Cattleya Peckaviensis

[smweaver]

This is the first time this one's flowered for me. On the down side, the plant has a rambling growth habit; however, on the up side, all of the rambling growths tend to produce multiple leads. So far I'm not sure that I really like the scent, which reminds me of some sort of household cleaner. It's not terrible, but also not something that encourages me to put my nose closer. I'll be interested to see how long the flowers last.

[orchidman77]

That's a nice one! How big is the flower?

My Peckhaviensis looks like it's dying and then looks great as it grows a new bulb and roots. It's been in this horrid dance since I got it. I'm really trying to nail down culture - do you grow it drier than other bifoliates? or, really coarse bark/basically mounted in pot?

[smweaver]

Hi, David. This plant originally arrived in a 3" net pot that had seedling bark in it. Since the roots were enmeshed throughout the basket's slots, I teased out the old seedling mix without disturbing the roots and then placed the plant and its net pot within a slightly larger slotted clay pot. That was last year, and the plant has successively moved up to a larger slotted clay pot (I was too lazy to remove it from the old pot, and simply slipped it into the larger clay pot). I don't have it growing in any media; it's just rooted very well throughout and all over the clay surfaces. Because of the lack of media, I am watering it a lot (every day during our hot summer months), and it has responded well to this treatment. Because of its background, I suspect that it probably prefers warmer temperatures than I can provide during the winter months. I try to compensate for this by keeping it close to the glass in the sunroom and only watering it once a week, when growth slows considerably. The flower size is between 2.5 and 3 inches in diameter.

Steve

[orchidman77]

Thanks much for that explanation! I think no/little media and minimal root disturbance is key. Mine's looking much better now and I hope I can keep it that way!

I also have noticed it appreciates a little less light. It's improved since I shoved it into a shadier corner of my Cattleya grow space

[isurus79]

That's cool! Too bad about the scent not being amazing though.