Cattleya (laelia) purpurata semialba first bloom

[bernardomantas97]

Greetings guys!

This seedling from Brazil is (finally!) blooming for me, after 3 years being grown indoors with my previous setup. It developed 2 sheaths, but had never bloomed until now. It really seems to have enjoyed the (temporary) greenhouse setup in my new home - at least one maxima and one percivaliana also did, and have buds developing (not sure why the percivaliana started so early, though...).

The cross for this one was simply semialba x anelata, so I wasn't too sure what to expect. Might try to grab an anelata sometime in the future, now that I actually find this species interesting XD

Hopefully you guys enjoy it as much as I do, eheh. The flowers are quite big (~15cm spread), delightfully scented and have quite a nice shape compared to most purpuratas I've seen in real life.

[NatalieS]

gorgeous!

[Ray]

Nice!

[Waterdog111]

I like!

[Roberta]

Beautiful! It seems to still be on a southern hemisphere schedule. May be a few years until it "learns" to bloom in the spring, but blooming any time is welcome!