Fdk. L'Amour de Vie de Sue

[MateoinLosAngeles]

I bought this division last year from a local grower and I thought it was gonna be a goner... to my surprise not only it survived my care but it started spiking and just recently opened up.

Fdk. L'amour de vie de Sue (Mormodia Painted Desert x Catasetum Louise Clarke) was registered in 2015, I imagine the hybrid was probably from the 2013 or 2014 SVO list.

Flowers are a decent 3x2 inch, and this particular one came out pretty black with a delicate cream outline on very goblin-like petals, the scent is "soapy" and faint, when close it smells like lavender and mint but doesn't have an overpowering room-filling fragrance.

A delight!

[isurus79]

Really nice! How big are the flowers? They look giant, but I can't tell if that's just because the blooms are so close to the camera compared to the plant. You might also consider giving this one a good drink soon.

[Leafmite]

Those flowers are lovely!

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by isurus79

Really nice! How big are the flowers? They look giant, but I can't tell if that's just because the blooms are so close to the camera compared to the plant. You might also consider giving this one a good drink soon.

Here's next to a bottle you may all recognize, tried to keep the flowers and the bottle at the same level to limit lens distortion. Flowers are about 3 inches across by 2 inch top to bottom. The scent has been changing, getting a bit stronger and less minty, it now smells more like a slightly spicy gardenia, veeery floral with a kick. It's really nice.

Yeah that's why I thought it was gonna be a goner, at some point early last summer it completely stopped growing and went dormant months before any other catasetum. I thought some root rot issues probably over fertilized, after dormant when those backbulbs started to get so dehydrated I started giving it plenty of water, but haven't been able to plump it up. I will give it a good drink soon just to try my luck, hopefully it can push a new growth come spring, if it could bloom this way after a really bad growing season I can't imagine what it could do after a good one.

[isurus79]

Hopefully it bounces back this year!