Thanks for everyone's confirmations. Looks like C. mossiae 'Willowbrook' has bloomed without a sheath for others too. It looks a little curious, but I have had that happen with one Rlc on and off.

Clawhammer, sorry that yours did not make it. We'll see how mine does. Not sure if a sheathless bud requires special treatment...

No special treatment at all Jeff. Usually, the sheath provides some humidity and/or some protection for the buds when they're small. And then when the spike gets big enough to split the sheath a tiny bit ..... the buds slowly get used to the change, as the whole sheath doesn't just abruptly split right open.

For sheathless spikes and buds ----- they'll be used to the conditions already --- provided that the conditions in the environment are satisfactory.

I just casually attached a few phone-pics taken this morning ----- of an orchid that is known to never produce sheaths for flower spikes.

As can be seen - the ants and insects leave bits of residue and dirt etc behind hehehe ..... but the buds just keep forming and power through anyway.

The buds with the interesting looking leaf is from a Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown ---- no cultivar name. And this one hasn't flowered before. First time flowering for this plant. I recently showed pics of another plant of the same cross. It's possible that the one in this pic may be the same clone as the one currently in flower though. Will see when the flowers open heheh.

The other pic showing bigger buds (still growing) is also an Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown ----- and I arbitrarily call it 'Sweet Afton m. Splash'. Hopefully the flowers turn out nice and will open soon. Maybe another week to go.

Just including google drive links too (as the uploads have limited pixel dimensions) :

Link1 Link2 Link3

I am sure that mine is a mericlone and I suspect some genetic alteration is affecting sheathing. I have a good number of unifoliate species, primary, and complex hybrids and they hardly ever bloom sheathless. My current plant is 9 growths with two leads, each with early bud development without sheaths. The roots are great. It just doesn’t seem like it can be cultural.

terry ..... it's awesome how you have some possible genetic variations. As sometimes, you may end up by sheer luck and chance with something unbelievable .....and even very unique. That's what can happen when you purchase multiple plants ------ you can raise the chance of getting something 'special' or different from the others - an individual.

Naturally, every orchid flower and orchid is fantastic - no matter what they look like. So when I mean special, I just mean looking different from the others.

Update:

The sheathless buds of C. mossiae 'Willowbrook' have been slowly developing. Lost a bud when I was watering... quite fragile and easy targets of my fumbling hands without a sheath.

That's awesome Jeff!

A very interesting topic because I think that this year my flowering is not normal, most of my plants are flowering without sheath and others have spikes and sheath at the same time, perhaps they all have ancestry from those that SouthPark showed but this had not never seen in the oldest of mine, I have come to think that something in the climate may be affecting.

That is exactly where my ‘Willowbrook’ is right now with it two blooming growths. With no protection from a sheath, you have to be very careful of the young buds.

Jeff, where did you obtain your mossiae ‘Willowbrook’?

I got mine from Hauserman Orchids.

I got mine from Orchids Limited, but I am sure they did not mericlone the plant so would have gotten a flash from someone, maybe Hausermann’s. However, I suspect that the plant has been mericloned more than once.