I need some cultural hints. I know it is a warm to hot African terrestrial that blooms in the fall or early winter.

I assume a potting mix of Promix, leaf mold and charcoal. Light intensity 2500 fc? Does it stay dry in the winter? (It currently has no leaves). Are the bulbs (p-bulbs) planted at the surface of the soil mix? Any other cultural info or tips would be appreciated.

I used to collect Eulophias...just too hard to find many of them for sale.

Eulophia guineensis is very adaptive, and for the most part easy to accomodate. First off, I use my standard mix of MetroMix with coir(promix too) with charcoal and perlite added, and clay pots with about a third of the bottom filled with styrofoam peanuts. Plant the pseudobulbs so that about a third of it is buried and two-thirds is above the mix.

Like Catasetums, they have DEFINITE rest periods. When dormant, I do not water them at all...though they stay in the same area year round, so recieve high humidity. Once growth starts, water regularly and keep them constantly moist until the leaves die in the fall and then dry them out and the cycle continues. I have found they are more tolerant of forcing than many genera, and you can stop watering them before the leaves yellow or start watering them before the growth appears...as long as they have a couple months of complete dryness.

I grow them in medium light, same as I do for all Paphs and Phals, and they seem to stay a nice shade of green and bloom every year. Humidity I keep above 60% always, and try to keep higher than that and they seem to like it, though I have also had them grow well on a windowsill with quite low humidity.

Hope this helps, and if you ever have problems blooming a Eulophia petersii...don't ask me, I've tried to literally kill mine and it still hasn't bloomed after about 10 years. Oddly, more cactus collectors have heard of it than orchid growers and it looks more like a cactus.

Jon

Dug up some pics of Eulophias I have, and some that used to be Eulophias and are now Oeceoclades. Now to find the rest of the old photos.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/jonbar2/eee1.jpg
Eulophia guineensis

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/jonbar2/eee3.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/jonbar2/eee2.jpg
Eulophia keithii

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/jonbar2/eee5.jpg
Oeceoclades lonchophylla

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/jonbar2/eee6.jpg
Oeceoclades maculata

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/jonbar2/eee7.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/jonbar2/eee4.jpg
Oeceoclades saundersiana

Jon

Jon you are a fount of information! I am so impressed. So impressive!

Yikes! Watch out for maculata. That thing is a weed. I think its become invasive in Florida. I had a piece of it that flowered and produced pods without me intervening. The pods split, and the next thing I knew there were a couple of maculatas coming up in adjacent pots.

One thing that was kind of interesting is that the flower spike seemed to be attractive to fire flies, and they may have been the culprit polinator.

Thank you Jon!

Dug up some pics of Eulophias I have, and some that used to be Eulophias and are now Oeceoclades. Now to find the rest of the old photos.

Nice photos and very interesting comments. Do you know of a definite recipe to make Oeceoclades flower ? I have had Oeceoclades decaryanus and spathulifer for ten years, and no flower...

<<<Chun