Pleione ‘Irazu Mallard’
Todays flower is a precious bulbous Orchid that is semi-hardy, and one that spends half of it’s life dormant. The Pleione is an addictive Orchid species in a genus which is already rather addictive. The greatest challenge is finding Pleione bulbs ( most of mine have come from trips to Japan, and from a grower in Vancouver, Washington, Burnt Bridge Creek Nursery. There are very few collectors growing these beautiful orchids today in North America. The bulbs are potted in a loose mixture of leaf fiber, charcoal and wood chips along with some sphagnum. I grow mine in small Japanese pots, with either one bulb per pot with the bulb sitting on the surface of the soil mixture, or in a pan with many bulbs. My small collection grows and shrinks each year, but the first Pleione to bloom, breaking it’s dormancy with a huge bud in relation to the bulb size, is this one every spring.
you are my idol matt :)….you are jus awesome and so is your plants……one day ill surely meet you….