Cattleya percivaliana marmoreada

I have been watching this Cattleya percivaliana spikes slowly develop. They have finally got the flowers almost open. Even though I would not call this a great blooming this year with only a single flower on each spike, they are very beautiful flowers and will be at the SCOS show and sale this weekend along with my two large NOID Catts also in bloom.

Cattleya percivaliana grows in Venezuela and Colombia in the mountains above 4000 feet near rivers. It is a large sized lithophytic plant out in the full sun. It is fragrant and blooms in the fall.

This plant is in sphagnum in a 4-inch clay pot. There are 6 pseudobulbs and two leads. This variety is a beautiful and rare color form of C. percivaliana which features unusual tessellations throughout petals and sepals. It is known locally in Venezuela as variety Remolacha, due to the petal coloring resembling that of a cut open 'Beet'. The backside of both petals and sepals are of a very dark red solid beet color.

Oncidium NOID

I just got this nice healthy plant. The top of the spike has been damaged and the owner threw it away. Instead of ending up in the garbage it came to me. There was a paper label that identified it as "intergeneric".

The plant is in excellent shape with a pot full of roots and pseudobulbs overflowing the pot. When I looked beyond the broken spike I saw two more spikes. It is ready to be re-potted as soon as the blooming is done. After it has done its duty in the Sonoma display window I will probably give it away.

Cattleya Mom's Favorite

It looks as if Cattleya Mom's Favorite will remain unidentified. It has fully developed its color and there is nothing to distinguish it from the many white Cattleya hybrids with C Bow Bells in the mix. It is still a very big, beautiful flower.

Oncidium nudum

I am a bit surprised that the Oncidium nudum bloomed this year. It bloomed two years ago in what I thought was a despiration bloom. It had been very badly damaged by a rat we had in the Sonoma greenhouse. It was attacked again last summer by a rodent (probably a squirel) here in Napa.

Oncidium nudum grows in northern South America in hot, humid wetlands. It blooms in winter and has an inflorescence that extends almost two feet.

The spike is growing around the plant toward the north wall of the greenhouse. It is hanging within two feet of the top of the greenhouse so I had thought it would go in that direction. But given that the spike originated at the bottom of the plant shaded by the pseudobulbs, it makes sense.

Potinara Hawaiian Charisma 'Hilo Beauty'

Last July I divided the Sonoma collection plant. It was growing over the edges of a teak basket. I ended up with six pieces.

For the hybrid it is a pretty poor showing. There is only one flower and it is pointing straight up. On the other hand, considering how chopped up it was after being removed from the basket, I am surprised that it bloomed at all.

This plant is in sphagnum over peanuts in a 5 1/2-inch clay pot. There are five pseudobulbs and it stands nine inches above the pot.

Laelia purpurata 'Schristeriana'

I went back and forth about whether to winter the Laelia purpurata outside with the Laelia anceps. I think I have my answer. The Cymbidiums and the anceps and anceps hybrids are fine.

This plant is in sphagnum over peanuts in a 5 1/2-inch clay pot. There is a new growth about an inch long that seems stressed but still ok. We had some nights that went down into the 20s. The plants were dry. They had not been watered for ten weeks. Even so, the sphagnum is not rock hard as might be expected. There has been dew on the plants that ran down into the medium.

Carter & Holmes 4067

I have two divisions of this Carter & Holmes that was purchased maybe 30 years ago. The original tag was lost but there was a number on a tag in the pot. I asked C&H about 4067 but that number is some completely different genus. Now that the flower is open I will send a picture and ask them again.

Paph Elfstone 'Balance' x Ice Castle 'Snow Drift'

The second Paphiopedilum I bought was Paphiopedilum Elfstone 'Balance' x Ice Castle 'Snow Drift'. The plant looks more healthy than the other Paph I bought at the same time.

This will be re-potted after the flower is gone. If it is going to be in my Napa greenhouse when the weather warms up in the spring it will need a different medium. I will pot them in pea gravel along with moving the Paphs I have to brighter locations.

Paph Weltz World 'Statuesque' x Rolling Thunder 'Pizzaz'

At the SCOS meeting last week I spent my raffle ticket money on a couple of Paphs. This Paphiopedilum Weltz World 'Statuesque' x Rolling Thunder 'Pizzaz' was one of them. The price was low and it is very beautiful. I am concerned about the roots since there is some wobble to the plant. I will worry about that after the flower is done.

The genus Paphiopedilum (Paph) contains 100 species in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. They have no pseudobulb so need moderate shade, good humidity and regular year round watering with good air circulation. They are generally slow growing. Leaves indicate prefered temperature with those that are mottled grow warmer, and the solid green with only one flower grow intermediate to cool.

I don't talk much about Paphs but I have quite a few. I have had many of them for six years and have had only a couple of bloom. Now that the Catts have moved to Sonoma, I will be able to move them to brighter locations. Light level is almost always the problem when an orchid doesn't bloom.

Cattleya hybrid "Mom's Favorite"

I got this plant from Steve Christoffersen last fall. It was a "small" division of his plant which is, in fact, his mother's favorite. He has had it many years and somewhere along the way lost the tag.

The plant is in sphagnum moss in a 7-inch clay pot. There are fifteen pseudobulbs and it stands eighteen inches above the pot. I haven't measured the flowers yet. I will do that after they have been open a few more days, but they are quite big.

I was happy to help Steve out in reclaiming growing space. He has some exciting new crosses developing. But flasks became compots, and now compots are becoming individual seedlings. Those take up a lot of space as he waits for them to mature so he can select some to grow and even make new crosses.

When the next growth cycle begins I am going to re-pot the plant. There is only one lead. If the shape of the plant were better I might be tempted to allow it to get bigger.

Laeliocattleya Puppy Love

Libby and I are doing a trade of backbulbs. She sent me these two Lc Puppy Love backbulbs. It is a small plant, it has a very beautiful lavender flower, it is a L anceps hybrid and was registered by Stewart in 1970. Any of those would be enough for me to want it as part of my collection.

These are interesting in another way. If I was offered only one of them, which one would I pick? One has leaves and some root while the other has neither.

I would take the rootless, leafless piece. When I wet the root on the other, it got a little green color for only half an inch. Even if all the root had been live, it would not have been enough to support the two leaves. In fact, I would not be surprised if the leaves died and fell off.

Both pieces will be staked up together in a pot of rocks. Bamboo skewers make good stakes for small things that need some support. We'll see how they do.

Cymbidium Hybrid

Dr. Nick Burnett spoke at the SCOS meeting on the subject of preparing plants for shows. Our show is only three weeks away. I think I will have something to enter but you never know. He brought some nice Paphs for sale and there was a pretty good opportunity table.

There was another box of NOID Cymbidiums. I picked one up, the one shown above. This is a backbulb with a tiny bit of root and a full set of leaves. In addition, this is exactly the wrong time of year for dividing Cymbidiums. I potted it, cataloged and plan to pray over this, my test of the thesis that orchids really want to survive.

I filled a pot half full of small fir bark and finished filling it with potting soil. I dumped that in a bucket and mixed. I put a layer of peanuts on the bottom and poured the mix around a stake that goes all the way to the bottom. I tamped it down until I had it more than 2/3 full of the mix. Next I fastened the "division" to the stake and tamped more of the mix around it. I finished by watering it in and topping off the pot with the last of the mix.

I am potting it just as I got it. The leaves are a problem since there is not nearly enough root mass to support them. If I was wise I would cut them down by at least half.

Cattleya Mary Williams 'Azores'

One of the maintenance activities of an orchid collection is to pick each plant up and inspect it on a regular basis. I will often rotate the plant so that the light is not coming from the same side all the time. The plant will grow stronger and straighter.

After a bud is formed it makes a 180 degree turn to get the flower facing the right way and to get the top of the flower to actually be on top. If the direction of the light changes during this process, the flower gets distracted and doesn't complete the rotation properly. That is what happened to this flower. I didn't put it down facing the same way as it was when I picked it up.

This plant is in sphagnum over peanuts in a 3 1/2-inch clay pot. There are three pseudobulbs and the plant stands eleven inches above the pot. This hybrid is the cross between Cattleya Henrietta Japhet and Cattleya Dubiosa. It was registered by Sea God Nursery in 1975.

Cattleya lawrenceana

Masood Raja reports backbulb propagation success!

Since I repotted quite a few of my plants, I also, when possible, divided the larger plants. That left me with a set of four back bulbs from the following species:

• C. eldorado
• C. intermedia
• C. lawrenceana
• C. schroederae

I followed a simple method suggested by Chadwick and Son as well as Richard Lindberg. I placed some sphagnum moss, slightly moist, in a zip lock bag, added my back bulbs, each set in a separate bag of course, with their respective tags, placed the bags in a box and placed it in my closet.

The temperature needs to be above 75 degrees for this to succeed. So far, the C. intermedia and C. lawrenceana have started developing new growths. The other two will also probably succeed, but it has not been long since I “bagged” them. I will report on this further, but for right now I am happy to report that this method seems to be working.

After the growths develop, I will plant these bulbs in the smallest possible pots to encourage root growth. We shall see!

Read more at Masood Raja's blog Cattleya Conversation.