The Sobralia Pages

** Culture **

Edited 25 April 2007


The following excerpt is from "Orchids and Culture Shock," an article by John T. Atwood, Senior Scientist at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota, Florida. (see full article in the March 2001 issue of The Arizona Orchidist Newsletter, from the Orchid Society of Arizona)

"...Understanding natural habitats is key to cultivation of any plant, especially those species collected from the wild, therefore some field observations from the tropics may be useful in understanding the flowering response. Even lowland tropics are occasionally chilly. Once I slung my hammock in a Nicaraguan cloud forest at about 3,000 feet only to awaken to extreme cold intensified by strong winds. I avoided hypothermia by lining my hammock with newspapers that I normally used for pressing plants. Orchids living in this area included Maxillaria mombachoensis, several species of Elleanthus, Sobralia, Epidendrum, and numerous pleurothallids."


Jim Watson, Editor of Orchids magazine, published a very nice, concise article on pg. 797 of the August 1998 issue, titled "Sobralias for Summer Color" [vol. 67(8)]. The article includes cultural suggestions from Jose Portilla of Ecuagenera Orchidias de Ecuador, and from Hermann Pigors, AOS Judge and owner of Oak Hill Gardens in Dundee, Illinois. There is an accompanying photo of Sobralia macrantha 'Voodoo Priestess' AM/AOS, grown by Neal Crosswhite.

Illinois Orchid Society member Leo Schordje grows a variety of sobralias and maintains a Sobralia webpage: www.schordje.com

For an article on sobralias in the Norwegian language, see: Släktet Sobralia, posted at the Neovita Orkideer website, with 4 images. It was written by Björn Johansson (publ. 2 Sept 2004, updated 19 May 2005).

For an article in German, with several photos, see: Sobralia: Der Star unter den Kubelpflanzen in unserem Sommergarten, by Johannes Werner, Werner's Orchidpage.

For an article in Portuguese, see: O gênero Sobralia, written by Delfina de Araujo and published online in Orchid News 12.


Links:

The Orchid Desk Culture Files: Sobralia macrantha by Barbara Andrewjeski

OrchidWeb presents Orchids A to Z: Sobralia from the American Orchid Society

Sobralias - Hoosier Orchids Commercial Site

Plant of the Week: Sobralia decora [Feb. 19-25, 1999]

Weyman Bussey's page on Sobralia macrantha

Sobralia macrantha [in French]

Pollination and Seed Germination database (Charles & Margaret Baker)

Sobralia (Orchid Photo Page by Greg Allikas)

Excerpts on Sobralia Culture from The Sobralia Pages



Comments? Send e-mail: sobralia@autrevie.com

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This website was born in August 2000.

Copyright Nina Rach


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