Cattleya loddigesii coerulea

[smweaver]

Originally Posted by RJSquirrel

I can grow them in an East window in the house

If you can put them outside for the summer in a relative bright location that has some protection from the midday sun, you should find them pretty easy to grow. An east or south window in the house should also do just fine. The only thing I'm not real fond of with the cattleyas is that, out of flower, they are not all that attractive (compared to, say, cymbidiums or the mottle-leafed paphs). Good luck with your plant's sheath!

[RJSquirrel]

I had 4 new Blc's and an Lc I won at a raffle and burned 2 of em up already outside, really made me sad. Im afraid of outside. I was a very bad judge of the light and heat intensity outdoors. I had to draw a line outside at 11:00, thats the dead zone. Anything in the line is roasted by noon.. Been 100 to 110 here for weeks and no rain to speak of. I might put one back outside after it blooms.. I need some confidence back with the new plants.

[smweaver]

Try acclimating them slowly, over a period of a couple of weeks, to the higher light intensity outdoors. I usually start with one to two hours of direct very early morning sunlight to start off with in the spring, increasing the amount of light by about an hour every three to four days.

After a couple of weeks, they're pretty much able to handle direct sunlight from around 7 AM until noon. After that they get indirect light for the rest of the day; however, if the temps climb about 85 to 90, I only give them a couple of hours of direct early morning sunshine. In high temps and light conditions you can also water the heck out of them without fear of overwatering (that is, as long as they're established and have a strong and healthy root system). My catts don't ever really go completely dry during our hot and humid summers.

The more Rhyncholaelia digbyana in the background, the more they'll be able to handle the higher light and heat. Try one plant as a confidence booster--a kind of botanical guinea pig.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by RJSquirrel

I had 4 new Blc's and an Lc I won at a raffle and burned 2 of em up already outside, really made me sad. Im afraid of outside. I was a very bad judge of the light and heat intensity outdoors. I had to draw a line outside at 11:00, thats the dead zone. Anything in the line is roasted by noon.. Been 100 to 110 here for weeks and no rain to speak of. I might put one back outside after it blooms.. I need some confidence back with the new plants.

Hey RJ,
Try growing your plants with the help of a shade cloth. All my Catts are thriving in the heat and sun of Austin with the help of the silver shiny type shade cloth. My grow area (http://www.orchidboard.com/community...tin-texas.html) gets full sun for from about 930AM until 3PM and all of my plants love it! Bright growers on top, Stans on the bottom. So far so good!

[Otis226]

Hi Steve, hope you don't mind my posting these pics on your thread. I only have my plant a couple of weeks and also didn't notice much of a fragrance. (I also wanted to test to see if I could upload pics here, as it hasn't worked out on one of the other boards).
This is one of my favorite catts.
Thanks,
Tony

[smweaver]

They look great, Tony. And glad (sorry!) that yours doesn't have much of a fragrance either. I thought that maybe it was just my insensitive nose not picking up the scent.

Steve

[Otis226]

No problem, Steve! I practically wore out the blooms checking for a fragrance, since the grower I bought it from insisted that it was a very fragrant one

[Angurek]

Beautiful plant. I love the contrasting yellow blotches on the lip.

[Tindomul]

OMG those are gorgeous!!! COngrats on these jewels!

[peeweelovesbooks]

Both of these are gorgeous!!!! TFS!