Cattleya Spike/Inflorescence Question

[Becca]

Okay I must admit, I have never seen a cattleya send out it's spike with my own eyes. When I am obsessing, I mean observing my cattleyas, I can look into the center of the leaf where it turns into the pseudobulb and I can see like a little green bump...like it is waiting to grow into something if given the right conditions....is this what will turn into a spike someday if given the correct culture? I am just curious as I see quite a few of those and just wonder what that little bump is

[orchidexpress]

Cattleya flowrs will come out of the new growths. They will first appear as 'sheaths' or better known to a newcomer as 'little snow pea pods coming up'. The sheaths will first grow. Then the flower buds will form inside the sheaths. Now in order for the buds to mature, they must 'sleep at night'. Meaning they need to be in the dark at night in order to mature. The buds will mature and then you will see the formed buds inside the sheath. They the buds will continue to grow larger therefore pushing themselves out of the sheaths.
Then voila ....you get your grand flowers. Cattleya flowers only last ABOUT a month from when they first open up.

Happy Growing!!
Lee

[Becca]

Thanks for the help Lee! I should have clarified....I have seen sheaths and then the buds forming....I have just never seen them start from scratch ..lol. I know they come from the new growths, but what if an old growth that is very well matured and big never flowered? I guess I am wondering what it looks like when the sheath starts to grow...like what does it look like before it is really recognizable?

[Rosim_in_BR]

Originally Posted by RPfeiffer

Thanks for the help Lee! I should have clarified....I have seen sheaths and then the buds forming....I have just never seen them start from scratch ..lol. I know they come from the new growths, but what if an old growth that is very well matured and big never flowered? I guess I am wondering what it looks like when the sheath starts to grow...like what does it look like before it is really recognizable?

Becca, there's only one way to answer that and you will need a very sharp scalpel ! and the guts to dissect a developing pseudo bulb that someday in the future could hold a flower (just kidding!). Old pseudo bulbs that did not flower can sometimes show what can be seen as... let's say a proto sheath, a tiny portion of vegetal tissue that did not grow into a full sheath. But it is difficult to say what a sheath that will hold buds is from the scratch because it is always protected by the folded leaf, like something precious, and when the leaf unfolds the sheath is almost always formed and its beginnings cannot be seen anymore.
Now, you made curious about this. I think I'm buying a scalpel tomorrow...!!!!

[quiltergal]

Becca, I'm glad you asked. I've been wondering that same thing myself. I get all excited when I see a new growth. Then as it starts to mature I spend a lot of time obsessing er observing that little green bump that usually ends up doing a whole lot of nothing! My B. nodosa is the only exception. The problem there is the leaves emerge from the sarong folded in half and stay that way for quite a long time. When the finally unfold there's a sheath! It's like magic. But it still leaves our question unanswered. If there's no sheath by the time the last leaf matures is it safe to assume there won't be one?

Thanks from the Cattleya challenged.

[shakkai]

Hey guys, I'm going to bring this thread back because I have (had) the same question... but I still have a couple of others.

My Cattleya has just put on two new growths this summer. So, to confirm, if I don't see a sheath once the leaf has unfolded, then I won't be getting flowers?

If I do see a sheath, then I have to make sure it gets no light at night so that the buds develop, is that right?

Terri, Becca, I also look at those little bumps and would expect that they would/could develop into a flowers. Its obviously there on p-bulbs that haven't flowered (i.e. no cut stem).

[Rosim_in_BR]

Originally Posted by shakkai

Hey guys, I'm going to bring this thread back because I have (had) the same question... but I still have a couple of others.

My Cattleya has just put on two new growths this summer. So, to confirm, if I don't see a sheath once the leaf has unfolded, then I won't be getting flowers?
).

One thing do not necessary lead to the other, Shakkai. The usual for cattleyas is to develop a sheath and then the buds inside it. But, this alliance has several Laelias that do not develop a sheath, the folded leaf protecting the bud (L. alaori, L. jongheana, L. pumila, L. sincorana etc). So, with the hybrids having those Laelias in the background it is possible (and it sometimes occurs) that the leaf matures with not sheath and then the pseudo bulb starts developing buds that will remain unprotected.
Sometimes, pure (mature) Cattleya species did not develop any sheath on the new pseudo bulbs, but produce flowers anyway. It is rare, but happens too.

Originally Posted by shakkai

If I do see a sheath, then I have to make sure it gets no light at night so that the buds develop, is that right?

Well, I am not sure about that... I often work in my grh until 11 p.m. and still continue getting flowers...

[shakkai]

Mauro,

Thank you very much! That answers my question and you've also touched on the last question that I had: is this just Cattleya or is it Cattleya alliance plants (Laelias, Sophronitis, and hybrids of those...)!

So Cattleya plants will very rarely flower from mature pseudobulbs? i.e. the ones I can see on my plant when from before I received it that obviously hadn't held a flower spike will likely never produce flowers - only the new growths? Have I got it right?

The need for darkness had me a bit worried, as it is not completely dark at night here for anywhere near 8 hours in the summer time.

[Baloney]

To add my 2cents worth, I've been told by a nursery owner (still haven't observed this myself) that sometimes you get a pseudobulb that grows with a sheath which never seems to develop any bulbs inside - but that will only be because the plant is waiting for a 2nd pseudobulb to develop, and then both sheathes will develop bulbs at the same time. So don't cut off a sheath that seems empty (unless it's brown and dried up of course!)

[clxt7321]

I have lots of mature p-bulbs with little nubbins in the centre of the leaves that never develop into anything else. Not the right conditions for developeing buds, I guess.
My Pot Burana Beauty "Burana" has developed a sheath, in which the buds develop and eventually emerge. This has happened on the last five or six new p-bulbs.

Several years ago, I got a Blc Lawless Romeo "Sundsnce",(pic #1) and have been struggleing ever since to keep it alive. Now, I see, it has sprouted a couple of buds--no sheath, as such--just the buds.


Also, have a Lc Haw Yuan Angel "Little Beauty" that has sent out a couple of buds--also no sheath.(pic #2)