Maxillaria tenuifolia

Despite freezing weather I know that spring is really close because I noticed this on my maxillaria:



Quite a few bulbs show now some little buds trying to form. I like the coconut smell of the blooms and looking forward to the flowering.
Some people find smell too strong and nauseating, but not me.
This plant proved to be the easiest to grow and reliable bloomer. It seems that the less you fuss with it - the better it grows...

Maxillaria tenuifolia blooming

First bud on maxillaria opened today:



It is first time plant reblooming for me, so I am very proud of it even though I did not make any special effort for it to happen.



I like the look of the flower and the smell. There are few more buds on the plant so soon the room will be filled with coconut fragrance.

Maxillaria tenuifolia buds

It must be spring, because now I keep discovering buds even on the orchids that are out of orchid tanks.
Buds of maxillaria are quite unnoticeable but I did spot this one yesterday:



On closer inspection it turned out that there are few more starting to climb out of the papery sheaths:



So, my Maxi proved to be the easiest plant to grow and the easiest plant to bloom from all the orchids I ever had. It doesn't mind low humidity, it is fine being potted into plastic pot with moss therefore doesn't need to be watered too often and I did nothing special to have her budding now. I really need to check Ecuagenera website for other maxillarias...

Maxillaria tenuifolia repotted but not divided

Roots started to stick out of the pot of Maxillaria tenuifolia and I decided to move it to a bigger one.

From the beginning I potted two very small rootless divisions of maxi into same pot to save the space and time watering, thinking that I will separate them after they both grow some roots.
Now, I thought, would be the good time to divide them into individual pots since both matured and grew more p-bulbs.

When I took maxillaria out of the pot I understood that separating those plants without serious root damage is an impossible task:



The roots of both plants tangled too much and filled the whole pot. I tried to swirl the roots in the water, but the ball proved to be pretty solid:



Finally I gave up, wrapped the whole thing in some fresh moss and slipped into larger plastic pot:



This is actually the only orchid that I grow in plastic pot with sphagnum moss and apparently it likes that.

Here is the picture from November 2011 when I just potted those two divisions:



Each plant had only two mature bulbs back then and look at them now! If only I could convince it to bloom now...

Suspicious growth on Maxillaria tenuifolia

Something started to grow from the below of one of the bulbs on my Maxillaria tenuifolia. For some reason it doesn't look like a new p-bulb growth to me. I think maybe it is a bud coming out?

The thing appears only on one bulb - far right one:



Here is the closer picture of the suspicious growth:



Of course I wanted to see it better and accidentally broke the protective sheath. Hope it won't kill that growth.
So, what do you think? Is it a bud?

Update: No, it is not a bud, just another pseudobulb started, which is kind of good too, but I really wanted a bud.

Maxillaria tenuifolia

New pseudobulbs are being born on Maxillaria tenuifolia. They come out from between the leaves on each new growth:

Maxillaria tenuifolia

These are the sad leftovers of a beautiful large Maxillaria tenuifolia plant that I bought last April at the show.
Plant arrived in the old moss. Moss was black and smelled bad. I decided to repot, but being total newby, I was very harsh with roots and damaged them badly when trying to get rid of old stinky moss.
I potted it into clear plastic pot with chc and quickly rotted rest of the roots. Bulbs wrinkled and I though the plant was a goner.
I eneded up selcting couple pieces with new growth and potting them into smallest pot with new moss. I was very carefull to let the moss get crusty dry on top before next watering.
To my surprise bulbs plumped up, new growths grew bigger and roots filled up small pot. I just moved it to the larger pot yesterday. From all these manipulations here is what I learned:
- Maxillaria tenuifolia likes to grow in the sphagnum moss on the full sun and likes to get somewhat dry between waterings.
- She doesn't really like her roots disturbed much.
- If bulbs wrinkled, they still might plump back if noticed in time to save them.
Anything else? Please add more...