Cattleya mossiae var. semi-alba

[Rosim_in_BR]

This is not one of those mossiae semi-albas with heavy substance. That can easily be seen through the photo, but, despite that, I like this flower very much, especially the rich colored lip which, this year, is a little too wavy not showing its full beauty. The problem is that It's been a true headache to free this plant of a chronic dehydration state. The pseudo-bulbs are excessive thin and shriveled to my taste, the leaves almost always wrinkled, without that characteristic leathery aspect. I've been growing it for many years, along with other mossiaes, and was not able to get it over that condition. A couple of years ago I planted it in sphagnum, it is well rooted, the new leaf is longer, but still dehydrated... All I can think is that this plant has an intrinsic difficulty to uptake water. Too bad!