Cattleya rec. for mothers day

[Louis_W]

Hey OB!

I want to grow an orchid or two for the mothers in my life. My mom would really be thrilled, and my wife and I are hopeful for kids in the next couple years so I'd like to get some specimens going for a year-after-year mothers day gift.

I have a collection of bifiate cattleya, which is my thing, but it seems much more appropriate to give my ladies a big beautiful floofy labiate cattleya for mothers day. I would like to include a plant or two into my collection for this purpose, and take the whole plant full of flowers as the gift, and have her bring it back afterwards for me to care for. I I'm excited about the idea of her looking forward to seeing her plant every year.

I'm looking for reccomendations for species or hybrids that put on an impressive display and bloom reliably in mid May.

Here are my thoughts/criteria:

-large flowers
-natural- ish colors (I'm not a big fan of candy stripes etc.)
-digbayana in the lineage would be good.
-floriferous
-nice fragrance would be great
-may bloom time

You get what I mean I think- a stunner for lack of a better word!

Thank you in advance for the suggestions!

[estación seca]

As the time approaches I would call Hausermann's and ask what they have in bud. Do this a couple of weeks in advance. They will ship you something with buds that will open for Mother's Day. You will get a spectacular plant.

Have a look here:
Mother's Day Gift - Laeliocattleya Irene Finney 'Spring's Best' AM/AOS in bud

That was in 2017. The plant was in an 8.5" pot. The price was $46.95 and shipping was $17.50 for a total of $64.45

[Louis_W]

That could be a good idea! they do have some very nice plants.

My intention is to choose a nice hybrid and grow it myself, and present the same plant to her year after year so she can see it grow. That might be a good way to get it started though!

[RJSquirrel]

grow it yourself for mom is a good idea. My mum has 2 black thumbs. She could kill a plastic plant watering it.

[Louis_W]

I ended up ordering two Cattleya Lawre-mossiae from Fred. I think it is the perfect plant and he even mentioned that it was bred to bloom on May. Primary 3n hybrid. I might miss next years mothers day since they are still seedlings but after that hopefully we will be off to the races!