Description of the signs of cellogyne, creating conditions for cultivation, recommendations for transplanting and reproduction, the difficulties of cultivation, interesting facts, types. Coelogyne is a member of the large Orchidaceae family. The areas in which these orchids are widespread extends from flat areas to mountainous areas where tropical forests grow - this is Southeast Asia, this includes the Indian Himalayas and the Indian subcontinent, as well as the Chinese province of Yunnan. You can see this delicate flower in the island territories of the Indian and Pacific Oceans: the Solomon Islands, from the regions of Sri Lanka to the Philippines, in New Guinea, in the New Hybrids, including the islands of Samoa and Fiji.
For the first time about this orchid, namely about the coelogyne cristata (Coelogyne cristata), it became known in 1824, when it was discovered in the Nepalese mountains by the director of the botanical garden in Calcutta, Nathaniel Wallich. And, based on this sample, the famous English botanist John Lindley described a new genus of orchid plants, which currently includes about 120 species.
The name of its flower comes from the fusion of two Greek principles: "koilos", which translates as a cavity or depression, and "gune" - feminine, and in full translation the name sounds like "hollow ovary". This name fully reflects the structure of a special organ of the flower (column) inherent in all representatives of orchids.
Almost all of these plants are epiphytes (that is, they grow on the trunks or branches of trees) or, in rare cases, lithophytes (grow on rocks), but sometimes orchids leading a terrestrial lifestyle are found. The height of pseudobulbs (or tuberidia - a thickened aerial or aerial root in representatives of the orchid family) can vary from 3 cm to 12 cm. Groups that are compact in size are formed from them. This is also where 1-3 leaf plates usually originate. Plant height varies within 15–30 cm. Leaves are oblong-oval or lanceolate-belt-shaped, with a pointed tip at the top. In some varieties, venation is visible on the underside. The color is rich dark emerald or bright green. The leaf is attached to a short but fleshy petiole. The length of the leaf plate can reach up to 30 cm, and up to 3-5 cm in width.
The flowering process in different varieties is quite extended, it can be both summer and autumn-winter periods. From the base of the bulb, a flowering stem begins to grow, which droops to the ground. In length, it stretches from 20 cm to 60 cm. At its top, buds appear, the number of which varies from 5 to 17 units. They gather in a loose racemose inflorescence. The color of the flowers starts with snow-white tones and goes up to yellow colors. Each bud has 5 elongated and strongly spread sepals. In the middle of the flower is a narrow lip, divided into three lobes. The color of its lateral parts is in orange or red tones, but the central part can be brown, with speckles, etc. Several elongated scallop-shaped growths grow from the base of the lip.
Due to the hanging peduncles, this orchid can be grown as an ampelous crop and planted in pots.
Tips on agrotechnology of cellogin at home
- Lighting and site selection. The plant feels very comfortable in diffused soft lighting, there is a need to shade the cellogin from direct sunlight. East and west facing windows are suitable. On the southern ones, you will have to shade the flower with curtains, and on the northern ones - to supplement it. In the summer, you can take the orchid out into the air, just take care of a place closed from direct sunlight and the action of a draft. However, with the arrival of winter, it is necessary to provide supplementary lighting for the plant so that it gives 14-hour daylight hours.
- Content temperature this orchid is very diverse and directly depends on the variety, there are thermophilic species for which it should not fall below 18 degrees, but there are also those capable of surviving at 10 degrees. Basically, it is required that the thermometer readings float within 20-24 degrees of heat. If temperatures become low, then the plant is kept with minimal watering.
- Rest period. In order for cellogyne to please with exuberant flowering, as soon as the flowers wither, it is required to reduce the heat indices to 12-16 degrees.
- Air humidity. This is a very important part of orchid care. Indicators should be over 50%. Therefore, it is necessary to often spray the leaves with water, but only excluding the period of keeping at low temperatures. You can put the pot in a tray with expanded clay poured onto the bottom or chopped sphagnum moss and a little water.
- Fertilizer of cellogyne carried out immediately after the end of the dormant period and until the very beginning of flowering. Specialized feedings for orchid plants are selected. It is necessary to dilute the composition two to three times and also spray the leaf plates and flowering stems. As soon as the buds open, only root dressing is used once a month. During the rest period, feeding is not used.
- Watering the orchid. As well as air humidity, watering the soil is a very important part in the care of cellogyne. In order to moisten the substrate, the pot with the plant is immersed in a bucket of water and kept for 15–20 minutes. Then let it drain and put the container in place. Regular watering is not suitable. Only soft filtered water or collected rainwater (snow melt water) is used.
- Transplantation and selection of a substrate. You can replace the soil or container for the orchid after the dormant period has ended or the end of flowering has come. This operation is performed every 2-3 years. It is better to pick up a transparent plastic pot with holes not only in the bottom of the container, but also on its sides. The vessel should be wide and not deep, since the roots of cellogyne do not grow in depth, but spread widely.
The soil for the orchid should be light, and with high air and water permeability. You can use commercially available orchid substrates or mix your own soil using the following variations:
- crushed bark, chopped sphagnum moss, slightly crushed with pieces of charcoal, a small amount of peat soil or ready-made flower mixture;
- shredded bark, coconut fiber, chopped fern roots, pieces of charcoal;
- sifted pine bark up to 1 cm in diameter, charcoal and polystyrene (one part and 1/2 of the latter).
Recommendations for self-propagation of an orchid
You can get a new delicate orchid by dividing the mother plant during transplantation.
The plant must be carefully removed from the pot and divided in such a way that each part has several pieces of old and young, developed pseudobulbs with well-developed root processes (minimum amount of 2-3 tuberidia). The breeding operation is carried out immediately after the dormant period. If it is not possible to separate by hand, then a well-sharpened disinfected knife is used. Sections need to be processed with activated charcoal or charcoal, ground into powder and left to dry a little.
The resulting pieces of cellogyne are planted in chopped sphagnum moss and fixed in a container with a wire. After that, the plants are rarely moistened, they are allowed to settle down and move away after transplantation. As the root shoots appear on the orchid, watering is increased. After transplanting, young orchids begin to bloom in a year or two.
Problems when growing cellogin at home
The plant can be affected by spider mites or aphids. If pests are found, treatment with soap, oil or alcohol solution can be carried out. Having applied the agent to a cotton swab or cotton pad, it is necessary to carefully remove insects from the plant by hand. You can wash them off and sticky deposits with shower jets. If these sparing agents did not help, then the orchid is treated with insecticidal agents.
Sometimes celogyna gets sick with fusarium - a disease of fungal origin. A sign of defeat is the yellowing of the leaves on the lower side, soon the flowering stem also begins to turn yellow, the pseudobulbs turn black. If you do not take any measures, then the orchid will wither and die. To combat the problem, they are treated with fungicides such as "Topaz" or "Vectra", use specialized liquids (Bordeaux, soap-copper or copper oxychloride, iron vitriol and others).
Difficulties in growing a flower are:
- the orchid does not like when it is often moved from place to place, because of such permutations, flowers may sprinkle or flowering does not occur;
- when watering, it is important not to pour water into the middle of the plant, rotting of the root system may begin;
- if watering is not enough for a flower, then the bulbs become shriveled; if the substrate is moistened, then they will become dense and smooth;
- due to sunburn, whitish spots appear on the leaves;
- leaf plates can dry out at the ends or even die off with insufficient moisture, low humidity, salinization of the soil;
- flowering in cellogyne does not occur due to improperly maintained temperatures during the dormant period, the consequences of incorrect transplantation or reproduction.
Interesting facts about cellogin
Detective Nero Wilf is known to many from the books. American writer Rex Stout told the world about him. So this brilliant detective, solving the puzzles of criminal machinations, tending flowers in his greenhouse. And one of his many green "wards" was, according to descriptions, the cellogin orchid.
Types of cellogy
- Coelogyne cristata. The plant is very unpretentious and one of the most beautiful in the family. The homeland is considered to be forest areas in the Himalayas, where it grows on trees, moss cushions, on rocks covered with moss or simply on bare rocks. Large colonies gather from it. Bulbs have an ovoid or 4-sided rounded shape, they curl on a short rhizome. One or a pair of sessile leaf plates originate from them. The leaves are colored dark green. From flowers of 3-9 units, racemose loose inflorescences are collected, reaching up to 9 cm in diameter, exuding a delicate and delicate aroma. They extend from the base of the bulbs themselves. The sepals and petals are elongated, with a strongly wavy edge. At the base of the lip, white, there are 5 comb-like outgrowths of a bright orange-yellow hue. Flowering stretches from mid-winter to March.
- Coelogyne massangeana. A favorite habitat is the rain forests of the lowland territories, which are located on the Malay Peninsula and the islands of the Malay Archipelago. The plant is large in size with elongated ovoid bulbs covered with grooves. The height of the orchid reaches 12 cm. The leaf plates are also large in size, based on long petioles, and on the reverse side, the venation appears strongly. Inflorescences of a loose racemose shape, hanging to the ground and having a length of up to 60 cm. Flowers grow in the axils of large membranous scales, have a weak aroma. The petals and sepals are distinguished by a narrow, ruled-lanceolate shape. The lip of an orchid has three lobes: the lobes are large on the sides, have a grayish color outside, inside they are cast in a chocolate brown color along them there are longitudinal whitish veins. The central lobe is brown in color with a white border along the edge, on it there are 7-9 curly yellowish combs, which on the lip disc transform into three wavy ridges. For the beauty of the flower, the Massange orchid is popularly called the "golden swallow". This variety differs from others in thermophilicity and should be cultivated in greenhouse conditions.
- Coelogyne flaccida. The Himalayan mountains are considered to be the birthplace of this flower. This is a small plant that loves to settle on the trunks and branches of trees. It is distinguished by bulbs of a narrow form of fusiform twisted outlines. A pair of elongated lanceolate leaves with petioles originates from them. The shade of flowers is snow-white or with a creamy pearl tint, from which long loose racemose inflorescences are collected in the form of an arc, drooping to the ground. In the inflorescence, there are 15-17 units of buds. The lobes on the sides of the lip are colored yellow-brown and are drawn with longitudinal lines. The central lobe has three bright yellow ridges (but their shade can range to orange-brown) or there is a bright yellow speck at the base of the flower.
- Coelogyne fimbriata (Coelogyne fimbriata). The flower mainly grows in China, and its distribution range extends from Nepalese to Vietnamese lands. Likes to settle on stones or rocks with a bare surface or covered with moss. This orchid has the smallest size among the members of the family. It has small yellow-greenish flowers with brown speckles on the lip. By their appearance, the buds in dissolution are somewhat reminiscent of a large bumblebee. In diameter, the flower can reach 3 cm. Flowers are located on the tops of flowering stems. Throughout the year, the appearance of flower stalks is consistent and each of them is ready for the formation of buds. The flowering period begins from late summer to mid-autumn, that is, it takes a whole one and a half to two months.
- Coelogyne ovalis. The orchid is similar in description to the previous species, but has large flowers, but is an epiphyte. The homeland is considered the territory of the Himalayan mountains, China, Indian land, Burma, Nepal and Thailand. Tuberidia (pseudobulbs) have an oval shape and are 5 cm long and 1.5 cm wide. They are located on the rhizome, the distance between them is not large, and bear a pair of leaf plates. The leaves take an elongated elliptical shape, there is a sharp point at the top. Their dimensions reach 15 cm in length, with 3 cm in width. The flowering stem does not differ in the number of buds located on it, it reaches a length of up to 12 cm. It originates at the top of the bulb, in the axil of the leaf plate. The color of the flowers is pale yellowish, on the lip there is a pattern of dark brown tone. The diameter of the flower is about 3 cm, there is a not very pleasant smell. The sepals are ovoid-elongated in outline, with a sharpness, their length is about 3 cm, and the width is 1, 3 cm. The shape of the petals is linear, they grow up to 2.5 cm with a millimeter width. The lip has three lobes with a length of 2.5 cm, with a width of 1, 8 cm. The lobes located on the sides are elongated or triangular, pubescent with cilia, the central lobe is ovoid in shape and also ciliate. The flowering process begins from mid-summer to September, and lasts approximately one and a half months. Rest time from late autumn to mid-spring.
- Coelogyne bearded (Coelogyne barbata). The territories of the Himalayas are considered to be their native places. Tuberidia with oval outlines, almost rounded, colored in a light green tone and very closely spaced, their height is 10 cm. Two lanceolate-elongated leaves grow from them, 30 cm long and 5 cm wide. The flowering stem has an arched appearance, reaches 30 cm in length, there are several buds on it. The flowers reach 5-7 cm in diameter. The sepals and petals are elongated, the color is snow-white. The lip has a grayish brown color, it has a fringe. The flowering process will stretch over the months of autumn and winter.
For more information on cellogyne, see this video:
