New Tolumnia Tequila Sunrise

      I am slightly embarrassed to say, I dragged my good friend to the Bronx Botanical Garden (a 3 hour total train ride) just to get this beauty.

     As some of you may know, I have been looking for a tolumnia for over a year now. Yes, they are available online but I was scared to go through because of previous bad shipping incidents.

     There was only a handful of tolumnias for sale, most of the orchids there were phals. Even with extortionate prices, the shop was full of buyers. I checked the discounted shelf first in hopes of getting a nice plant for cheaper, but it was full of literally dead plants being sold for $30+.  The Botanical Garden shop was also selling many mislabeled tolumnias. I was thankful that I did some research beforehand and was able to determine which were labeled right.

     As seen in the above picture, tolumnias are rather dainty orchids. The pot itself was 1.5" across and the tallest fan was 2" tall. Three fans comfortably fit in the pot. The  1.5' spike held 6 unscented, half-inch blooms - now holding 5 because one wilted from repotting stress.

     Even though it could have grew comfortably in its pot, it was extremely clear the tolumnia was not repotted for a long while. The bark was heavily decomposed and gave off a rotting, moist, wet-dog like smell. I was a bit surprised to see it was potted in coarse bark, being the roots are so fine.

     I bough the orchid with intentions of mounting it. Whenever I see mounted tolumnias, my heart melts! I googled some mounting techniques for tolumnias and did the best I could - The plant was placed on cork with a tiny bit of chopped sphagnum underneath, some live moss on top of the roots, and tied up with monofilament. I placed a ruberband around the cork to hold the spike stake in place, and am now just waiting for attachment. Once the roots attach to the mount, off comes the monofilament and rubberband.

     Yes, there are many roots sticking out. I thought it would be best this way due to tolumnias prefrence to dry quickly. I mist twice a day and soak the whole mount every other day for 10 minutes. So far, the mount dries efficiently, almost completely within an hour.
 

      As mentioned before, I am waiting to move to college this fall where I will have an 'official' setup and proper lighting. As of now, it will hang off of my wall where it receives okay light - hopefully enough to keep growth going.