Dividing Coelogyne miniata
I got this Coelogyne miniata last September. It was in bloom, not too expensive and looked as if it could be divided. I put it aside and waited for new growth. This plant now has four new growths so I have reread what OrchidSpecies.com has to say about the species and I took it out of the pot and removed the old bark.
Coelogyne miniata grows in Java, Bali, Lesser Sunda Islands and Sumatra in mountain forests above 3000 feet. It is cool to warm growing and blooms in winter.
The roots are quite sparse. There is a pseudobulb that is the center of the plant. At one time it had three new growths which formed the plant. From the way the roots looked it was ripped from a mount and potted, winding it around to make a full-looking pot. At least it is all one plant.
I separated the leads and trimmed the dead parts. The leads were mounted on cork. Given the length of the rhizome they may turn out to be too small, but I have sometimes seen species with long rhizomes in the pot grow shorter on a mount. We shall see.
The backbulbs were broken up into small groups. I often do single pseudobulbs for backbulb sprouting, but these seemed weak and I don't have experience with this species. There were four pieces and I put these in a community pot.
I wanted to try sprouting these in bark rather than sphagnum. To avoid having a pot full of soggy bark I filled the pot about 3/4 with foam peanuts. On top of that a layer of sphagnum, thin but fully covering the peanuts so bark would not fall through. I arranged the pieces on top of the sphagnum and filled in loosely with small bark. The idea is that the roots will have a choice to go into the wetter sphagnum layer or the dryer bark layer. Once I know which they like better I can adjust for the next time I work with this species.
