Like all Australian Cymbidiums, the flowers are small (~2cm), however, this species is a monster of plant with leaves around 1m long and you will need a lot of space even for modestly sized plants.

Cymbidium suave is a much smaller plant and is probably the most cold tolerant of the three - mine take brief winter minimums of 0oC without issue. The size of the plant is comparable to a typical miniature Cym. Light requirements are typical of Cyms to a little higher. I find my plants grow easily. They get plenty of water during the warmer months and are kept dryish over winter. The downside is their unfortunate habit of dying when the root system is damgaged, so avoid repotting. Small plants and seedling transplant OK but large plants should probably be left alone. If it out grows its container, pot it on without disturbance. This species can have a very long root system so give it as deep a container as you can. I have mine in a hollow log filled with decayed eucalypt wood. The grow well in bark but it's not as long lasting. Otherwise I find it is an easy plant to take care of.

Cymbidium canaliculatum is without doubt the most beautiful of the Australian Cyms. I do not grow this species (hopefully I'll give it a try in the near future) so I can only relay what I have picked up from others and I apologise if any of the following is off the mark. It will tolerate a lot of light and while it doesn't like root disturbance, it can recover from repotting. This species grows in dry, open tropical-subtropical forests and as such overwatering can cause problems especially in cooler weather. Water it from late spring/early summer to early autumn. Start to hold off the water after that and keep it dry over winter, especially in cool areas. It is apparently reasonably cold tolerant if kept dry. I do grow the politically incorrectly named Little Black Sambo (canaliculatum x madidum) using the above method with success, although I do admit to bringing it inside during really cold weather as I don't want to risk loosing it.

HTH

Let's keep this post alive by seeing who gets the most spikes off of one plant. It won't really be a competition but could be very interesting to see how many bulbs versus how many spikes some of us have in one plant. I guess we'd find out who has the really large, specimen plants.

Xuan, last year my Peggy Sue Five had 4 of 8 spikes blooming by Thanksgiving and continued blooming until at least the end of January, maybe even Feb. What a show!

I got my golden elf and peter pan last year, after the bloom (I don't remember when that was). At least the golden elf was done. I did have one spike on the peter pan that bloomed. It will be interesting to see if I get anything this year.

Susan

Susan, your suggestion sounds quite interesting. I also think it's thrilling to see who will have the most spikes on his/her cym.

I don't know the names of my cyms, though. But all three of them looked very pretty last year, even though there weren't as many spikes. I really am looking forward to seeing them bloom again.

Xuan

I'm looking forward to seeing everyones Cyms bloom by photo, since mine is too small to bloom... next year should bring spikes, if I treat it right!

I think that's a great idea since I have always wondered if there is such a thing as an "optimum size" for a cym or whether it's just a numbers game. The more pseudobulbs you have the more flower spikes you'll get? Is it "better" to have a plant with as many flower spikes as possible or do you want to have a small specimen plant with only 1 or 2 flower spikes? When it comes to cym size, year round outdoor growers will have an unfair advantage over people who grow their plants indoors. But then again, getting a cym to flower in the northern parts of the US is probably a greater achievement than flowering it in Melbourne, Australia.
I'll post some pics in the gallery section soon.

Well, the Cymbidium experts of which i am not one grow their Cymbidiums up to a certain pot size (let's call it X) before dividing their plant and starting the process all over again.

In Cymbidium judging criteria here the judging panels are looking for a display of flowers taking into account the size of the plant. This applies to the smaller size flowers in particular though flower quality still has to be taken into account.

As far as specimen plants go, many Orchid societies have dropped that criteria from their show schedules because of the difficulty of defining "specimen"

Wearing my show Marshall hat I replaced Specimen on the local society orchid show schedules with Special award "For cultural excellence or special appeal" .

Usually, I don't see spikes on my cymbidium until November/December, and they usually bloom in Feb/March, even as late as April. However, yesterday I noticed 2-3 spikes just breaking the surface. How weird!? Not only that, my dendrobiums (not nobile type) are flowering now and for the last 2-3 years, they always flowered in July. Meanwhile, the phals are just sitting there where they should be spiking, right? I know tehy have had 10-20 F drop in temps at night, so what's the deal. Are the orchids just off this year, or am I? lol

My Golden Elf is in bloom Now....!~Charm

Since I've only just begun in orchids, I really can't comment... but I have noticed several garden plants that seem to be "off" in their timing this year. I think it's the strange weather patterns we've been experiencing.

you, guys, are so lucky. none of mine has spikes yet.
sue

Seven spikes on my warmth tolerant yellow NOID...alas, 2 have blasted already!
Any special treatment after they have started spiking??
TIA
Jan

A warmth tolerant cym that has bud blast? I thought the whole idea behind warmth tolerant cyms is that they don't suffer from bud blast and don't need cold nights to initiate spikes. Could your bud blast be due to an insect problem? I remember vaguely someone blaming fungus gnats in one post for bud blast. I don't know anything about gnats so have no idea how likely that is.
Coming back to the plant size/flower production though: I have posted a photo of one of my problem plants, cym "starbright capella". It produced 13 spikes last year and despite being a bigger plant, only 14 spikes this year. Is this a sign that it's time to divide the plant or is the stagnant flower spike production due to other factors?

I'm with sue - you lucky people! None of mine have spikes yet, although it's only started dipping down to below 15C these days (below 60F) which I guess isn't cold enough.

Jan, where are you growing your Cymbidium? Perhaps you need to give it more shelter as the blooms are opening.

Calvin, all this cold stuff is a fairytale. No ones believes me. The cutoff point is 20C or below average temp at night in summer. Warmer than that and you will have trouble flowering a non warmth-tolerant Cymbidium.

Sure, there are are factors such as light and a cool down in winter but your average non warmth tolerant Cym, actually initiates spiking in late summer.

Monthly average temperatures for a Cymbidium Heaven. Melbourne, Australia. Centigrade
Jan 12-26 (Summer, Southern Hemisphere)
Feb 14-26
Mar 13 -24
Apr 10 -20
May 8-16
Jun 7 -14
Jul 6-13
Aug 6-15
Sep 8-17
Oct 9-20
Nov 11 -22
Dec 12 -24
Check out the average temps for those Cymbidium heaven places on the West coast of the USA and you should see the same pattern.

Thanks, Arthur.
Will pull it back into more shade. Maybe too bright under only the palm tree now. Yellow---Apopka, Florida grower--- from Home Depot3 years ago.

Seems to have something to do with watering, I think...when it bloomed forhte first time last summer, a flush of 5 spikes all blasted when it poured for a week, but in the late spring 3 spikes were fine.

This year's spikes got about 6 inches long and looked fine. The little buds just started to peek out of the top of the sheath, when the whole thing turned yellow and then brown. Even a smaller one that hadn't opened did the same. Doesn't look like bugs, as it is more a color change of the whole spike. This year it has been dry and I have been only lightly watering, but still get the "rot?".

Maybe it isn't Miami-heat tolerant?
Jan

Arthur thanks for the info...I'm not even sure if my cymbidium is warm tolerant (It's a famous hybrid - 'Swan Lake'..any ideas?), but it flowered for me the first year I got it, so I'm assuming it can tolerate the temps here...that said, my reblooming record for cyms in general is sporadic and unpredictable, so I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I checked back on some old photos, and it seems I didn't see a spike until I brought the plant in for the winter (around November), and I didn't see blooms until February...this was in a centrally heated house, although the plant was near a cooler area. Makes me wonder whether my cym is just a weird bloomer, or whether different hybrids bloom at different times...

Calvin, I am absolutely positive that your Cymbidium is not "Warmth Tolerant". That is not to say that a Cymbidium expert (again IÂm not one. In fact soon IÂll have none) would have no trouble growing and flowering it here under say about 50% shade-cloth.
High yearly temp 40C+ on only a few days
Summer average 17 to 27C
Winter average 7 to 17C
Low 1C

The real Cymbidium expert explained how some of the ancestors grew in the foothills of the Himalaya and would be cooled each afternoon by a tropical storm.

Similar, happens here on a typical summers day. There might be an afternoon shower or the sea breeze will come in from the Pacific Ocean.

I'm only writing this stuff because you see all this cooling down advice to get spikes. Those summer temps are critical.

Speaking of a cooling sea Breeze they must get some beauties on the western side of the USA where the Ocean temps are positively not like those of the Gulf Stream.

I'll go away now and stop bashing ears and leave you all in peace.

PS. Just as well we have some Cymbidium Growers in the local Orchid Society.
Otherwise, we would have trouble making a display.

Cymbidium section Winter Orchid Society Show.

{{gwi:140922}}

mine went out of bloom a month ago
will be a while before spiking
though mine blooms 2 x a year
so late winter for mine probably

AHA!
Did some surfing and found this site---probably answered a few of my problems.

http://www.orchidcare.com/cymbidium.htm

I've a NOID plant I put outside in the Summer and this year it already has 10 spikes I think, some nearly in flower. It hasn't been repotted for years and has pushed itself way up out of the clay pot making quite a display. I'll try and get a photo posted soon.

hello, arhturm, what a fantasticly gorgeous display!! I have never seen anything like that here - we are definitely not cym heaven.
thanks for the photo.

david, i would love to see a photo of yours too. how big is your plant?

calvin, mine does same as yours: starts to spike after i bring it in in Nov., blooms end of feb/early march and they last till may. at least that is the way it has been for the last few years. it can decide to be totally different this year. i have some which have not bloomed for me yet and so i have no idea what their habits will be.
and thanks to everyone on the info.

sue

One of my cyms is about to open its buds! I don't really want it to bloom so soon. Rather I'd like to save the flowers for holiday display!

Is there a way to delay the bloom? Thank you for your advice.

Xuan

Below is a photo of my 10 spike plant although some of the spikes are hard to see yet as the first flowers are just opening. It stands on a clay support and has rooted down through the base of the pot and around the inside of the support. For some reason this plant seems to keep it's leaves well. Every year it pushes up a bit more - I'd like to say it was planned but it's more by good luck really. I'm trying to emulate this type of growth with other plants but it's a long process. This plant is at least 8 years old. We've had a very wet Summer this year which might have helped keep growth going. It's planted in hydrolecca - clay granules.

{{gwi:194117}}

hello, David, thanks for posting your cym. it is gorgeous. i love the way it has grown up like that.
sue

I have seen many spikes lately in my cym pots but,t hey are pointed and look like leaf growth. Have I done something wrong over the summer, perhaps watered too much or too little? They all had lots of hours of sunshine in A.M. and late afternoon. They received high bloom fertilizer since Feb.
I hope these aren't the only spikes I will get this winter!

Helga.