C. Bernadine Kennedy ‘white jewel’

[ArronOB]

I grow about 30 or so hybrid cattleyas in marginal-for-cattleyas growing conditions. Most of them are easily-available ‘old favourites’. I grow them outside or in a semi-open shadehouse. They struggle through winter, looking pretty battered by the end of it but recover well in spring and summer. Unfortunately our summers are never long enough from a cattleya’s point of view.

Out of these there are about three standouts in terms of being hardy, tolerant and reliable bloomers. This is one of them C. Bernadine Kennedy ‘white jewel’. Another bonus is it flowers here in mid-summer.

Worth considering if you don’t have the luxury of growing in Florida conditions.

[Lil Duck]

Nice!! I like the yellow-green center on this one.

[Diane56Victor]

Beautiful display. I would love to see more of the ones that grow well for you.

[ArronOB]

Originally Posted by Diane56Victor

Beautiful display. I would love to see more of the ones that grow well for you.

I’ll keep you informed here and in the Oncidium alliance forum. This should be a good autumn, lots of flower spikes emerging.

[ArronOB]

This is another of those hybrid cattleyas which are hardy and easy flowering when growing outside in our conditions. Most of my cattleyas have embarrassingly battered looking leaves, but you can see this one has withstood the neglect I have inflicted on my orchids over the last couple of years with only some mechanical damage on one leaf.

It’s Rync. China Lady ‘orchis’ - a genericy sounding name for a generic looking flower.

Diane this was one of those tiny polypack orchids from Bunnings. I buy about 10-15 each winter when they appear in the stores, and don’t really notice them again till they flower , which is about 3 years later for the cattleyas. This means I always have ‘new’ orchids coming through at no great cost, and pleasant surprises as I’ve always forgotten what I bought. The downside is they are mainly older style hybrids, rarely are they species or anything rare.

[Diane56Victor]

Love the colour, looks like some dowiana in this ones background.

I keep an eye on Bunnings for those packs too. I did find a couple of bigger seedlings in Bunnings from the Oncidium family last year from a nursery called Marlborough, I think it was.

[ArronOB]

Yes, they sell types from two producers. There are the ones from Collectors Corner, which are very small. And there are ones from Marlborough which are much better value but only appear sporadically. These

Collector Series – Marlborough Nursery

[Leafmite]

Wow! Those are both beautiful.

[Diane56Victor]

Check your Bunnings!
My local store had 4 trays of Marlborough seedlings, lots of Cyms, some Phals and Cattleya. I picked up 3 Catts I liked.

[smweaver]

Great old classic white hybrid. I used to have one of these, and it basically grew into a small shrub, taking up (unfortunately) much more room than I could devote to it. Your flowers are beautiful (and I'm sure they smell fantastic too). Congratulations.

Steve