Bifoliate Lovers

[Abe1997]

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone is having a safe holiday season. I wanted to gauge some interest and get to know what kind of bifoliate breeding and plants we would like to see in the US. Some of my earliest memories involve collecting and growing orchids with my grandmother, I started taking the hobby much more seriously in my teens and am 23 now with a huge interest in breeding my collection of bifoliate Cattleyas. I have gathered a pretty focused collection over the years and am starting to grow some first generation seedlings from it to a size I would love to start sharing with other growers.

I keep an eye on what is going on with the fantastic breeding programs in Brazil and am taking cues to hopefully establish a comprable operation here in Miami, FL. This is where I hope this forum can help me out. What species and color forms are we most interested in seeing available in the US?

Thank you so much,
Abe

[isurus79]

I'd love to see aurea C. amethystoglossa. Heck, I'd love to see more all the color varieties this species has to offer.

I think coerulea C. aclandiae would be well received here. Seems like the alba and albescens are more widely available in the USA, but coerulea is not.

Cattleya bicolor is available, but not as widely as it should otherwise be. I'd love to grab an alba and some of the natural polyploids (subs. minasgeraisensis).

Cattleya harrisoniana is basically absent from American collections and vendors, which is too bad. I think that species has a lot to offer and I've been snapping them up when available. The rubras and albas are the most stunning IMO, which is convenient for breeders of these varieties!

I'd love to get an alba C. schilleriana!

The C. granulosa, schofieldiana, porphyroglossa complex is basically absent from the USA.

[Abe1997]

Thank you for this! Definitely has me thinking about some
more selfings to make this spring and summer.

I have a few schilleriana alba sib crosses I imported a couple years back, should be the first year I’m comfortable letting them hold seed. Fingers crossed for these!

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Abe1997

Thank you for this! Definitely has me thinking about some
more selfings to make this spring and summer.

I have a few schilleriana alba sib crosses I imported a couple years back, should be the first year I’m comfortable letting them hold seed. Fingers crossed for these!

Very cool! Are you on Instagram or other social media? I'd like to follow your work!

[DirtyCoconuts]

Can a plant be both bi and uni folate?

I have a NoID catt I mounted and it was three of four unifolate growths and now they are bifolate.

Any idea?

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Can a plant be both bi and uni folate?

I have a NoID catt I mounted and it was three of four unifolate growths and now they are bifolate.

Any idea?

Sure. First, many hybrids have both in their background, so that leads to some growths being one way, some the other. Species tend to be either one or the other, but even there you can get the occasional growth that is the opposite of what it normally does.

[estación seca]

I love large bifoliates. A lot of Cattleya breeding is focused on small to miniature windowsill growers, but a few of us have space for plants we struggle to lift.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Can a plant be both bi and uni folate?

I have a NoID catt I mounted and it was three of four unifolate growths and now they are bifolate.

Any idea?

I’ve got a ton of unifoliates with two leaves and bifoliates with three leaves. It just means you’ve got happy plants.

[DirtyCoconuts]

good to hear- thanks

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Can a plant be both bi and uni folate?

This is just one of those life story things where people try to put orchids into categories. In this case, it just looks like the uni and bi terms just means ------ 'generally' bi and 'generally' uni. As in generally produces 2 leaves per regular bulb, or generally produces 1 leaf per regular bulb. This would be for orchids that exhibit general regularity for the number of leaves it has per mature bulb.

I did try to do a search on 'bifoliate cattleya', and it just seems nobody that wrote orchid books went ahead to tell growers their meaning of 'bifoliate cattleya' or 'unifoliate cattleya' ------ or rather - how growers should interpret the meaning of these terms, given that there will be departures from the norm.