Yesterday I bought a Miltonia at a local grocery store. It was marked as a Miltoniopsis. Thanks for setting me straight! I am going to grow her in my home, as my area (Eastern Washington State. Zone 6) has very hot, dry summers (75f/24c to 104f/40c) and cold, snowy winters. She seemed quite dry, so I did water with a weak orchid fertilizer solution. I put her about 10 feet from a west facing window with filtered light. I am going to wait about a week to re-pot, as she is now in a tall pot with drainage holes on the bottom only of the inner pot. I hope I can keep her alive in my house. Wish me luck!
Interesting! Miltoniopsis are a little tricky to get right...especially if they don’t come with good roots. But once they get going, I find them pretty rewarding (this year I got 6 spikes on one plant!) 😁
Thanks! Yeah I think I've just not got the greenhouse conditions and as time is proving, I'm unlikely to get the right conditions - unless I buy an AC unit or grow them in the house, both of which I'm disinclined to do. We'll see how this one goes through winter - I may have to admit defeat on this genus!
Hi Jeff, Just found your channel and subscribed, this is the kind of channel that really does have the wow factor (if you are into greenhouse plants(orchids for me) that is) Do like your delivery, easy-going but to the point. Long may you keep up the good work.
Everytime i see a miltoniopsis in the garden center i shortly enjoy the bloom take a sniff of the fragrance and then leave it to die there 🤣 I got 2 miltonias, Sunset and moreliana(for along time it was a variation of spectabilis). The Sunset is going mad constantly, roots, growths and a spike(since shortly) Spectabilis and moreliana are the biggest creepers of all the miltonias with long rhizomes indeed. I would have thought miltoniopsis would do better for you since you are at 56 degrees north(it is almost in scotland i think?) Enjoyed watching your video 😊
Haha yeah I know what you mean! My Miltoniopsis struggles with the extremes of the greenhouse. I can heat it up but although I can shade it, I can't really 'reduce' the temperatures without AC - which would be way too expensive. They would actually do really well in the house but for some reason I don't quite know myself yet, I prefer plants to be in the greenhouse.🤷🏻♂️
Could you try putting them outside in the garden during the day for the hottest months? Against a North wall perhaps? Thanks for sharing....another good vid.
Yes that would probably work through August. I think they would also grow well in the kitchen - but for some reason I want all my plants together in the greenhouse. Illogical - but I just prefer them to be under one roof!🤷🏻♂️
I agree, they are beautiful blooms, love the dripping paint affect on the lip (have the tattoo) and it helps to put them in an outer clay pot. The clay pots stay cooler 😊
Thanks for the tip, Bonnie. My problem isn't cooling them down - my issue is getting them to actually dry out (talking Miltoniopsis here, of course). At present it's going 2 weeks between waterings, and I'm worried I'll rot the roots again.
Interesting topic and good chat! They look so different it’s a wonder anyone gets them confused! And the culture needs seem to be very different too. The names are confusing however - especially in intergeneric hybrids like “Miltassia” or “Miltonidium” because you don’t know what the “Milt-“ ends with! Thankfully most are now labelled “Bratonia” or “Oncidopsis”! I managed to recover my first Miltoniopsis (Herralexandre) to my surprise as I have read how tricky they can be! It lost basically all its roots after repotting almost a year ago (the media it came in wasn’t good). So I put it in the tiniest pot I had with live sphagnum moss and the roots took off! It filled its little pot very quickly and pushed on 4 new growths which astounded me. This was mostly happening in summer also where we were getting days up to 32°C - but the nights here always drop below 16°C in summer so that gives my cooler growers a respite. The heat didn’t seem to bother my Miltoniopsis as far as I could tell. It lived outside in summer so it could get the best air movement and humidity. Humidity is usually 60-80% here but did drop to 45% some days - I would mist it a few times a day then. Anyway, it now (late winter here) has two bloom spikes and is pushing out roots into a bigger pot with medium bark (I simply potted on and didn’t disturb the roots). I never let it really dry out - I treat it a lot like my Masdevallias and Zygos and it seems happy with that. Basically in the year it’s been with me its coolest temps would be 10°C and warmest 32°C. And it lives in quite bright shade with a little direct early morning sun. One thing to note - at least one Miltoniopsis species is considered a warm grower. This is roezlii and it makes up a decent chunk of the Herralexandre at least - and I think many other hybrids also. This might help with the heat tolerance of some hybrids. Sorry for the essay!
Thanks for the info Erica. I know Miltoniopsis have a reputation for being 'difficult' but the truth is they're no more easier or difficult than any other plant. Give them what they like and they'll thrive - however, the huge caveat is that they're more 'intolerant' of conditions they don't like - and therein lies the rub. I think if this one of mine can't cope with my greenhouse extremes I'm going to give up. I realise in certain areas of my house it would do really well, but for various reasons I prefer plants to be in the greenhouse - so we'll see what happens. My Masdies and Zygo do very well for me in there. Maybe I could try that warmer growing Miltoniopsis you mention - although I guess when the temps drop I'll have another issue on my hands. I'm happy to keep experimenting..🤷🏻♂️😃
Tropical Plants at 53 Degrees You’re very right. They are just not as tolerant as many other orchids of being out of their “Goldilocks Zone”. Hopefully yours will tolerate the conditions of your greenhouse. I have recently put up a greenhouse but don’t have heating in their yet, so as it’s winter, most of my orchids are indoors overnight at least. The Miltoniopsis has put up with high temps but I think the nighttime drop was crucial in summer - and it’s not that common to have 30°C days drop to 14°C at night I guess! I’m at 310m elevation near a lake and NZ “bush” (mostly tree ferns) so it helps a lot with the growing conditions that these cloud forest types like I think. It certainly looks like a cloud forest quite often here. Though we had a horribly dry and hot summer - I was very impressed all the cloud forest types I have pulled through ok! Must have been those overnight lows I think and decent humidity. Looking forward to seeing the progress for these Miltoniopsis and Miltonias in a few months perhaps? Best of luck 👍
Sounds like a fabulous place to live! I grew a tree fern once - cost me around £100 per foot of trunk, and had to be wrapped up to get it through the winter. I missed the wrapping one year and it perished - was very upset!
Tropical Plants at 53 Degrees Oh no! That is very sad, you must have been kicking yourself. How cold are your winters? We get down to -3°C infrequently but it doesn’t stay that cold for long. I know the most common local tree fern is Cyathea dealbata - we call it punga or the silver fern. Apparently they can go down to -8°C...But in colder parts of New Zealand you don’t see tree ferns growing. Here they are almost like weeds - people use the “dead” trunks as fences and sometimes they come back to life! It is a beautiful place to live - only downside is the geothermal activity which means the air often smells like sulphur - or rotten eggs basically! Thankfully I’m living upwind of it most of the time!
@@duma227 Over here for some reason they're all Dicksonia Antarctica - and I think it's probably the prolonged frosts and wetness that kill them if you don't wrap them. It gets down into the crown where the fronds come from. I think we had a particularly bad winter that year, and I'd been very ill so was unable to do anything. Apparently back in the 18 century the first explorers used them as ballast in their ships when returning from your shores and then planted them over here in arrival. They grow quite well in the south, and there's one famous garden right on the southern tip of England with a 'forest' of tree ferns brought back from those early voyages. Plants are just amazing and constantly fascinating. (Don't fancy the eggs smell though! The rugby and cloud forests would be a positive...) Here's that garden I was talking about: www.trebahgarden.co.uk/garden
Thanks for Geoff..i miss my Miltonia spectabilis but i still have a Bluntii that is being ignored hehe.No Miltoniopsis for me ever again..They are beautiful though Happy growing
Thanks Terry - just found your comment in the 'held for review' section which I've never checked up til now! I know what you mean though. If this one of mine doesn't thrive now I'm done with them.
She's been for off school for 6 months Kathy. She was supposed to get school work online (not virtual lessons) but not much actually materialised. Fortunately she's very disciplined and found content by herself. Schools here are due to start back in full from the beginning of September. Let's see how long that lasts!
How about I really confuse you? When you cross the two you get Milmiltonia. The ever popular Miltonia Sunset sold on the market today, not actually a Miltonia, it is a Milmiltonia. It is Miltonia Goodale Moir x Milmiltonia Norma Macrae (Miltonia regnellii x Miltoniopsis Bellingham). Wheeeeeee! Now, silly question, why not move the Miltoniopsis into the house during the height of summer? I assume the house is slightly cooler than the greenhouse.
Hmm yeah I think my meagre brain can cope with that info. I did have a Miltonia Sunset early on in proceedings but it went the way of several of my other early attempts. I liked it too. I may have to get another. I'd thought of the kitchen as the perfect spot for my Miltoniopsis - good humidity, decent light without direct sun, perfect temps between around 17 to 24°C - but for some reason I prefer to keep all my plants in the greenhouse. Maybe it's a time issue - I can 'deal' with them all together, or maybe it's just a plant fetish where I get maximum stimulation with numbers..🤣
Yesterday I bought a Miltonia at a local grocery store. It was marked as a Miltoniopsis. Thanks for setting me straight! I am going to grow her in my home, as my area (Eastern Washington State. Zone 6) has very hot, dry summers (75f/24c to 104f/40c) and cold, snowy winters. She seemed quite dry, so I did water with a weak orchid fertilizer solution. I put her about 10 feet from a west facing window with filtered light. I am going to wait about a week to re-pot, as she is now in a tall pot with drainage holes on the bottom only of the inner pot. I hope I can keep her alive in my house. Wish me luck!
Sounds like you've got everything covered. Good luck!
Interesting! Miltoniopsis are a little tricky to get right...especially if they don’t come with good roots. But once they get going, I find them pretty rewarding (this year I got 6 spikes on one plant!) 😁
Thanks! Yeah I think I've just not got the greenhouse conditions and as time is proving, I'm unlikely to get the right conditions - unless I buy an AC unit or grow them in the house, both of which I'm disinclined to do. We'll see how this one goes through winter - I may have to admit defeat on this genus!
Hi Jeff, Just found your channel and subscribed, this is the kind of channel that really does have the wow factor (if you are into greenhouse plants(orchids for me) that is) Do like your delivery, easy-going but to the point. Long may you keep up the good work.
Aw thanks Angela - I think that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my channel! 😀😍
Everytime i see a miltoniopsis in the garden center i shortly enjoy the bloom take a sniff of the fragrance and then leave it to die there 🤣
I got 2 miltonias, Sunset and moreliana(for along time it was a variation of spectabilis). The Sunset is going mad constantly, roots, growths and a spike(since shortly)
Spectabilis and moreliana are the biggest creepers of all the miltonias with long rhizomes indeed.
I would have thought miltoniopsis would do better for you since you are at 56 degrees north(it is almost in scotland i think?)
Enjoyed watching your video 😊
Haha yeah I know what you mean! My Miltoniopsis struggles with the extremes of the greenhouse. I can heat it up but although I can shade it, I can't really 'reduce' the temperatures without AC - which would be way too expensive. They would actually do really well in the house but for some reason I don't quite know myself yet, I prefer plants to be in the greenhouse.🤷🏻♂️
Could you try putting them outside in the garden during the day for the hottest months? Against a North wall perhaps? Thanks for sharing....another good vid.
Yes that would probably work through August. I think they would also grow well in the kitchen - but for some reason I want all my plants together in the greenhouse. Illogical - but I just prefer them to be under one roof!🤷🏻♂️
I agree, they are beautiful blooms, love the dripping paint affect on the lip (have the tattoo) and it helps to put them in an outer clay pot. The clay pots stay cooler 😊
Thanks for the tip, Bonnie. My problem isn't cooling them down - my issue is getting them to actually dry out (talking Miltoniopsis here, of course). At present it's going 2 weeks between waterings, and I'm worried I'll rot the roots again.
Interesting topic and good chat! They look so different it’s a wonder anyone gets them confused! And the culture needs seem to be very different too. The names are confusing however - especially in intergeneric hybrids like “Miltassia” or “Miltonidium” because you don’t know what the “Milt-“ ends with! Thankfully most are now labelled “Bratonia” or “Oncidopsis”!
I managed to recover my first Miltoniopsis (Herralexandre) to my surprise as I have read how tricky they can be!
It lost basically all its roots after repotting almost a year ago (the media it came in wasn’t good). So I put it in the tiniest pot I had with live sphagnum moss and the roots took off! It filled its little pot very quickly and pushed on 4 new growths which astounded me.
This was mostly happening in summer also where we were getting days up to 32°C - but the nights here always drop below 16°C in summer so that gives my cooler growers a respite. The heat didn’t seem to bother my Miltoniopsis as far as I could tell. It lived outside in summer so it could get the best air movement and humidity. Humidity is usually 60-80% here but did drop to 45% some days - I would mist it a few times a day then.
Anyway, it now (late winter here) has two bloom spikes and is pushing out roots into a bigger pot with medium bark (I simply potted on and didn’t disturb the roots). I never let it really dry out - I treat it a lot like my Masdevallias and Zygos and it seems happy with that. Basically in the year it’s been with me its coolest temps would be 10°C and warmest 32°C. And it lives in quite bright shade with a little direct early morning sun.
One thing to note - at least one Miltoniopsis species is considered a warm grower. This is roezlii and it makes up a decent chunk of the Herralexandre at least - and I think many other hybrids also. This might help with the heat tolerance of some hybrids.
Sorry for the essay!
Thanks for the info Erica. I know Miltoniopsis have a reputation for being 'difficult' but the truth is they're no more easier or difficult than any other plant. Give them what they like and they'll thrive - however, the huge caveat is that they're more 'intolerant' of conditions they don't like - and therein lies the rub. I think if this one of mine can't cope with my greenhouse extremes I'm going to give up. I realise in certain areas of my house it would do really well, but for various reasons I prefer plants to be in the greenhouse - so we'll see what happens. My Masdies and Zygo do very well for me in there. Maybe I could try that warmer growing Miltoniopsis you mention - although I guess when the temps drop I'll have another issue on my hands. I'm happy to keep experimenting..🤷🏻♂️😃
Tropical Plants at 53 Degrees You’re very right. They are just not as tolerant as many other orchids of being out of their “Goldilocks Zone”. Hopefully yours will tolerate the conditions of your greenhouse. I have recently put up a greenhouse but don’t have heating in their yet, so as it’s winter, most of my orchids are indoors overnight at least.
The Miltoniopsis has put up with high temps but I think the nighttime drop was crucial in summer - and it’s not that common to have 30°C days drop to 14°C at night I guess! I’m at 310m elevation near a lake and NZ “bush” (mostly tree ferns) so it helps a lot with the growing conditions that these cloud forest types like I think. It certainly looks like a cloud forest quite often here. Though we had a horribly dry and hot summer - I was very impressed all the cloud forest types I have pulled through ok! Must have been those overnight lows I think and decent humidity.
Looking forward to seeing the progress for these Miltoniopsis and Miltonias in a few months perhaps? Best of luck 👍
Sounds like a fabulous place to live! I grew a tree fern once - cost me around £100 per foot of trunk, and had to be wrapped up to get it through the winter. I missed the wrapping one year and it perished - was very upset!
Tropical Plants at 53 Degrees Oh no! That is very sad, you must have been kicking yourself. How cold are your winters? We get down to -3°C infrequently but it doesn’t stay that cold for long. I know the most common local tree fern is Cyathea dealbata - we call it punga or the silver fern. Apparently they can go down to -8°C...But in colder parts of New Zealand you don’t see tree ferns growing. Here they are almost like weeds - people use the “dead” trunks as fences and sometimes they come back to life!
It is a beautiful place to live - only downside is the geothermal activity which means the air often smells like sulphur - or rotten eggs basically! Thankfully I’m living upwind of it most of the time!
@@duma227 Over here for some reason they're all Dicksonia Antarctica - and I think it's probably the prolonged frosts and wetness that kill them if you don't wrap them. It gets down into the crown where the fronds come from. I think we had a particularly bad winter that year, and I'd been very ill so was unable to do anything. Apparently back in the 18 century the first explorers used them as ballast in their ships when returning from your shores and then planted them over here in arrival. They grow quite well in the south, and there's one famous garden right on the southern tip of England with a 'forest' of tree ferns brought back from those early voyages. Plants are just amazing and constantly fascinating. (Don't fancy the eggs smell though! The rugby and cloud forests would be a positive...) Here's that garden I was talking about: www.trebahgarden.co.uk/garden
❤❤❤❤❤
Thanks for Geoff..i miss my Miltonia spectabilis but i still have a Bluntii that is being ignored hehe.No Miltoniopsis for me ever again..They are beautiful though Happy growing
Thanks Terry - just found your comment in the 'held for review' section which I've never checked up til now! I know what you mean though. If this one of mine doesn't thrive now I'm done with them.
Like this
Thanks!
@@Grow_Up_Man55 😘😘😘😘😘😘
Off topic: is your daughter able to go to school face to face or virtual? Just curious with the current situation
She's been for off school for 6 months Kathy. She was supposed to get school work online (not virtual lessons) but not much actually materialised. Fortunately she's very disciplined and found content by herself. Schools here are due to start back in full from the beginning of September. Let's see how long that lasts!
How about I really confuse you? When you cross the two you get Milmiltonia. The ever popular Miltonia Sunset sold on the market today, not actually a Miltonia, it is a Milmiltonia. It is Miltonia Goodale Moir x Milmiltonia Norma Macrae (Miltonia regnellii x Miltoniopsis Bellingham). Wheeeeeee!
Now, silly question, why not move the Miltoniopsis into the house during the height of summer? I assume the house is slightly cooler than the greenhouse.
Hmm yeah I think my meagre brain can cope with that info. I did have a Miltonia Sunset early on in proceedings but it went the way of several of my other early attempts. I liked it too. I may have to get another. I'd thought of the kitchen as the perfect spot for my Miltoniopsis - good humidity, decent light without direct sun, perfect temps between around 17 to 24°C - but for some reason I prefer to keep all my plants in the greenhouse. Maybe it's a time issue - I can 'deal' with them all together, or maybe it's just a plant fetish where I get maximum stimulation with numbers..🤣
Here’s why I’m confused: I have an orchid named Milt. Morris Chestnut. Some places say this is a Miltonia and others call it a Miltoniopsis. 🤷🏼♀️
It's a Miltoniopsis, Sherie. I discussed this exact naming issue in the video. Hope you found it useful. 👍😀