2 new cattleyas

[tanlu]

Originally Posted by silken

Welcome to Orchid Board tanlu

OrchidWiz says this about your Haleahi Sunshine:
Chz. Haleahi Sunshine is composed of species of which 74% take high light, 13% take medium light and 13% take direct sun light. Grow this hybrid in bright indirect light conditions.

The Chz. stands for Cahuzacara which it also goes by as well as Blc. It may have been re-named to Chz. recently, I'm not sure. It's still the same plant.

As for temperature, here is what OrchidWiz says:
Chz. Haleahi Sunshine is composed of species of which 87% take intermediate temperatures, 74% take cool temperatures and 32% take hot temperatures. Grow this hybrid in cool to intermediate conditions, or 58°F to 75°F at night. It may be tolerant of hot (75°F to 85°F) night temperatures.

These are fairly standard requirements for most cattleya type orchids. In case you are wondering, OrchidWiz is a computer based orchid encyclopedia that has up to date naming and cultural info.

As for your other plant, L. sincorana is a type of Laelia which is a cattleya type as well. It is a lovely pink flower although there are white varieties of it.

Both plants need standard cattleya culture although L. sincorana should have good air movement. They are usually planted in cedar bark chips or a combination of cedar bark, charcoal, perlite etc. A loose open mix and should dry out between watering to prevent root rot. Humidity 50% to 60%

I hope that helps. You could do a search for those names on here and possibly come up with some photos and more information from someone who has these plants.

Thanks for this information..it's definitely what I've been looking for. I'm used to growing Phals, but Cattleyas seem completely different. I may have done a few things wrong already:

1) feeding at each watering while plants are dormant, using a dunk-in-pot method.

2) Watering them at night

3) over watering them.

The seedling seems to be the more difficult of the two. Already most of the foliage has rotted off. Perhaps that may be due to water getting inside the leaves(?). From now on, I'm going to water in the morning, without feeding them until I see signs of growth.

Does anyone else have ideas or comments that can help me along?

When can I expect the Haleahi sunshine to send up spikes?