Never, NEVER order from Aloha Orchid Nursery. The Better Business Bureau says "this company has an unsatisfactory record. . . . Company failed to respond to the BBB to resolve or address the complaint issues. . . . Unpursuable - The company cannot be located or is out of business." Yet they're still selling stuff. My sister sent me "4 Blooming Dendrobium Orchid Plants" for my birthday. When I received them, they weren't blooming, and in fact two appeared to be dying. I called and spoke to Mahehalani. First she told me that there was absolutely no guarantee for orchid plants, even if they're already dying when they're mailed and further damaged by lousy packing. I told her the plants clearly weren't "blooming," and she claimed "budding" was the same thing. Realizing I was going nowhere fast, I pointed her to the "Tropical Flower Guarantee" on their website (http://www.alohaorchid.com/flower_guarantee.aspx) stating "We offer 100% unconditional guarantee on all of our tropical flowers." She claimed that this doesn't apply to orchids -- which are clearly tropical flowers -- and in fact ONLY applies to anthuriums, WHICH THEY NO LONGER SELL. Apparently, then, the guarantee doesn't apply to ANYTHING they sell. I emailed the sales department and they confirmed what Mahehalani said: that I was stuck with ugly, dying plants. See photos at my website and decide for yourself if I've been defrauded. But please, please don't give these people your business. Here is a link that might be useful: My website

I grew one in a greenhouse for several years. It was in a 5 gallon pot but eventually rooted into the ground. After 3-4 years it put out several racemes of flowers and they were amazing! Probably my favorite vine grown for flowers, the color is like those blue-green neoprene gloves you see in hardware stores! The vine always seemed to suffer through the summer, the greenhouse regularly reached over 100 degrees and the vine, of course, was close to the ceiling of the greenhouse. Eventually it died and although I was given some cuttings from a Botanic Garden, they were difficult to root without mist and they all dropped their leaves and died as well. So finally broke down and order one on line. It came in a tiny 4" pot but was healthy with good roots. It was transplanted to a one gallon and it put on a burst of growth in December and then pretty much stopped. As soon as the weather is warm enough, it will go into a 3 gallon and be put outside in semi-shade. The greenhouse is too hot and sadly our outside climate is too cold. Plant to make some kind of structure that will fit in a pot, allow the vine to climb and allow the flowers to hang freely, then keep the plant sheared to about 6-7 feet to keep it manageable. Can't wait to see it flower again!

I am germinating one of these seeds right now. I did nick the seedcoat, soaked in warm water, changing the water 3-4X a day. Then when it cracked open, I put it in a moist paper towel inside a plastic ziploc bag in a place where it is warm. The plant stuck a root out but looked like it was going to mold, so I washed it off really good and dipped the root end into rooting hormone. Planted it halfway in & after several days, lifted the seed & it had branching roots on the bottom so I must have been doing something right.

I'm located in Orlando which is marginal at best for such a tropical vine. I have a small greenhouse, however, and I thought I could grow one inside it and allow it to climb the walls and take over to some extent. Do you think it could tolerate low humidity for part of the year as long as the temperature was okay(the heater can make it really dry sometimes)? Thank you for the source.