Courtney Hackney's Beautiful C. dolosa

[Anglo]

Cattleya dolosa 'Hackneau'



As you may already know, Dr. Courtney Hackney is a professor of biology, an orchid hybridizer, and the author of American Cattleyas - Species and Outstanding Clones that Define American Hybridizing. He and his wife have a nice web site: http://roseg4art.com/ It's well worth visiting.

I found the web site this past summer in an ongoing search for dolosas, and bought a division of C. dolosa 'Hackneau'. Of those that have bloomed so far, this one has the best looking flower. In fact, it's one of the best looking dolosa flowers I've seen so far, either in real life or in pictures.

The division is big, and for now, gawky with 6-inch leaves on 8-inch pseudobulbs that reach out in all directions. This is obviously how they needed to grow when the rhizome was part of the mother plant. Now there is more sunlight and open space. A new growth appeared in the middle of the rhizome and came up straight and stocky. That's the p-bulb that flowered.

The flowers have a light, fruity fragrance in the morning. I don't know yet if it gets better as the day goes on because I haven't been home during the day since the flowers opened.

[justatypn]

Anglo, that catt is superb I must add this to my list of larger catt's. The bloom has spectacular in color. Great job growing

[Tindomul]

Wow!! Nice one. The fragrance must be extremely pleasing. Thanks for the link too.

[orcdfrk]

Very nice Anglo and looking at that one I think there might be some loddigesii in there somewhere but I've been wrong before.

[Peter NL]

Beautiful!! I am waiting already 2 years for flowers on my dolosa!

Peter

[Wendy]

Beautiful colour and form. Drool-worthy!

[Anglo]

Thanks for the kind comments. The flowers opened up a little more fully since the picture was taken to an outstanding form - full, round, and flat. The fragrance is stronger too. It's nice, but I don't really have a good word to describe it with now because I don't know what scent it would be similar to. Some kind of shampoo maybe.

And orcdfrk, I don't know that there is any loddigesii in its ancestry by intent, but there is if dolosa is a natural hybrid between walkeriana and loddigessi, as some believe it to be.

Since this orchid was first discovered, its origin has been unclear and its name has changed several times with the confusion. It has been called Epidendrum dolosum, Cattleya eximia, Walkeriana var. dolosa, Cattleya x dolosa, and Cattleya dolosa.

As I understand it, Carl Withner agreed with the C. dolosa classification in 1989. I'd like to know just what he said about it. I recently ordered volume 1 of his Catttleyas & Their Relatives books in the hope that it's covered there.

[Oscarman]

Anglo,

That is stunning! Well done.