Cycnodes Wine Delight Tease!

[Rowangreen]

Is this plant normally a tease? Mine has one bud (it's a baby, not expected to flower till at least next year, so I'm not complaining!). Last night I was delighted to see the tips of the sepals starting to separate. 24 hours on the sepals have separated a little, but the petals are still totally together. How many days do I have to wait for it to open! LOL

[Rowangreen]

PS I'm already getting some scent from it. At the moment it's green pepper (I think you call them bell peppers stateside? The kind you chop up as a vegetable, not the hot kind)

[WhiteRabbit]

I couldn't say, but I do have a few orchids that can take a few days from when buds start opening until they are fully opened.

[Rowangreen]

Re-reading this not so old thread http://www.orchidboard.com/community...light-jem.html, yes, it does take a few days to open!

Since I last posted... the petals just started to part last night, and I detected a scent of cayenne pepper. Right now (afternoon here) the petals have parted enough that I can see inside. About an hour ago I got my first wiff of something medicinal: a vaporub/camfor/alchohol something. Only faint and it's gone off again now. The green pepper scent is still there. All the scents so far you have to actually go up and sniff it.

One thing that's really interesting is that when the petals first started to open the bud was a really dark magenta/red brown. I was wondering if all the red pictures on the web were camera effect, or if I'd actually got a different grex to the usual one. However as it's progressed I think it's grown a little, and the flower has actually lightened and redenned.

I'll try and get organised and add a series of pictures at some point...

[Rowangreen]

Petals still forward, but wide enough that you can see inside clearly now. Last night the scent was nearly absent. This morning it's back stronger. There's definitly something medicinal now, but I can't pin it down. Same green pepper, but there's an edge that's almost irritating to the nose, as described before but perhaps also dusty!

[Rowangreen]

Evening. Flower opening out now.

I think I've thought of something close to that scent I got this morning: hot tar! That's not it exactly.

As said elsewhere it does seem to be stronger during the day, so it's not strong right now. It seems to be heading in a nicer direction though now. I think I just got Christmas pudding. (Which reminds me, I was so busy at Christmas, I haven't eaten mine yet... yum!)

[Rowangreen]

Flower mostly open now. I think the tar is sort of still there, but it's heading away from roadworks and towards fruity/medicinal! I think it's getting stronger too.

[Rowangreen]

Sorry, I got busy... flower took a good 5 days to open. Less than two weeks actually open, so now long gone! The scent when fully in bloom was something along the lines of cherry cough medicine, as often described. Personally there was something about it that also reminded me of liquorice and blackcurrant sweets. Within days the lip started showing a brown patch that gradually spread... The lip is actually the same colour as the rest of the flower. It's just the way it catches the light/is less translucent that makes it look different.

Here (finally!) is a picture. The cat's called Teddy.

[euplusia]

Thanks for updating.

[greengarden]

Can I ask how large the psuedobulb is? I have one of these and just curious how big I need to get it before it is likely to flower for me