Cattleya Loddigessii 'Blue Sky'

[mopwr]

Hey everyone, was out recently to one of the closest growers to me (still a bit of a hike) to see what plants they had and what was in bloom this time of year and to my surprise I found a plant I'd been looking for for some time - Cattleya Loddigessii 'Blue Sky'. I'd only ever seen pictures of it online, but immediately recognized the flower when I walked past it.

I noticed it seemed to be a lot bigger than what I thought it would be, even though I know biofoliates are typically tall plants, so I didn't question it too much. I liked it so much, that the following week I went back to get another one. When I returned to buy the other one, I was told that the one I had gotten the first time was mislablled (in my favor, apparently) and was really a more rare 'Blue Sky' 4N and if they did have anymore they were significantly more expensive and I couldn't afford it anyways; As luck turned out though, they did have another plant of the original 'Blue Sky' (2N) that was ready for dividing that I could get a piece of if I wanted to.

A couple of things here:

1. I had no idea there were 4N versions of 'Blue Sky', I'm assuming it was a selected treated selfing?
2. The plants clearly have some differences on growth and flower size. It was told me that the 4N has larger size flowers with fuller / rounder petals, but fewer overall flowers. The plants I have have ~3" flowers (2N) and flowers a hair over 4" (4N).
3. I now have a plant of each "version" as it were, and for the first time, a mislabeling worked out in my favor.

Either way, I thought I'd share some pics and photos for reference and see what I could learn about these. The close-ups are largely of the "4N" version, the 2N flowers are a bit damaged because it was a recent division they made for me off of an overgrown plant and the flowers were crowded / banged up by other plants; the mother plant had multiple blooming growths where the flowers were just as flat and shapely as the 4N plant, though the petals were definitely not as round. In regards to plant size, I'll say that the 4N is bigger, and being as it's younger, should likely get even bigger next year, the 2N came off of a very mature plant overgrown in an 8" pot, so I'm assuming those canes are maxed out. In any event, I'm super excited to finally have these in my collection.