Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown 'Sweet Afton'

[SouthPark]

I previously assumed (after recalling reading about it in the past somewhere) that Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown 'Sweet Afton' develops spikes in 'sheathless' mode.

The previous flowering was in sheathless mode.

But it looks like the chances of developing sheath isn't zero for 'Sweet Afton' --- which is nice to know.

Hopefully a flower comes out of this sheath later - and will upload /share any flower pics from this one in this thread.

Google drive links (higher res) :
Pic 1 link
Pic 2 link
Pic 3 link

[Diane56Victor]

Now its a waiting game.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Diane56Victor

Now it's a waiting game.

Sure is Diane!

For this cross - I think that the spiking activity occurs fairly quickly once the bulb is getting towards fully formed. This is sort of on the other side of the spectrum as say orchids with sheaths being dormant for four to six months. I will give an update if I spot bud activity later on.

[Merita]

I remember last year almost most of my cattleyas bloomed without sheats. In this flowering only one plant has done it in both ways, all are with the pod and some drying them to later bloom in them. Why will this happen?

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Merita

I remember last year almost most of my cattleyas bloomed without sheaths. In this flowering only one plant has done it in both ways, all are with the pod and some drying them to later bloom in them. Why will this happen?

That's a very interesting thing about some orchids like these ones. The behaviours are super interesting.

A Ctt. Porcia 'Cannizaro' appears to have maybe budding activity with no sheath on the latest bulb. But will have to wait and see if anything progresses from that.

A C. Caudabec Candy has some developing buds right now .... and this one has always done sheathless.

I noticed that some catts with dried up sheaths will just provide an interesting surprise --- as in producing spikes after we think that nothing will come from dried sheaths ----- even though there will be times where nothing will eventuate from a dried sheath.

[Merita]

So hybrids can flourish both ways?

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Merita

So hybrids can flourish both ways?

Merita ----- if we focus on the question of --- can some cattleya orchids (eg. hybrids) produce flower spikes from dried up sheaths - especially ones that have been sitting around dried up for a while ------- then the answer is yes ----- there are possibilities for flower spikes/buds eventually coming out from dried sheaths. There may be times where a dried sheath might not result in any spiking/budding. But it's true that spike/bud formation can occur with some relatively long-standing dried sheaths.

And some catt-typle orchids are known to capable of producing flower spikes/buds from sheaths at times, while other times producing spikes/buds without a sheath ----- or at least no regular type sheath (eg. might have come from a very tiny sheath, which we could probably count as sheathless). That is - some people reckon that 'sheathless' isn't technically true ----- as they say that all spikes come from a 'sheath' of some sort.

Maybe at least somebody out there can confirm that 'sheathless' really means spiking from absolutely no sheath at all (as compared with spiking from a visibly hard-to-see tiny sheath).

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

Merita ----- if we focus on the question of --- can some cattleya orchids (eg. hybrids) produce flower spikes from dried up sheaths - especially ones that have been sitting around dried up for a while ------- then the answer is yes ----- there are possibilities for flower spikes/buds eventually coming out from dried sheaths. There may be times where a dried sheath might not result in any spiking/budding. But it's true that spike/bud formation can occur with some relatively long-standing dried sheaths.

My Laeliocattleya Brian Wheeler ‘Grandson’ AM/AOS and Cattleya Betty Ford ‘York’ AM/AOS flower in mid-winter on dried sheaths. They both also occasionally produce a sheathelss growth that flowers along with the sheathed ones.

re: The pics. It makes no sense to me that I do, but I just love pale green flowers, especially on large flowered orchids like catts, phals, cymbidium.

-Keith

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by K-Sci

My Laeliocattleya Brian Wheeler ‘Grandson’ AM/AOS and Cattleya Betty Ford ‘York’ AM/AOS flower in mid-winter on dried sheaths. They both also occasionally produce a sheathless growth that flowers along with the sheathed ones.

re: The pics. It makes no sense to me that I do, but I just love pale green flowers, especially on large flowered orchids like catts, phals, cymbidium.

-Keith

Thanks for mentioning those sheathed and sheathless behaviours for those two nice cultivars! Very interesting behaviour in that some cultivars have a mix. Quite nice too in that they do that!

Thanks for letting me know that you like pale green coloured flowers too. That colour is very nice indeed on flowers. I'm a fan of chartreuse (yellow/green) and pale green, and have another Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown with buds coming out at the moment --- this one has always been sheathless, but will be interested to see if it gets any sheath development in the future.

[Fuerte Rav]

Originally Posted by K-Sci

re: The pics. It makes no sense to me that I do, but I just love pale green flowers, especially on large flowered orchids like catts, phals, cymbidium.

-Keith

I'm with you on that - I'm smitten! Seriously thinking of flying to mainland Europe to get some plants! No one will deliver here as our post and courier services take too long/are totally unreliable.