Bloom Event - Coelogyne G Beryl Read

When I see random Coelogyne hybrids for sale, I buy them (if I'm not growing them already, of course). This particular one is a hybrid between C. salmonicolor (the plant I have labelled as C. speciosa 'burnham') and C. mooreana 'westonbirt', and is a relatively new hybrid, being registered in 2008. These speciosa hybrids are made of tough stuff, and C. mooreana is no weakling either. With both warm and cool growing parents, hybrids like this one are very tolerant of warm or cool conditions and it seems an easy, if not fast, grower. It seems to have got the right traits from the right parents; upright spikes from C. speciosa and the lovely white flowers from C. mooreana. I suppose I should call the blooms semi-sequential, meaning there are usually 2 or 3 open at any one time, with buds still being produced at the tip.

As you can see, the blooms are a nice clear colour and more white than some of the hybrids which definitely tend towards the ivory. I don't think much to the scent on this one, but at least it has one. I will say that the flowers seem to be bigger during winter bloomings, so maybe they are better on the slightly cooler side, but their growth is not affected by warm temperatures at all.

flowers are produced from the centre of the new growth while it is still quite young, so the emerging leaves don't get in the way of the flowers. This hybrid seems to not get too big (think back to the large size of C. mem. Louis forget or William Micholitz). It also doesn't seem too inclined to make more than one new growth at a time but, as an seasoned professional, I have methods of forcing the issue. Its not so cruel as it sounds. All I mean is that I have made what I call a 'back cut'. All you do is, provided your plant is large enough, count three or four pseudobulbs back from the lead growth and sever the rhizome. The back of the plant will usually (but not always) produce a new growth. This works well for some genera, but not at all for others, so do your homework before going crazy with the secateurs. I have found it an excellent way of bulking up Cattleya (which, at least for me, don't seem inclined to produce multiple growths), but it won't work on quite a lot of Oncidium alliance plants. Keep the divisions of a decent size so the plants have the strength to bloom quickly. The two divisons can then be left together to produce a specimen size plant more quickly or they can be separated to produce two plants.

You can't see the new growth on the above photo, its still small and below the level of the bark (each new pseudobulb is marginally higher than the proceeding one, so each time we repot the older pseudobulbs get gradually buried), but you can see the overall proportions of the plant. Its in a 12cm pot. I look forward to seeing it with more new growths blooming in the future.