Description
IMPORTANT NOTES:
***Please look at all the pictures carefully (and read the text in the photos) so you’ll know the sizes of the plants we’re offering in this listing.***
Imagine bringing home a piping hot pizza, loaded with your favorite toppings, and putting it on your dining room table. You also happen to have on the same table a couple of in-bloom Phalaenopsis violacea coerulea, as you love their flowers, distinctive for their intense violet color. You walk over to the adjacent living room to check your computer real fast and your phone rings. While you’re chatting away, you smell something. Sausage? Pepperoni? Onions? No. You smell Phalaenopsis violacea var. coerulea. You’re shocked. You can barely believe what your nose is telling you. The fragrance from this orchid is actually stronger than a hot pizza!
The above is a true story. It happened.
Phal. violacea var. coerulea grows on Northern Sumatra and on islands near Myanmar and Malaysia. A number of color forms exist, but the coerulea (originally meaning sky blue in Latin) form has been bred to an intense indigo color. Unlike its supermarket hybrid cousins, Phal violacea blooms sequentially; in other words, one flower will bloom on a flower spike, then drop after a few weeks (they’re quite long-lasting), and the next flower will bloom, giving you a beautiful blooms for months at a time. A large plant can support two (or even more) flower spikes, filling any space with beauty and astonishing fragrance.
This species is also easy to grow, giving it bright, diffuse light (no direct sun), and avoid prolonged temps below 50 F. They do very well in New Zealand Sphagnum moss; water once or twice per week, allowing moss to approach dryness between waterings. Fertilize 2X/month with dilute balanced fertilizer. Keep humid – best way is to use a clear plastic humidity dome over the plant (keep out of sun or it may get too hot!).
How to grow:
1) Moderate shade (avoid prolonged direct sun). Keep humidity high for best growth.
2) Water once to twice a week; let dry between waterings.
3) Use NZ Sphagnum Moss or chunky bark for plenty of aeration at the roots.
4) Fertilize twice per month.
5) Avoid temps below 50 F; temps into the 90s F or even over 100 F are tolerable if kept shady and well-watered
