BLC Windward Flare 'Large' - Orchid Board

Joseia · #1 10-30-2014, 10:32 PM

Bought this Lowe's bag baby in March 2013 and it never really did well in my house. So this past April, I took it to my office to give it a last chance before going on a one-way trip to the landfill. It surprised me by throwing out a flower spike with a single bud and quickly grew into this beautiful flower in a little over a month. It has a light, somewhat musky fragrance that appears to be strongest in the early morning. The tag says 'large' and they mean it - almost 5 inches across from tip to tip.

No trip to the landfill for this beauty! I've had a parade of co-workers come through and they can't believe it is possible to grow orchids in the office and a few now want to try their hands at growing orchids here also. The addiction spreads!

soobie · #2 10-30-2014, 11:54 PM

Absolutely beautiful! Glad it didn't go to the landfill!

silken · #3 10-31-2014, 11:53 AM

Beautiful! Great growing.

tucker85 · #4 10-31-2014, 01:20 PM

I think your's is a very special cultivar of this cross! I looked it up in Orchid Wiz and all the pictures show a white flower with a few purple freckles on the lip. Your plant obviously inherited the wonderful purple lip from C. Memoria Robert Strait, which is one of the parents. Very pretty!!

NYCorchidman · #5 10-31-2014, 03:36 PM

Beautiful color combo!

WhiteRabbit · #6 10-31-2014, 08:56 PM

Wonderful!

Joseia · #7 11-01-2014, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tucker85

I think your's is a very special cultivar of this cross! I looked it up in Orchid Wiz and all the pictures show a white flower with a few purple freckles on the lip. Your plant obviously inherited the wonderful purple lip from C. Memoria Robert Strait, which is one of the parents. Very pretty!!

I looked for images of the flower when I saw the flower spike start to form, and the vast majority showed the spotted lip that you mentioned. Very pleasantly surprised with the solid purple, I love the way she looks. Definitely keeping this one. Now I just need to figure out why she did so much better in the office than in my home. She was getting about two hours of early morning sun throughout the spring and summer, perhaps that was the difference. And it was getting quite cool next to the window at night.