BLC with 1 (one) flower on 1 stalk - flower 8 in. (! eight !) across ...
 

:hello Cattleya growers.

An Indonesian orchid merchant went to Taiwan to buy and import into Indonesia dozens of
in-flower Cattleya plants, all of which had very appealing blossoms.

I fell for --BLC KING OF TAIWAN TA HSIN #1-- not because of it's pompous name or it's colour,
but because it had only 1 (one) very large flower with the impressive spread of 8 in. (!) across ...

So far so good. However, when the plant flowered again it had 4 flowers on it's stalk,
and each was only a smallish 4 in. across ...

My question is :: how to manipulate this plant to get it to repeat what it had done before,
i.e. produce only 1 (one) REALLY LARGE flower ??

Any generous sharing of your esoteric knowledge would be very much appreciated, thank you :D .
Best Regards,
Manfred.

Removing buds should work, though perhaps not as dramatically as the 8 incher. Remove the buds as soon as possible for best effect.

i agree. ive ever tried this with orchids though. when one wants to grow a mamoth pumpking for the state fair or something, they leave only one bud on the plant. so that it can focus its energy solely on the one plant

Also do you fertilize regularly?

Hello Paul, PaphMadMan, help and trdyl:

I have thought along these lines myself but then had doubts, because a Purist might call it 'un-ethical' ...
But with your support I will do it next time.

This Cattleya plant, when it grows, gets fertiliser every day and lots of 'dappled' light also.

Thanks very much,
Manfred.

I wouldn't consider this unethical in any way. You bought this plant becasue you liked the large flower. Growing it in a way to recreate that just seems logical. As the question about fertilizer implies, the first step is to grow it perfectly. Good luck, and show us a picture when you get your perfect huge flower.

yep! its all about your opinion. if you like more flowers that arent as big, then fine. if you want one huge one, that is fine too! do what you like