Help me pick some new mini/micro-Catts!

[JScott]

Originally Posted by Keysguy

Well, it's unanimous.
JScott and I think alike.

As great minds tend to do I've been wanting to try walkeriana and nobilior, but I haven't bought either yet, because I've read they can be hard to grow without a greenhouse, but every time I see a walkeriana for sale, I get just a little bit closer to deciding that it's time to buy one and give it a shot. I'm sure eventually I'll have one.

[Keysguy]

I've read they can be hard to grow

I find they just do their thing for me while I stay out of the way and just watch the show. But I'm probably just fortunate to have the perfect conditions for them.

[JScott]

Yeah, you have better weather for Orchids where you are. Warm temperatures all year, high humidity. My main concern with walkeriana is the humidity. My understanding is that they need a very fast drying mix, or better yet be mounted, and they need high humidity. My humidity in the winter is too low for mounting plants. I've tried, and the roots just shrivel and die in the low winter humidity. That leaves me with the option of potting it, but then I'd have to be super careful about watering, letting it dry totally between waterings, but with the low humidity, that may not provide enough moisture. I'll eventually give it a try, and maybe I'll get lucky, but I'm hesitant to buy one knowing that I don't have the right conditions (however I just bought a Rossioglossum Rawdon Jester, even though I know i don't have the right conditions for it, but I wanted it so bad, I figured I'd try and see what happens. That's about where I am with walkeriana. I probably can't grow it, but I feel like I need to try, just to be sure.

---------- Post added at 08:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:46 AM ----------

Marlow has some really nice looking Cattleya nobilior that I'm looking at real hard. I'm trying to talk myself out of buying it, but I think I'm losing that battle.

[Keysguy]

I keep my walkeriana's in nothing but medium fir bark although I put a few large chunks of fir bark at the bottom of the pot to make sure the drain holes don't get fouled. They are under shadecloth where I water good every four days plus they get whatever rain we get which, in the summer, is a lot! They seem to like it.
Oh, and as I tell everyone, I believe the nearly constant flow of the tradewinds are critical.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by DrDawn

Ah, ok, I think I thought the whole new pseudobulb growth was called a sheath, and so I was very sad when it opened and was just... a leaf. But I will (attempt) to be patient and watch the leaf develop - it definitely has a ways to go until it is anywhere close to as long as the other leaves on the plant! And then I will look more closely at where the leaf meets the pseudobulb and keep my fingers VERY crossed! Thanks so much for the info!

You're most welcome DD.

I can definitely understand what you mean about 'sheath' - because the outside of a developing leaf certainly has coverings or layers ----- AOS (or people) call those layers 'sheathING bracts'. Any covering layer that surrounds a developing LEAF will be these sheathing bracts. They probably don't consider them as sheaths as such. Sheathing bracts.

Then later, if a cattleya does develop one - a 'pocket' compartment that sort of protects any future developing flower spike or flower buds -------- is a 'sheath'.

I attached some pics here ------ where one of the pics does show an old sheath (all dried up), with both the dried flower spike and the dried sheath snipped off ------ but with still some remnants of the sheath still visible.

Another pic is a photo of a fairly long cattleya leaf. The flower bud is from a different cattleya (not on the plant with the long leaf). And if I peer into that long leaf, I see something ------ maybe it is flower buds and flower spike ----- but not sure yet.

Whatever it is, the feature appears to be not situated right at the base of the leaf.

It doesn't appear to be a 'stub' or whatever it is officially called - which would normally be green-coloured and located in the region where the base of leaf meets the top of the pseudobulb ------ a green stub with no spike and no sheath would mean regular leaf with no flower to be produced.

Some catts can produce seemingly sheath-less flower spikes, as well as sheathed ones.

I mentioned in some other thread that I set the bar high ----- as in, I don't think anything of a sheath or flower spikes or flower buds until almost right at the end when the bud is just about to open. It is a 'will believe it when I see it' approach hahaha.

[SouthPark]

DD - here's a link with some of that terminology!

Click Here

Another nice term they didn't mention just there is 'tepals' - which are collectively the PETALS AND SEPALS (together).

[DrDawn]

Ah, thanks SP! I had actually looked at that article when I moved my plants to this location several months ago to make sure they were getting enough light. My Catts are definitely the light-bright green color, not the darker color. Thanks for the reminder that there is good terminology info here too!

[JScott]

Originally Posted by Keysguy

I keep my walkeriana's in nothing but medium fir bark although I put a few large chunks of fir bark at the bottom of the pot to make sure the drain holes don't get fouled. They are under shadecloth where I water good every four days plus they get whatever rain we get which, in the summer, is a lot! They seem to like it.
Oh, and as I tell everyone, I believe the nearly constant flow of the tradewinds are critical.

Thanks for the tip! I ordered a walkeriana from Marlows just now, and since you can't order just one plant, I also ordered the hybrid between walkeriana and nobilior haha

[Keysguy]

since you can't order just one

They're just like potato chips!

[JScott]

Yeah, and if you order just one, he might get lonely in his little box on the way to my house, and I don't want to traumatize him like that, so he needs a travel buddy to keep him company, so you can't just get one haha. Oh, and in my last post, I wrote incorrectly what i bought. I got a Cattleya nobilior, not walkeriana (he was sold out of walkeriana, but that's fine, I love nobilior just as much as walkeriana), and then I got the hybrid between walkeriana and nibilior, Brazilian Jewel, I think it is called. But anyway, at least they won't get lonely on their way from Marlow's to my house lol.