roots galore and question about cattleya sheaths

[Bill U.]

Thank you everyone! I have been very excited with the growth as it was my first cat (I have since added 2 more little ones that were NBS- hopefully blooming soon!)

James, I am a little confused about your statement of the growths starting to mature now will not bloom because they are in Fall- I have seen a large number of sources say that Burana Beauty is relatively free-flowering and can often bloom 2-3 times per year. If this is the case, how would the season affect it? As I said, I am not that experienced with catt's yet, so I am just trying to figure it out.

Something that I mentioned earlier- could it also be that it is pouting a little bit because I repotted it in May and it hasn't had time to become root-bound yet? Isn't that when lots of catt's like to bloom?

I'm loving all the input! Thank you again!

[james mickelso]

Bill, what time of year do these usually bloom? Orchids bloom during certain times of the year. In a GH (vendors) where the environment can be controlled they can bloom freely and we see them at shows in both spring and fall. In our home environments they usually don't. Blooms take a lot of energy and the orchid needs to produce pbulbs to store that energy. That is why not all pbulbs produce flowers. The orchid is growing pbulbs to store energy for the next blooming season. The pbulbs that will be produced in the springtime will produce flowers in the fall. That is it's normal blooming season when and only when it has enough energy. We go to spring shows and see these beautiful displays by vendors but these are grown in controlled conditions. Most of us growing catts get flowers in late summer/early winter but there are some hybrids that do produce flowers in the spring. Hopefully yours will but I usually see fall growing pbulbs not blooming. Every year I get lots of fall/winter growing pbulbs but seldom do I get flowers from them. Spring sprouting pbulbs usually produce flowers in the late summer/early winter.

[Bill U.]

James, from what I can tell, it is supposed to be able to bloom Fall and Spring (according to the websites I have attached here at the bottom of this post and others).

I bought this in May, so late spring/early summer when Hausermanns was having a sale because a large number of them had bloomed naturally due to true season. I understand that vendors have a greater ability to force orchids to bloom out of their "regular" season. I wonder if the fact that it was earlier in the summer when it last bloomed could be slightly skewing the growth cycle back a bit? It has been getting long days of approximately 16 hours of light (natural sunlight combined with artificial light at 6500K and ~3000fc), which I'm assuming in terms of photoperiod is their preferred bloom conditions.

I'm just trying to figure out the bloom/growth pattern, as I have not had a cattleya bloom under my care yet. Thanks for all the help you have given me so far! Always interesting trying to understand a new genus :P lol

Here are those links:
https://www.orchidweb.com/products/p...ccaos~618.html

An Orchid Vignette

[kindrag23]

WOWZA! That is so great you are doing some awesome growing!

[Bill U.]

Originally Posted by kindrag23

WOWZA! That is so great you are doing some awesome growing!

Thanks! I can't take all the credit, but it helps that it's growing in 2 directions! Lol

[james mickelso]

If you are supplementing the light and you can give it the warmth it requires then you may be able to get fall growth to flower. Where it was grown, Thailand, it is always warm and bright. Chicago is not. When I raised an eyebrow to the possibility of the pbulbs blooming at this time of year it is because of the short days and cool temps mpst people experience. The plants that you will see in spring that are b;looming have been grown warm and bright which is why they are in flower right after winter. I don't say it can't be done, it just usually isn't. Whatever info or techniques I can give you please let me know. Here's a new flower that just opened. I'll post the whole sordid story in a new thread. This also has new half matred pbulbs which won't produce flowers as it is coming into fall/winter and the light is low. But come spring time, this will put out two growth buds per the three newest pbulbs and these will flower in Oct/Nov next year.