Two New Cattleyas from Hawaii

[NYCorchidman]

I had been in Hawaii just in time for the Sandy.
Anyway, while I was in Oahu, I decided to visit Kawamoto orchid nursery.

So many beautiful blooming orchids, but I decided not to buy any due my limited growing space.
Well, I walked around all over and ended up getting two cattleyas in bloom.

I almost got three, but one looked virused with streaks on the flowers and leaves, so I put it down. That one was very nice and fragrant. well, well...

The yellow one is BLC. Tainan Gold "Golden Sparrow" and the red one is SLC Cherry Suisse AM/AOS. Both are nicely scented. Cherry Suisse is very waxy and cute.

The last red one is the virus suspicious one that I had hard time putting down, but I managed to do so. POT Shingfong Lady. couldn't find anywhere on the internet. It was such a nice plant with great color and large bloom. Last three pictures are of this plant.

Bad thing is that these guys didn't travel well and all the flowers are withered now.
Good news is that both plants have new leads that are showing sheaths, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
and I took fairly nice pictures of these two while they were in their peak glory at the farm.

[Leafmite]

Yes, you were wise to put the spotted one down...no matter how tempting. The others are very nice.

[NYCorchidman]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

Yes, you were wise to put the spotted one down...no matter how tempting. The others are very nice.

true, but it was so difficult as the plant looked so fine otherwise.
If I lived in Hawaii and didn't have to carry it in a box risking the flowers, I think I would have bought it just for a week's (or two) enjoyment of the nice flowers.

[silken]

Great choices! I especially like the yellow one. Did anyone from the greenhouse comment on the spotted one as to why it is like that and out for sale?

[NYCorchidman]

Originally Posted by silken

Great choices! I especially like the yellow one. Did anyone from the greenhouse comment on the spotted one as to why it is like that and out for sale?

Thanks! aren't they nice?
Yellow one is quite large, I don't know what I was thinking. Red one is moderate in size.

Other than the ebay greenhouse, which was off limit, but which had the best flowering orchids, I was allowed to wander around any growing area and pick whatever I liked. I was also told not to pick a plant if I was in doubt for any reason.

There were soooo many orchids both in and out of bloom. Most of them looked nice and healthy, and some looked not so healthy, but wonderful flowers regardless.
For example, there were a few other large flowered yellow/red and white cattleyas in bloom. They just looked sooooo perfect with three four flowers per stem.
but the plant looked so shrivelled up and dead, I had no idea how that was possible.

My Cherry Suisse look very healthy but the yellow one has strange light green/yellow area all over the leaves. the margins are not very definite. they also have lots of little snails that I've been hand-picking every night.
I'm rather concerned about the coloring on the leaves but I've seen this so much on cattleyas that I just didn't care much. well, maybe I should.

[tucker85]

Those are beautiful! I especially like the Tainan Gold. Great colors.

[NYCorchidman]

Yes, it is. It is a large plant for my space, but it just looked so nice and I just grabbed it.

In a way, my wish come true as I've always wanted large cattleya with some red on it, like Toshie Pizzar (I think that was the name?)
They had that plant with four flowers, but somehow the plant looked nearly dead and so I didn't get that one.

[SJF]

Hi
Unfortunately they, Kawamoto, do not guarantee their orchids to be virus free. I bought several on eBay and they looked like they had viruses and had some insect issues. When I sent them pictures and asked about viruses they told me that they don't guarantee them to be free of them. I wish they would state that in their listings. It would have saved us both time and them in the end money. They, without me even asking, refunded the total of my order and told me to dispose of the plants. I will get rid of them as to not risk the insects or possible/probable virus. It really is a shame.

[Aki_James]

The red one is just amazing!!!! I don't have luck with Cattleyas myself but If I did I would definitely add this to my collection. Great finds.

[escualida]

Originally Posted by SJF

Hi
Unfortunately they, Kawamoto, do not guarantee their orchids to be virus free. I bought several on eBay and they looked like they had viruses and had some insect issues. When I sent them pictures and asked about viruses they told me that they don't guarantee them to be free of them. I wish they would state that in their listings. It would have saved us both time and them in the end money. They, without me even asking, refunded the total of my order and told me to dispose of the plants. I will get rid of them as to not risk the insects or possible/probable virus. It really is a shame.

I bought quite a few orchids from them from eBay and have tested them all and all have been virus free. I have to say that for them to just give you a refund without even asking for tests or anything and not asking for the plants back is actually what growers who do guarantee virus free orchids would do anyway, except most of them want some kind of proof that the orchids are virused. So I'm actually really impressed that they did that.

I'm actually in a bit of a dispute with an eBay seller who sold me a phal that had BOTH ORSV and CymMV and won't give me a refund until I send her the plant back. I told her that I would send a sample to Critter Creek if she needed proof, or asked if she could test one of the other clones of this plant that she still has in stock instead of making me go out and find a big enough box (it's got a big spike), packing materials, take the time to pack it, and then walk 20 minutes in order to take it to USPS to send it back to her, and she refused and got really defensive and threatened to open a case against me. She also threatened to open a case against me if I didn't send the plant back in "perfect" condition, well I had to cut a little bit off of one of the leaves in order to test it so that would be impossible.

But the whole thing makes me super suspicious - why is she INSISTING on having the plant back when there are other ways of proving that it is diseased? And why would she need it back in perfect condition? Well the only answer that I can fathom is that she wants to sell it to someone else when it really should be thrown away. So I stood my ground and now there's an open case and we'll see what happens.

Anyway the whole point of me telling you this is that it seems like even though Kawamoto doesn't "officially" guarantee virus free plants, it seems like they behaved really well with you and that is a plus for them in my eyes.