Bloom Event - Cattleya No ID

It's a real shame that so many orchids are sold without names. The going rate for a generic 'Cattleya' from a 'garden centre' seems to be in the region of twenty pounds, when they are available at all. I really resent paying 20 pounds plus for a Cattleya if it doesn't even come with a name, no matter how beautiful I might think it is. And, of course, it's the same old story that we get with so many shop-bought orchids; some treatment they receive before they get to the end grower (almost put consumer there, which implies 'chuck in the bin after blooming') has killed all the roots and there is inevitably this nail biting period after blooming but before the plant puts out new roots where we wonder if it will make it at all.

When you add into this the annoying habit of some Cattleya to not produce new roots until its new growth is completed, and my point blank refusal to pay full price for a poorly cared for orchid with no ID, you'd think we had a recipe for disaster.

As luck would have it, I find Cattleya generally rather hard to kill, other than with kindness. The actual plant I'm talking about here is no exception to this, as you'll see. I bought this one from one of the aforementioned 'garden centres' off its bargain bench for very little money. It definitely wasn't in flower so I very much took a chance. I have to say, I'm glad I did because the flower, at least to my eye, has very good form.

I really love the non-flatness of the flower; as I've said in previous posts, i tend to dislike flowers that are very flat. The flower is only just open and filled out, but there is a scent developing. Scent is one of the things I really do like about Cattleya.

It's not too big and blousy, although it is a good size flower for the size of pseudobulb the plant produces. The flower count this time is rather lower than I'd like. The plant usually produces two flowers per spike, but there's only one this time. There is more than one growing point on it, but they are out of sync with each other and so flower at different times. I have a few ideas for the species its been bred from, but I wouldn't like to speculate too much as there's no way to be sure. It is strongly bifoliate, intermediate in size and is very vigorous indeed.

I forget exactly how long I've had this plant, but three years seems about right to me. In that time it outgrew its original pot and is now in the process of climbing over the edge of this one. I have put slits down the sides of the pot to let air in (sadly, I didn't foresee that this would also let the roots out but the plant seems happy so I oughtn't to complain). After blooming, I'm going to try to encourage the plant to produce more lead growths by snapping the rhizome a few pseudobulbs back from the lead growths. This should leave enough energy in the leads to still grow strongly and bloom, while encouraging further growths to form from the back of the plant. In future, this should lead to far more flowers being produced. I know it probably needs repotting, but I'm in no rush to do so as the growing medium is still quite fresh. I will say I haven't the faintest idea whether I managed to remove the original growing medium it came in, but judging by subsequent root growth, I'd say probably not. Still; if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?