First Blooming Bud Watch: Cattleya walkeriana 4n

[Mr.Fakename]

Originally Posted by Clawhammer

Smells incredible! I have Walkeriana, Sharry Baby, Phal bellina, and Iwan Apple blossom in bloom right now. I think walkeriana is my favorite scent by a hair. Walkeriana is definitely the strongest. My grow room smells like heaven

Any chance of seeing pics of that bellina? I'm a sucker for those beautiful oily leaves

[Fairorchids]

Originally Posted by thefish1337

yeah I picked up all of those except the amethystoglossa because I don't want to deal with its size. given Fred's current trajectory I expect this coming spring release to be an absolutely destructive force for my wallet.

---------- Post added at 08:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 PM ----------



what was his advice?

C. walkeriana needs to dry out very fast after watering.

I generally water my Cattleyas more than most growers, and get very good results - except for the walkerianas.

Traditionally, I start young plants in a mix of chopped spaghnum with seedling size bark & charcoal added. This mix is designed to not dry out under my watering schedule.

Now I start young walkerianas in net pots with adult size bark mix. From there, they graduate into baskets with aliflor (LECA) nuggets. That way they grow very well (and first one is high bud now) with my watering schedule:

Three times a week May through mid October. Twice a week the rest of the year.

[Fairorchids]

Here is photo of first walkeriana I have grown to mature size (purchased in 2" pot from Alan Koch in Nov 2018, in this basket for about one year). It is a 4N sib cross, semi-alba.

[Jeff214]

Originally Posted by Fairorchids

C. walkeriana needs to dry out very fast after watering.

I've been watering my walkteriana once every two weeks, since I receive morning mist/fog. The two spikes just blasted a day or two after watering again. Perhaps it was the watering/cool weather... four new growths/spikes this year and all have died back. p-bulbs are still nice and plump though.

Congrats on everyone's blooms! Hopefully I can figure mine out...

[realoldbeachbum]

Oh my goodness. So beautiful I want to cry.

[Keysguy]

I'm thinking some sort of a wood slatted hanging 'plaque' (like a broad, very shallow basket) would be perfect for walkeriana now that I see the growth habit of these and what the roots want to do.

This is my first bloom of 'Edward'. Super stoked about how perfect the flowers are.

[isurus79]

Nice! Big fat bulbs and two leaves per growth show this plant is pretty happy!

[estación seca]

Kim (Fairorchids) earlier wrote:

Then, in Nov 2018, Alan Koch spoke to DCOS....

What did he tell you?

[Keysguy]

Seca---- I think somewhere in there Alan told him to make sure they thoroughly dry out between waterings