My first Cattleya!
 

I ordered a mystery Cattleya from Odom's Orchids. It just arrived today. The tag says it's a 'blc chunyeah 19'. I googled pictures of it and looks gorgeous! I can't wait to see it open and bloom!

I have an email in to the owner asking about watering; but I thought I would post here too since you guys have all been so helpful when it comes to my beloved Phal. :)

I gave it a 1/2 cup water when I went home for lunch and unpacked it. I was weary of giving it more until I had additional advice. Do you think I should water it again this evening? It's not in a clear pot, so the only roots I have to go by are the roots seen in the picture.

This is my first Cattleya orchid. I'm excited to dip my toes into a whole new orchid world. Thanks for any tips/advice you can give me. :blushing:

Your orchid is a Rhyncholaeliocattleya. I'm not sure but I think Brassolaeliocattleya (Blc) is the older nomenclature when Rhyncholaelia were classified as Brassavola.

OrchidWiz says about watering: Mature plants MUST dry out between waterings.

I had never heard of OrchidWiz; it's very comprehensive! Might look into downloading the encyclopedia when I get home. Thx!

lucky you. With buds too.
Half a cup is quite a lot already. If you only have a few and you have some spare kitchen scales (I bought a cheap set just for my orchids)
you can weigh the whole pot and orchid now. Then weigh it again in 3 days time.

That will give you a rough idea how much it is drinking at yours (as this varies depending on light, humidity and temperature). Divide the difference by 3 to see how much it has drunk per day, then multiply by 7 to know how much to water maximum in a week.

Sticking a finger in the pot to feel for moisture is good when the sides are not seethrough. I like seethrough pots because you can see how much condensation is in the bottom

Then see what the seller recommends and come up with your preferred method.

You can either soak the whole pot and let the roots absorb a lot or you can spray the roots a little here and there or you can just pour the right amount of water into the pot and keep it to a weekly watering schedule.

Everyone has a different approach. Cattleya's do like to dry out between waterings and it is the safest way to water to prevent fungus growing in the pot, a periodic drying will stop fungus growing.

Cattleya's do not need to dry out between watering but that is more of an advanced way to water I suppose and should only be done if you are sure your media will not cause fungal problems being damp all the time. That comes from experience so initially stick to watering a good weekly amount and letting the pot dry out completely between,

in winter it might drink a little less so keep checking the pot dries out well enough every week before giving more.

Shadeflower, thank you for your reply and advice! I'm hoping the 1/2 cup wasn't too much; it just seemed fairly hot and dry from the 2 day shipping travel time. I'll see what Odom's has to say, too. For now, I'll just leave it be. This particular medium is very pebbly; I tried sticking my finger partly down through it, but it's not as easy as my Phal bark medium. I'll buy some skewers tonight and see if that helps until I get more familiar with the watering schedule for this particular orchid.

And thanks for the tip on the scale; I've got one at home, I'll weigh it tonight. :)

Should I be taking off that twist tie or leave it on?

With a Cattleya in bud or flower, don't let it stay dry for long.

Don't measure water for orchids. Take it to the sink and run plenty of water through the pot so all the medium gets wet. When this Cattleya is almost dry, do it again. The watering interval depends on ambient temperatures and humidity, not the calendar.

I generally don’t measure how much water I give an orchid so much as how often/long I want to have it be dry.

Generally what I do is hose the orchid throughly (not the leaves, only the pot) until water has permeated every inch and is flowing strongly out the bottom of the pot.

I think the best thing to gauge is how long it takes the medium to become dry or just shy of dry. As the previous post says, this is very dependent on humidity, temperature/sunlight, and also air circulation. All of these things in concert will dictate how long it takes a pot to dry. Generally, with decently draining bark and typical conditions, this might be a week but it really depends on what your growing conditions are. For me, a week suffices for most of my plants. That said, this amount of time is subject to change with any change in weather.

That said, it is also worth checking how uniformly the medium dries. I have had pots that while the top third of the pot would be bone dry after a few days, the rest of the pot would be wet and rotting.

This is an very unideal condition that would be a sign that you both need to change to new medium and also get a better draining pot with more aeration.

You also don’t want to let it get so dry that the roots desiccate. I used to be so afraid of letting plants stay damp too long that I ended up losing far more plants to under-watering than “overwatering”.

Help :( my cattleya buds are leaning/drooping to the side quite drastically. I can’t tell if they’re in the start of bud blast or if they’re simply leaning towards the sun. Also, the color of the buds has changed to yellowish-red. I know these flowers are a yellowish red color so I’m not so much worried about that as I am them leaning. Should I be worried? Do they look like they’re blasting to you? I am worried I’m losing the flowers :(

Attaching another picture showing what they looked like yesterday. I moved them slightly from yesterday to today.

That is normal - as they get ready to open, they shift so that the flowers will look at you (not the ceiling) when they open.

For watering, I agree with all of the others who said "run water through the pot". That does two things in addition to hydrating the plant - it flushes out any buildup of fertilizer salts and general crud, and also pulls air into the root zone. To tell how fast it is drying out (and therefore how often to water), consider weighing it on a postal scale or kitchen scale after you water it. Weigh again the next day. When the weight doesn't change much (meaning that most of the water has evaporated) it is time to water again. A Catt getting ready to bloom shouldn't go completely dry, but it does want to dry out somewhat between waterings.

Once it has finished blooming, you'll want to think about repotting. The ideal time to repot is just as new roots are emerging - if you don't see sign of "action" it is generally better to wait - if the mix is broken down (so that it tends to stay wet) just water less often, so that it goes nearly dry. (Broken down mix is airless and that suffocates roots - but as water evaporates, it is replaced by air, and that's the goal, to have air in the root zone.

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With regard to Orchidwiz, it is an outstanding database, with information about the parentage of hybrids, and habitat and culture information about species. It's my go-to reference, I use it almost daily. However, it is rather pricey... and likely overkill if you are just starting out. There are a couple of good, free, web references - for species, Internet Orchid Photo Encyclopedia (IOSPE) and for hybrids, Orchidroots have lots of good information.

And keep coming here for input from lots of people who love and grow orchids and are happy to share information. And if you live near an orchid club, be sure to join and meet other local orchid lovers.

Roberta, thank you so much for replying so quickly last night; you immediately eased my worry. With this one being my first, I'm still trying to figure everything out when it comes to Cattleya's. I was/am so excited for these blooms too, so to see them lean so much was a little disheartening for me.

I did finally hear back from Odom's too regarding watering. Thanks to this forum though, I did go ahead and water a second time using the "through the pot" method. I've designated a skewer to test for moisture and it seems to be working okay.

Regarding repotting; do you think I should repot in a clay pot? I have all of my other orchids in clear pots to monitor their roots but some of the articles I've read regarding Cattleya's say to pot them in clay. I'm hesitant, but would like to hear your opinion if you don't mind :)

Thanks again! (p.s. When I woke up this morning it looks like one of the buds is just baaarely starting to open at the tip :) :D :love: )

Those flowers are just about ready.

The choice of pot - and potting medium - are dictated by the needs of the plant and your watering schedule. Let's work backward from the needs of the plant, and then you can look at how you will meet those under your conditions. From you photos, it appears that most of your orchids are Phalaenopsis. If you have been successfully growing those for awhile, you have their needs dialed in. They need to dry out somewhat between waterings, and need lots of air around the roots, but they don't want to dry out completely. They don't have pseudobulbs to store water. Catts are a bit different in that regard - they do have pseudobulbs, so they can go somewhat drier than the Phals. And need even more air around the roots. Plastic is fine if you use fairly large bark to get those air spaces. The plant will dry faster in clay (terrcotta) than in plastic - and the clay does "breathe" somewhat. Another advantage of clay with a plant that tends to be top-heavy is that it ls less likely to tip over. So your choice... Getting lots of air around those roots is the important part.

Another thing to note when you pot a Catt... unlike a Phal, Catts. grow along a rhizome - they tend to grow in one direction - so when you repot, you don't put it in the middle of the pot. You put the oldest pseudobulb to one side of the pot, to give the growing part as much room as possible, choosing a pot that will hold about 2 years' growth. (Not more) So observe your plant, and you'll see which way it is growing. These concepts will make more sense as you see what the plant is doing.

Roberta, I uploaded another picture with a question I hope you could help on. I've circled in red what I think is a flower spike (?) ... is that correct? I can see the same thing in each of the other stems, but this one is the longest. ETA; should I take off that twist tie?

Beautiful :love: Enjoy!

I'd leave the twist tie in place, at least until the flowers finish - that, and the stake, were put there so that the flowers will be oriented in a pleasing way. The area you circled is where a spike would emerge if there were one, but it looks like an older growth. Especially when a plant is young, it may not bloom on each new growth. You'll see a sheath (as you have at the base of the blooms that are starting to open) which protects the developing buds. They poke out when they're ready. Generally it will bloom once a year (maybe twice depending on its parentage) so your challenge will be to keep it happy and growing, next year you likely will get more growths with flowers. Also, don't expect Cattleya flowers to stay in bloom as long as your Phalaenopsis. Typical is maybe 2 weeks (some longer some shorter). But grand when they do. Just different, and since this is your first, it helps to know what to expect so that you aren't alarmed when the flowers fade. Enjoy them in the moment!

An update on the blooms; this was them this morning :love:

Looks extremely nice - very beautiful. If the tepals happen to remain stuck around the lip area - such as after a day or so, then very slowly and gently ----- use the fingers (very delicately and very slowly) help the tepals get unstuck.

Also check the top-most tepal of the flower on the right-hand-side. Very beautiful photo.

Thank you! That top most petal is okay, I think its just the angle of the photo, but I may have missed it leaning against in the spike in the midst of my beholding it’s beauty, lol. But I will definitely check on it tomorrow and if they haven’t fully opened, I’ll do what you suggested. :)

I’m attaching another pic, it opened a little more in the time I was at work. :love:

Stunning. Really nice Catt. Well grown

sometimes you need to cut the sheath...
 

You will probably notice that Catleya blooms are very sharp and pointy so they will penetrate the sheath when they need to. But sometimes spike gets folded up in the sheath and starts to grow the wrong way, then you need to do a little emergency surgery and cut a hole in the sheath.

Don't do it until its super obvious there is a problem, doing it too early can kill the spike, but not doing it when its needed can lead to trouble too. If you hold the plant up to bright light you can see the spike and buds through the sheath, and if they are bent right around in a upside down U or S shape you might want to intervene. I have a no-id cattleya (my first non grocery store orchid) that seems to have a habit of doing this.

(That was for the OP, not you Roberta, obviously.)

Hi guys,

When I woke up this morning my Cattleya had black spotting/darkening on its petals. I installed grow lights over the weekend, but they're low-intensity and very barely put off any heat. The Cattleya is about 6-7 inches (from the top of the uppermost petal) below those lights. The blooms have been active for about a week and a half. I know Cattleya blooms are pretty short-lived. Do you think the browning is just the beginning of the flowers dying or do you think the grow lights burned the petals? Thanks for any help. I've got two other orchids currently blooming on the same shelf; wondering if I need to move them to a different spot so they don't potentially run into the same problem.

I think that's just the natural fading of the flowers. A more mature, stronger plant may be able to hang on to its flowers a little longer, but they really don't last long. Also, the plant (and buds) have been through the shipping process, then the plant's environment changed and it had to readjust. All of those factors will also shorten flower life since the stress the plant. Once the flowers fade, it's time to think about those roots...

Thanks Roberta for replying :) It seemed like it was such a fast transition though, Friday and Saturday the lip of each bloom was fine; although the edge browning was there. And then when I woke up this morning, the darkening/browning of the lip was very noticeable on each one. I moved it out from under the grow lights because I was worried. Do you think I should put it back under them? These are the lights I bought:https://www.amazon.com/Spectrum-Sunl.../dp/B08NX1N3YJ.

When Odom's sent me this orchid, they told me not to repot until next Spring. My order of potting mixes and pots from repotme is being delivered today (I'm looking to repot a couple of ones that I got from that big Hawaiian order a couple of weeks ago) Do you think I should go ahead and repot this one once the blooms fall? Currently this Cattleya is in a pebble media. The Cattleya potting medium I bought is this: Cattleya Imperial Orchid Mix

– rePotme

Do you think the transition to a new media type will hurt it? Also (sorry for all the questions!) but, on some of the pseudobulbs, they seem to have a mix of lighter and darker areas. Like, the pseudobulbs got "wet" but haven't dried so to speak. I'll take a picture of what I mean when I go home for lunch today.

If the mix includes pebbles, it is fine, follow Odom's advice - best to pot when you just see new roots. It's all about roots. That's the time to make any transition unless there's an emergency, and there appears that there isn't one. So for now, just leave it alone. Observe, when you see roots just starting, that's the time to repot. (Some of the yellow hybrids, that have a lot of C. dowiana in them, will root in the fall. But this one is likely complex enough that other ancestors dominate the rooting season. So observe, observe, observe.)

I am not familiar with those particular lights, but in general, just give the plant it's regular culture... The first bloom in your care is no indication of any problem. Flowers don't take well to a lot of change, not a big deal.(Often they blast after shipping... you're lucky you got to see the flowers!) The plant has been through a lot, now just care for it, and don't fuss over it too much. (Moving it around doesn't give it a chance to adjust to anything)

I'll move it back this afternoon and just observe the roots like you said and leave it be. I suppose I was probably just worried about the timing of the lights being installed this weekend coinciding with the darkening of the petals.

Just chant my mantra, "Orchids teach patience" :) when you are tempted to mess with it.

Roberta, this is the petal tonight. I’m trying my very best to not stress lol but is it normal for the petals to turn black like this? :(

Another pic.

Flowers are on their way out. Force of nature. It was shipped in bud, so you did get the instant gratification of seeing what the flowers look like. But now you need to let the plant adapt to its new home, so that you will get flowers again and again. And later blooms, on a healthy and happy plant, likely will last longer (and have better form too) So concentrate on the plant, don't stress over the flowers. Your next big thrill will be beautiful new roots, probably in the spring.

Hah. For sure. Only house plant I can think of that requires more patience is the Lithops family of succulents. At least with orchids you can still get some sense of satisfaction by feeding them regularly, but with Lithops watering them more than a couple of times a year is the kiss of death. :-)

Thank you for your assurance (re-reassurance, hehe). With the blackening, I was just afraid it was rot or potentially fungal and/or viral and could spread to my others. I've had the flowers on my orchids die of course, but they never turned black like these. But alas, I am chanting said mantra each morning as I examine my beauties. Thanks again Roberta for all of your help, it is appreciated more than you know :).

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I've never heard of those, I'll look them up out of curiosity. Do you really only water them twice a year?

Yeah, pretty much. Or less even, adult plants can last for more than year with no water. Super easy to kill by over-watering, they will absorb it and burst like a balloon. I grow them right next to my high light orchids and I have to be careful not to spill. (<---mandatory orchid reference. :-)

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