I think I told you about Dockrillia teretifolia, the Australian Native orchid that I mounted on a tall stump, roots encaved among large stones. When she didn’t do a thing for months on end I decided to move her into the thin branches of a tall willowy tree outside my bedroom window.
Dockrillia was up in the sun and finally free. Don’t ask me what I was thinking clamming her up initially but I can tell you the utter dearth of information on planting orchids as epiphytes was part of it. High sun low sun dappled shade, watering and fertilizing, and potting media. That was all the info I could find. Who would suspect that these creatures just wanted to have their roots free?
As soon as the cooler weather started and I started to mist with a little fertilizer Dockrillia sent down a few healthy dangling roots. They were a pleasure to see and I sensed I’d done something right since this was the first movement I’d ever seen out of this plant. The long cylindrical leaves grew apace and Dockrillia started to look like a pretty nice specimen, albeit still without flowers.
Well she still is unflowering but here’s the big news. Yesterday as I was misting I spied a gigantic long root, I mean more than two feet long, gliding along the surface of the trunk of Dockrillia’s tree. Anchoring? Gathering nutrients? Or just following the path of runoff? The root was serpentine, slightly branched, and provocatively curved at the point where it met its first branch on the way south. Dockirilla must be in for some big things if she’s growing roots this way.
Dockrillia was up in the sun and finally free. Don’t ask me what I was thinking clamming her up initially but I can tell you the utter dearth of information on planting orchids as epiphytes was part of it. High sun low sun dappled shade, watering and fertilizing, and potting media. That was all the info I could find. Who would suspect that these creatures just wanted to have their roots free?
As soon as the cooler weather started and I started to mist with a little fertilizer Dockrillia sent down a few healthy dangling roots. They were a pleasure to see and I sensed I’d done something right since this was the first movement I’d ever seen out of this plant. The long cylindrical leaves grew apace and Dockrillia started to look like a pretty nice specimen, albeit still without flowers.
Well she still is unflowering but here’s the big news. Yesterday as I was misting I spied a gigantic long root, I mean more than two feet long, gliding along the surface of the trunk of Dockrillia’s tree. Anchoring? Gathering nutrients? Or just following the path of runoff? The root was serpentine, slightly branched, and provocatively curved at the point where it met its first branch on the way south. Dockirilla must be in for some big things if she’s growing roots this way.
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