Quote:
Originally Posted by terryros
I was intrigued by the term "long lasting" in describing Toshi Aoki. I have a Toshi Aoki cross (Dora Louise 'Capen') that did not last very long on its first blooming for me. While I have grown orchids for a long time I have grown mostly Phals but have now diversified. I am growing about 20 Catts under lights this year and have bloomed about 4 of them but have found that the flowers have all lasted less than a month. I knew the bloom time would be less than the Phals and Paphs but what is a short or long bloom time for the Catt alliance?
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Okay, I had to stop and think about this one and ask myself what I consider long lasting in a flower. The first orchid that came to mind was some of my phals. They started blooming in December of 07 and a couple of them have just wound down. Now that's what I call long lasting!!!
In a cattleya, I would say it depends on the season. If a catt blooms in the heat of mid summer, a week or week and a half would be long.
Winter bloomers...I guess 2-3 weeks is what I would consider long lasting. I have a couple that last up to 6 weeks.
They definitely can't compete with the phals for lasting a long time but make up for it in other ways.
I think this is a great subject and I hope others will chime in with their opinions.