http://www.merklesorchids.com/2Images/27JPEGS/mexipedium_and_dime.jpg

My Mexipedium xerophyticum has opened a second bloom, a little better shaped, so I took some more photos. Hope ya like um.

http://www.merklesorchids.com/2Images/27JPEGS/mexipedium_xerophyticum.jpg

http://www.merklesorchids.com/2Images/27JPEGS/mexipedium_xerophyticum_2.jpg

As you can see, its a consecutive bloomer, with the next bud coming along, waiting its turn.

Very nice Ed!

Off topic, but I was wondering where you got your Phal. violacea v. murtoniana. I have not been able to find one for a while.

Thanks.

Jon

Wow, great shots Ed! :clap:
I didn't realize the flowers were so small. Nice close-up.

Oh Ed, you had to do that to me didn't you?
Well, good thing I've already started to do something about it, otherwise the new pics would have put me over the edge. Luckily, the last ones had already done so.

I have really decided I love these. Can't wait to try to grow one!!

Gee that is tiny, I like it.

Wow I really need to get one of these!

Hey Ed we missed you the other night.

This flower is very symetrical. Mine is queing up more buds too. Looking good.

Very nice :clap2: I didnt relise that they were that small . :D What is the over all size of this plant (leaf spread & height) ?

Ed,

Thanks for the perspective! Great picture!

amazing plant and flower, really nice. For some reason I can't really explain this flower reminds me of some of those strange underwater creatures , living in deep deep canyons undersea...!

the flowers are very small! it looks great :clap:

Plants of Mexipedium xerophyticum will have a spread from leaf tip to leaf tip of about 3 inches blooming size. The plants are on long, woody rhizomes, that can easily walk right out of the pot if you don't watch it. The hieght of the plant can be about an inch or so. I have had mine bloom, but about the size of a nickel. A dime sized one I have never seen before, perhaps mine was a freak (as most of my plants are). I had a lot of these guys before I sold them all. I grew mine in sand and granite rock, and they were loving it. The plants are Xerophytic, hence the species epithet. To me, they are not to impressive, that is why I let them all go when I saw the flower size..... I thought they would be larger, and not a Pleurothallid tiny typ flower.....

I would also imagine if all my shoots were in bloom, it would have been a nice show of flowers..... though I had them in bloom for an entire month last two summers. They are interesting, but nothing too spectacular and showy, though I am somehow intrigued by the small size, it is like a comlex flower, like a Paph. spicerianum or insigne, but miniaturized.

The plants are VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY hard to grow, and was happy I found an even better home for the plants. I grew my plants in almost full sun, at least full sun for a few hours, until there was some shade later after noon-time..... They are prine to rot and bacterial infection, as a good freind of mine has some, and overwaters, which causes rot (which is curable), but if not treated immediately (I mean like hours after rot), the shoot wil succumb, and spready quickly through the rhizomes. You have to cut alot off to save you plant from that one shoot.....

Defintely a plant that surpasses the skills required to grow rare and cooler growing Paphs, Phrags, Cyps, and Selenipediums. Watch the leaves as well, they turn yellow tint with way too much sun over a prolonged period of time, and the shoots die off. They are also very slow growing.....

That is all I know about Mexipedium, anyone know if there is an alba form of it, or posssibly a form that is strange, colored, or uncolored?

ttyl,
-PM

I thought they would be hard to grow but I find them easy as pie. The plant in my photos is growing in coconut husk chips, in a plastic pot, with a good heaping tablespoon or two of cracked oyster shell on top of the medium. Light intensity is between 2000 and 3500 footcandles...like that for a Cattleya orchid. I have been following the natural watering scheme outlined on ladyslipper.com website with waterings 2 or 3 times a week during spring and summer and waterings once every 7 to 10 days or so during fall and winter. I've not experienced any rot whatsoever. I've had my plant only a few years and it grew rapidly enough to sell a division to Rick L. last year, which has now bloomed for him. A friend of mine bought a huge plant of it...fifteen growths or so...and was determined to grow it dry and promptly killed it. My plant grew well but did not bloom until after I top-loaded the growing media with a hefty bunch of the oyster shell. The fertilizer I am using is Jack's Professional Orchid Fertilizer 16-4-20 Cal-Mag. That is all.

thanks Ed!
(Damn these hot temps! (I know, I'm awfully fickle!) I want my plant!!)

man that is small, I real beauty :clap:

These are by far the nicest photos of Mexipedium I have seen! What's your camera set-up?

B.