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).

[Merita]

I understand you but I have many that do not bloom from pods of any size. The Rlc. Yen Corona Green does it both ways, small pod or no pod. The C. Volcano Clown, Lc. Mini song Petite, Lc. Mari's Song CTM 217 and many more do the same. These bloom two or more times a year but I have others that do it once this way, something that is not good because the pod protects the flowers.

[SouthPark]

Merita ----- do you mean that you have many flowering size cattleya type orchids that just don't produce flower spikes at all?

Regarding sheathless spiking ..... various catts always producing spikes without sheaths is not uncommon. For 'Sweet Afton' ------ I recall some details that I read in the past that it is always develops spikes in sheathless mode. So the pics here are only to indicate that sheathless spiking is definitely not 100% for 'Sweet Afton'.

Definitely fascinating in that various catts can produce spikes with either mode.

[SouthPark]

Some action happening now. Will upload some pics soon.