Two early C. labiata

[bogdan]

These are their first blooms. The badly formed coerulea bloomed in August. I tried to arrange the labelum and managed to mess up the main flower.
The other one is a Ching Hua clone (labiata var. rubra 'Ching Hua #1' SM/TOGA).

Their fragrance is not identical, so if this is a criteria it would mean that one of them got a false tag. The coerulea had no rest period after finishing the lead.

[neophyte]

wow, they're still amazing blooms!

[Jeff214]

Great job with the blooms!

I recently ordered a C. labiata. Curious how long you've been growing them and how large they are at their first blooms.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by bogdan

I tried to arrange the labelum and managed to mess up the main flower.

Still very nice indeed.

Do you mean you attempted to manipulate the labellum, and it slipped, resulting in the column ending up above the side-lobe?

[bogdan]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

Do you mean you attempted to manipulate the labellum, and it slipped, resulting in the column ending up above the side-lobe?

I tried to space out and tie the flowers as they were crowding each other and I, indeed, unintentionally uncovered the column. Afterwards it got moved to the initial position,but only after this photo was taken.

Jeff214: The plant was bought last year in January as a (not quite!) NFS seedling in a 3" pot with 3 pseudobulbs, two tiny and one 6" tall. It produced two more increasingly taller growths after that and the third was the lucky one with 3 flowers. The plant is in a 5" pot and it has space for one more growth.
The rubra variety was received as an already multi-growth plant from Ching Hua but none of the pseudobulbs had traces of previous bloomings. It's a bushy plant in a 7" pot with 3-4 leads. It has another sheath and a few eyes popping now.

Labiata is one of the easiest for me. Wish warscewiczii would be the same

[Jeff214]

Nice! My Labiatas are arriving tomorrow in 3" pots so I guess it may be another 2 years before it blooms.

my warscewiczii seedling is actually doing very well for me in San Diego... it's the only one that I have that can withstand full sun here. In contrast, my luddemaniana seem stressed out. I thought both warsewiczii and luddemaniana tolerated full sun but it doesn't seem to be the case...

I need to find a place to hide my labiata from the california sun...!

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Jeff214

Nice! My Labiatas are arriving tomorrow in 3" pots so I guess it may be another 2 years before it blooms.

my warscewiczii seedling is actually doing very well for me in San Diego... it's the only one that I have that can withstand full sun here. In contrast, my luddemaniana seem stressed out. I thought both warsewiczii and luddemaniana tolerated full sun but it doesn't seem to be the case...

I need to find a place to hide my labiata from the california sun...!

Shade cloth! I have found, to my surprise, that C. labiata grows nicely outside, with just overhead protection in winter. C. warscewiczii and luddemaniana I think need more warmth... have not read or heard anything to the contrary. (The hint on C. labiata, which I had always thought of as a warm grower, was from a talk given by Steve Champlain of Floralia. He lives in Brazil now, but is originally from southern California and so knows both the C. labiata habitat and my local climate, and he was very right)

Those seedlings all need to be indoors for the winter I'm sure, but consider putting the C. labiata outside in the spring.

[Nico]

Dear Bogdan, I am so impressed with your kids. They are amazing, really. I envy you .
I hope to have many beautiful orkids like this...I an socked and happy to see it.
Mult succes!!!
Nico (from Bucharest)
Lovely plants!

---------- Post added at 09:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 PM ----------

The first white and pink is AMAZING!