One of the gems of my accent plants is a local terrestrial orchid collected from a new housing developments path. It was found as a dry seed stalk & removed using my keyhole method in summer '10. It was potted into a small conical pot of my own construction & I waited.Winter '11 I was rewarded with a single leaf followed by a flowering stalk.
beardy11.jpg
I cant find the pics I took of it when the flowers opened but this is one I snapped in local bushland. It is a wide spread orchid ranging from SA to Tas, Vic, NSW, Qld and NZ.
westy.jpg
While it grew well enough in the old pot I decided to upsize it this year & it looks alot better for it. It's a pot of moss & dirt for 6mths of the year and the other 6 months I get to watch it go thru its cycle. The larger pot hasn't been unused, it is pushing 2 roots at the drainage hole.
beardy.jpg
I will post pics of it in full bloom when the time comes.
Matt
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42 Mice ~Imperfection
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." ~ Vernon Sanders Law
"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own." ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
"Bonsai becomes great when growers start trees they know they will never see in a pot"
Thanks Andrew, she is a beauty, for me to enjoy & to share with you all here.
Flowering is early to mid september so no going to the show unless it is as a seed stalk
42 Mice ~Imperfection
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." ~ Vernon Sanders Law
"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own." ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
"Bonsai becomes great when growers start trees they know they will never see in a pot"
Wow, I didn't even realise we really had orchids around here, thanks for sharing. No idea how you recognised it as worthwile when it was a little dry seed stalk. I must research more into orchids methinks.
(And is that the Newcastle club show you referred to?)
Hey Pat,
I can think of over a dozen terrestrial orchids in our local bushland as well as Cymbidium suave. I am sure there are more than what I know, its just a simple matter of looking where you are putting your feet during late winter & spring, you wont have to take too many steps till you find one or other orchid in bloom.
All native orchids are protected by law, that means no collecting etc... but they are not protected from the developers
The newcastle club show is the first weekend in November (methinks), last year the seed capsule split around the second week of november...
Noone picked me up on it yet, the above plant is Calochilus robertsonii. I will post up some pics of my Pterostylis planting soon.
Last edited by MattA on July 16th, 2012, 2:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
42 Mice ~Imperfection
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." ~ Vernon Sanders Law
"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own." ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
"Bonsai becomes great when growers start trees they know they will never see in a pot"
Hey Gavin,
This is my first year after collecting for the Pterostylis, I don't even know for sure which species but most likely there are 2 different ones in this pot. They are growing in a mix of wild soil from the collection site & 5mm basalt chip. The larger plant at the back is most probably curta and was planted into this tray at the time of collecting. The others are probably nutans and were transplanted a couple of days ago & are showing no signs of stress as a result of it.
ptero.jpg
It is in a mass produced japanese pot that only has a small drainage hole at either end & therefore actually holds too much moisture for its shallow depth, a definite advantage with Pterostylis. I haven't fed anything rather waiting to see how they go.
Fertilisers are not necessary, although Pterostylis species are very hardy and will benefit from weak applications of foliar feed applied whilst the leaves are developing.
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Last edited by MattA on July 16th, 2012, 7:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
42 Mice ~Imperfection
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." ~ Vernon Sanders Law
"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own." ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
"Bonsai becomes great when growers start trees they know they will never see in a pot"
If this one producers more tubers when it dies down, and you are keen to trade, I have some native terrestrials you might be interested in. I was planning on using heaps for accents next season. Got approx 7 species or so.
Hi Matt, I have some pterostylis nutans, 3 different forms that I have had since the early 80s. They are very easy to grow in pots I keep them in the poly tunnel and stop watering them when they start to go down then don't water again until they emerge in autumn. They love diatomite. I haven't split the pots up for many years and they are just so full of tubers.
Craigw
Joel,
I am guessing you mean the Calochilus, unfortunately they only produce one tuber each year, it produced seed last year which I forwarded to Western Orchids (I should follow up on them to see if they had any success with germinating them).
Paul,
Given these are part of my local environ & important in the fight to stop deveIopers destroying yet more bushland I made a bit more effort than usual. I gave up on being involved with clubs a couple of years ago, found I got more useful information from research and observation than belonging.... (well except for this place)
Craig,
Interesting you havent repotted in many years, most info I have found recommends doing Pterostylis every year! Would love to see pics of yours in flower....
42 Mice ~Imperfection
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." ~ Vernon Sanders Law
"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own." ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
"Bonsai becomes great when growers start trees they know they will never see in a pot"
Matt, I would guess its at least 10 years since they have been potted, they are in big pots I will put up a pic when they come into flower.
One of the gardens I work in up the road has sheets of them in the lawn under the eucalyptus regnans there are 3 species all mixed up. They don't come up every year, maybe every second or third year. Do you know anything about that ?
Craigw
Craig, I can't really say why they would only come up every couple of years, the only thing I could think of would be moisture levels in the soil not being high enough. Having said that I have noticed some of the local clumps look better in some years than others so maybe its just a natural part of their life cycle... Look forward to seeing pics...
42 Mice ~Imperfection
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." ~ Vernon Sanders Law
"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own." ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
"Bonsai becomes great when growers start trees they know they will never see in a pot"
Joel, Thelymitra and Caladenia also only replace the old tuber each year so do not multiply like pterostylis and are harder to get. Most of these non multiplying species can be multiplied by removing the new tuber when half grown. The plant will produce another new one so 2 new tubers each year. Still pretty slow multiplication but more reliable than seed.
Seed scattered on the surface of a Caladenia pot will produce occasional seedlings if conditions are right. Orchid seed has no stored food so seed has to be infected by the correct fungi to be able to germinate and survive.
Craig, would be interested to know if the pterostylis don't come up at all - or just not produce flowers. Most send up leaves each year but only flower if conditions suit. Most are just overlooked if they only have leaves.
I have some pterostylis nutans, 3 different forms that I have had since the early 80s.
I suspect your 'forms' could be different species. There are many that are superficially similar.
I cant find the pics I took of it when the flowers opened but this is one I snapped in local bushland. It is a wide spread orchid ranging from SA to Tas, Vic, NSW, Qld and NZ.
While it grew well enough in the old pot I decided to upsize it this year & it looks alot better for it. It's a pot of moss & dirt for 6mths of the year and the other 6 months I get to watch it go thru its cycle. The larger pot hasn't been unused, it is pushing 2 roots at the drainage hole. 
