The Fred Orchids: Oncidium "Gold Medal" and Oncidium "Gower Ramsey"

Another orchid friend at Steven's work Fred, specializes in Oncidiums. I think he must have nearly every type. He also gives away back bulbs that he has propogated to everyone, so nearly everyone at Steven's work has a Fred orchid. When we first got these from Fred, we nearly killed both of them from over watering. They were planted in lava rocks and it seemed like they would dry out so fast in that medium, so we sprayed them every day. Their roots of course all rotted and the plants nearly died. We put both of them in rehab. We cut off the totally dead parts and potted them into bark mixes in small plastic baskets. Slowly but surely they made new growths and therefore new roots and came back to life. After they were looking good again (maybe 6 months to a year), we potted them each into their own 6in wooden baskets with a standard bark mix. They seemed to respond well to the repotting, because they have made a ton of new roots (of course all out of the basket!). To our surprise, Gower Ramsey flowered this year, and man did it make an impressive display! We thought it would still be too small to flower since it only has 3 pseudobulbs. Gold Medal has not flowered for us post rehab. The Oncidiums, like cattleyas, like to dry out before getting watered again. I use my typical fertilizing regime for them, Dyna Gro- Grow every time I water. I think not over watering or over sunning these is the most critical factor.

This is Oncidium "Gower Ramsey"