Laelia tenebrosa v. aurea 'Richard Santos' x self in bloom

[silken]

Here is another first bloom for me. This has been my summer of first blooms! I got this plant 1 1/2 years ago from Miranda Orchids when he was in Alberta speaking at one of the orchid societies. This is the first time it has bloomed so I will forgive it for having only 1 bloom!

Francisco Miranda said he always grows his Laelias in a clay pot in moss so that's how I have potted it with a bit of charcoal at the bottom. It seems happy and has good roots since I just re-potted earlier this summer.

The bloom has no scent to this point so not sure if it will develop one. I thought it would. The flower is 5 1/2 inches wide and the trumpet throat is more than 3 inches long! I'm very happy with the colour as I bought it without seeing a picture. The picture really shows the lovely pinkish veins over the light gold petals. It looks lovely with a bit of back light.

[cbuchman]

Beautiful! I really like the color combination. Great photos too.

[silken]

Thanks Carrie!

[31drew31]

Wow great photos and flower!

[WhiteRabbit]

WOW! Fabulous!

[silken]

Thanks Andrew and Sonya!

[Cattleya17]

SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

[Mokeck]

Very nice! They're addictive - L. tenebrosa - you can collect very light, light, medium, dark, and very dark, all beautiful. I have four and would give a lot for what may be the darkest, Valpotis Nights, popular in Europe there don't seem to be any in the US.

[silken]

Thanks Cattleya17 and Mokeck. Lucky you to have 4 of them! It was hard to choose and to tell what I was getting. Some have poor form in the petals to my taste but I would like a darker one also with good full petals.

[GardenTheater]

Love the color combination and veining! Thanks for mentioning your use of moss and charcoal and clay pots. It helps to learn what can work.