Coelogyne Cristata Care: A Sparkling Guide to Keeping Your Orchid Radiant

Cultivation

In winter I grow them in a cold greenhouse with temperatures not below 2-3°C and with natural lighting. Frost or temperatures below 0°C for a long time should be avoided because frost risks freezing the water contained in the pseudobulbs which then split with consequent rotting and loss of the plant. In summer they are positioned in the garden in the shade in an area with average brightness and get the sun in the late afternoon.

The daytime temperatures exceed 30-35°C, the night temperatures are always quite high but both are well tolerated if the environment is quite humid and, as mentioned, they also like a little sun. I realized that by avoiding the sun during the hottest moments, a little late afternoon or early morning sun is beneficial to the plant even if some leaves risk burning.

To obtain good flowering in winter it must have a cold and dry period to the point that the pseudobulbs begin to wither but without exaggerating to avoid that the plant then spends too many resources for the recovery in spring with the risk of losing flowering and in an environment with humidity around 70%.

General

Surely the most famous and the most cultivated of all the Coelogyne. The white flowers with the beautiful golden yellow markings are long-lasting and sometimes even fragrant. The stems can even reach 10 flowers and are truly a show. It grows on mossy trees and sometimes on moss-covered rocks at high altitudes (up to 2500m) in northeastern India, Tibet, Nepal and China, therefore an environment where you can find humid and rainy summers with decidedly cold winters. Some areas in winter can be very bright even for a short time, but in the majority of cases, they are in a misty or cloudy environment with a very low amount of light.

Watering

The water in winter must be greatly reduced in order to avoid the very thin roots can rot, even if the substratum is well drained and if the environment is particularly humid it is also possible to avoid wetting, obviously, the pseudobulbs give us the necessary signals and if you see that they wrinkle too much it is advisable to water them to avoid that in the vegetative moment the plant has to spend a lot of resources for the recovery with possible non-flowering. In summer it should be watered abundantly and very frequently 4/5 times a day and abundant fertilizations.