September Speaker: Bill Smiles

by Marianna Max

Bill Smiles was our speaker for September. He spoke on the genera Dracula. He made the provocative claim that you don’t need a greenhouse to grow these humidity-loving plants but you do need to provide some specialized accommodations to be able to grow and flower some of the picker of the genera. Bill corrected a common misconception about Dracula growing by telling us that they are not all cold or even cool growers. Some of the nearly 130 species grow near sea level and in the lower elevations of the Andes where temperatures are moderate. Even the cool growers don’t need cold nights because in their environment, nighttime temperatures fall slowly so the recorded nighttime lows may only occur just before dawn and last for a short time until the sun warms the air.

Bill gave us valuable cultural advice for these genera. He had quite an extensive list of Dos and Don’ts from his own considerable experience. Draculas come from moist shaded steep valley from sea level to about 8000 ft from Mexico through Colombia with most occurring in the Andes.

The books all say they come from areas of deep shade but Bill finds that they flower best with a little bit more sun than you think they need. Bright indirect light is best. The plants do best in well ventilated conditions and would be happy in moist, buoyant air like that is found near a waterfall in the mountains (just what most of us have in our growing areas right?).

They like constantly moist but well drained (not soggy) media. They have fine root hairs designed to take up water and nutrients but which also benefit from good air circulation in the mix. Therefore, you shouldn’t pack in the media but only make it tight enough to hold the plant in the basket. Bill pots his plants in a mix of sphagnum, large perlite and either tree fern fiber of fine bark. The mix should be loose. Since most Draculas send their flowers down through the mix and out of the pot, they need to be grown in baskets or mesh pots. Draculas should be repotted yearly or at least every 18 months to avoid fertilizer build up and media break down. To repot, just comb out the old sphagnum and then loosely tuck in new mix around the root ball and then set it in the pot/basket. Don’t try to compress too much and don’t try to squeeze too many roots into too small a basket. Draculas don’t like to be under potted.

They like to be watered with slightly acidified water in the range between 5.3 and 5.6. Bill fertilizes his plants once a month at  ½  strength. He also does a ½ strength Miracid treatment once a month to compensate for his rather higher pH water.

Bill grows winters in a greenhouse but puts all his plants outdoors in the summer to enjoy the moist moving air. His outdoor growing conditions are likely to be a bit cooler than ours where he lives in PA.

Bill stressed that not all Dracula need extraordinarily high humidity. Only the really large flowered species require humidity in the upper 80s and 90s in order to keep their thin textured flowers from desiccating and collapsing. All species of Dracula tend to flower year round so that if you have a number of them you will generally always have one of the funny monkey-faced blooms to show off to friends.

Bill then took us on a slide tour of Dracula species starting with the warmer-growing sea level Draculas and working our way up the slopes of the Andes to higher cooler growing species. Some examples of warmer growing species are Dracula cordobae, mopsis, lotax and platycrater. Examples of more intermediate to cool growing Draculss are gigas, bella, chestertonii, chimaera, diana, felix, gorgona and many more. Some of the higher elevation, cold growing Dracs are: benedicti, dalstroemii, vlad tepes and velutina. You can find an extensive list of Dracula species and their growing elevations at the following URL:  http://home-1.worldonline.nl/~botorch/dracgb99.htm

Photos taken from J&L Orchids.