Cattleya amethystoglossa

[isurus79]

[IMG]
Cattleya amethystoglossa 'Hihimanu' x 'H&R' by Isurus79, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]
Cattleya amethystoglossa 'Hihimanu' x 'H&R' by Isurus79, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]
Cattleya amethystoglossa 'Hihimanu' x 'H&R' by Isurus79, on Flickr[/IMG]

This is the first plant of mine to bloom here in Texas! This little guy actually made the journey from Hawaii to Texas with buds in its sheath! Anyway, I got this plant 3 or 4 years ago from H&R and this is its first bloom. The flowers were nicely dark and looked almost purple when I brought it inside for show and tell at my local orchid society. The parents are 'Hihimanu' by 'H&R,' both of which are 4N plants.

[fishmommy]

Amazing! love the spots!

[smweaver]

Fantastic flowers, Steve, and well worth the wait. And I didn't realize you moved to Texas until you mentioned it. Welcome to the mainland! :-) Hopefully the wonderful Texas summers won't have you longing too greatly for the more benign Hawaii temps. Congrats on the flowers. They're really nice.

Steve

[isurus79]

Thanks FM and Steve! Yes, I'm in the hill country of Texas now and I keep hearing about rough the summers are! I'm more worried about my orchids being outside than for myself. Luckily I have a pretty good setup, which you can see in a link in the 'Outdoor Gardening' section. No cool growing masdies for me!

[Hawaiian Sunshine]

Hi Steve. You got a nice one. My amethystoglossa from H&R is dormant; it does not want to grow. Maybe it needs to go to Texas.

[Tindomul]

Absolutely gorgeous! Looks good enough to eat.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Hawaiian Sunshine

Hi Steve. You got a nice one. My amethystoglossa from H&R is dormant; it does not want to grow. Maybe it needs to go to Texas.

I have another which is still sleeping. I think they usually wake up in the next month or two and crank out a few new growths through November or December.

Originally Posted by Tindomul

Absolutely gorgeous! Looks good enough to eat.

Thanks! It would be an expensive salad.

[Tindomul]

mmmmmm, Indeed.....

[RosieC]

What a great bubble gum pink. Love the spots.

[catwalker808]

In the northern hemisphere, C amethystoglossa plants are still resting (especially the ones which just bloomed). Expecting a C amethystoglossa to grow in spring is like expecting your teenageer to wake up before noon on Saturday morning. (no it's worse than that because sometimes your teenagers wake up early).

C amethystoglossa produces a sheath, then blooms in spring, on a fairly recently matured growth. That means the new growths initiate sometime in late summer thru early fall. Be patient.



Steve.
Hope you're settled into your new home & doing ok.

Nice bloom.
However, you're not growing on a lush tropical hillside anymore. Better get the plant into a bigger pot with more water this summer ... or this year's spring bloom might become an R.I.P. bloom.