Wow Ursula beautiful! The Mayan Spirit makes me think that they have their pretty party dresses on. The tiny orchid blooms fascinate me, They make me slow down and peer into their world.
Elaine, the Yellow Birds are so pretty! I'm in love!
... and Ursula, the hug pic is so sweet!

Hi Here is the image of BC Jairack Finch

Prabhi Setty

Prabhi, very nice!

Btw, you probably figured it out in the meanwhile - your name in the lightbox needs to be written exactly as your log-on name, lower case and one word. prabhisetty
The picture will not post if you change it to your name Prabhi Setty. The easiest would be to leave it alone...

Ursula said: Prabhi, very nice!

Btw, you probably figured it out in the meanwhile - your name in the lightbox needs to be written exactly as your log-on name, lower case and one word. prabhisetty
The picture will not post if you change it to your name Prabhi Setty. The easiest would be to leave it alone...

Thank you

Another fairly warm day here in the North East, we are supposed to hit 70 F again today.
Lockhartia lunifera doesn't have a blooming season in my hands, it just blooms whenever.

That's a neat one, Ursula. Leaf arrangement looks a lot like Den. anceps but the flowers are more showy and interesting.

I have a nice spike of Bl. Punakea starting to open today, much deeper purple than the mature flowers which do fade through mauve almost to white.

Looks nice, Elaine!!
Things are a bit quiet here while things budding, but the Ornithophora radicans smells really pretty!!

Love your Punakea, Elaine! It has such a rich saturated color. I wish I could grow my Yellow Bird half as well as you do. It must be something about my watering practice. I struggle with that , nodosas and really , all the ones with thin bulbs.
But I have had some successes here lately.


Myv. Aruba's Spotted Beauty
With a couple of random flowers.


C. Luminosa blooming for the first time with INCREDIBLY fragile stems. There's another spike which I hope I don't also snap off.


Den. Hibiki still looks nice in its 3rd month in bloom .


Bsn. Ronnie Bliss blooming for the first time.


And Bulb. Khoon Meng 'Foxy'

Lindsey says
"But I have had some successes here lately."



Always beautiful blooms, Lindsey!
The Bulbo is super cute!

Lindsey, you certainly have more success than the rest of us put together, with your spectacular Cattleyas.

My watering regime is undoubtedly alien to you since most of my Brassies are on cork mounts, and half my pool cage - all mounted plants and Vandas - gets watered every morning unless the weather is very cool. In summer if it rains in the afternoon they get water twice a day, and the fan goes on in the evening to dry things.

Nice growing, Lindsey. Especially like the Myv. Aruba's Spotted Beauty

Thanks all!
Elaine, I do have a few things on mounts and rafts and they get watered at least once a day..but I think they also get a lot more breeze/wind than you might in your sheltered pool cage? I've tried a bunch of nodosa and nodosa crosses both mounted and potted and they just don't flourish. Interestingly, I could grow them in NC.
Ted, the flowers on Aruba's Spotted Beauty are huge..like 4 or 5 inches across and they last forever.
Ursula..

I suspect that the issue with Cattleya crosses of all types gets to be the intense heat.

I say this because years ago, when I was a much younger little seedling, I remember reading an article about the optimum temperature for good or maximum Cattleya growth. Scientists at that time said that 86 0r 87 degrees was optimum. Under proper light, cattleyas and photosynthesis were at optimum growth levels. What ever was produced in terms of sugars during the day was slightly more then they would use getting through the warmer nights. Once they were also subjected to growing in conditions that were too warm during the daytime, maximum photosynthesis and the production of sugars fell off. Cattleyas grown too warm, say often in the 88-92 or 93 degree range actually had to start using the sugars produced in order to deal with the heat! Then as an added detriment to optimum growth, what if the nights were too warm, over 68 regularly I seem to recall? They began to utilize too much in the way of stored food in order to respire at night and survive at optimum growth.
It was a critical balance of optimum temperatures in order for Cattleyas to grow their best. What if this were true? It would certainly give one food for thought. It could quickly become an issue of the orchid not producing enough food in order to grow optimally in order to deal with the warmer nights.

I knew back then that Cattleyas grew as warm/intermediate growers. That meant summer nights of 60-67 degrees and summer days of 82-87. In a lot of Florida, Texas and other places, experience long periods of time outside of that optimum temperature range. If true, this might explain a lot! Cattleyas have never been "warmth loving" plants in my mind.

Interesting!

Ted, the flowers on Aruba's Spotted Beauty are huge..like 4 or 5 inches across and they last forever.
Ursula.. [/quote]

OK, this goes on the wish list. How large is the plant

That is interesting Bill. I had 3 months this summer of over 100 degrees. . . On top of the many days of mid 30's this past winter. It's no surprise then why some of the plants are stressed out.

Hey, what surprises me is that I recently remembered this after possibly close to 35 years or so.
Of course, I assume that I am remembering things correctly but it does make some sense knowing what we know about basic photosynthesis. It is after all a simple chemical reaction and I know for dog gone sure that chemical reactions run best under ideal conditions, including temperature.

This anole has been sleeping on the same dendrobium leaf every night. I love seeing it there.

Yes, this is a great explanation as to why some orchids - not just Cattleya for me - seem to thrive for a while then slowly decline and die out.

(or a good excuse? )

A good example of this for me would be my gorgeous C. Chief Sweet Orange plant. I bought it at least 12 years ago, it took nearly 3 years to start blooming and for about 6 years just grew and bloomed twice a year and became the monster specimen plant it was. Then it started to go downhill, and has pretty much faded out. I rescued 3 small divisions of the huge plant but only one of them is really doing anything.

Sadly, I think my beautiful Bc. Renate is on the same path although I divided and began re-habbing it sooner in the downhill slide, I think. It was a massive specimen just a few years ago, and a powerhouse bloomer, at least 3 times/year for years.

I'm just now thinking that their decline may have something to do with having my big oak tree cut back so that the cage area was getting so much more mid-day sun! Oops! Short term, it seemed to be good for the orchids, especially the Vandas but long-term it was probably hotter for the poor old Cattleya varieties, too.

This year (thankfully) I remembered in June ! to put up my 30% Aluminet shade cloth on the west side of the cage, so things did stay cooler in the afternoons, and everyone seems to be happier. It surely was a hot, sunny and dry summer this year.

Well then, it makes me happy that I mentioned it.