2 blooms off of division of same plant with different coloring

[Dub3]

Hi hope you will bear with me. I have been fighting the picture upload on this board and have not been able to succeed. Therefore I must ask that you go to my gallery to view the pictures I refer to.

I have a plant LC Angel Heart "Hihimanu" (Puppy Love X Penny Kuroda) ACC/AOS that I divided 3 months ago and 2 divisions are in bloom and 1 is in bud. In viewing my gallery you will notice 2 photos of the before mentioned plant. You will also notice major differences in their color. What is the reason for this? They both grew under the same conditions and are both divisions of the same plant.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Hi Dub3!

I have seen the same thing even on the same plant. I have a Cattleya Wayndora that developed buds on 2 different leads, one set of buds just a few weeks behind the other in development.

The first flowers were a bit larger & more robust, with darker coloring; buds developed to flowering outdoors, strong light. When that first set opened I brought the plant indoors (back in the summer) to enjoy.

The second set of buds finished developing indoors. OK light for indoors, but not as strong as the oudoor light. The flowers bloomed well, but were not quite as large, and were paler.

A Cattleya Llory Ann 'Paradise' that I have bloomed its first for me while indoors and again later in the year while outdoors. The outdoor blooms were somewhat larger and darker in color.

I suspect your darker blooms may have received a bit more light than the other blooms. The difference in light might not have been much, but maybe enough to affect the color?

[Dub3]

Orchid whisper,
Both plants were grown side by side, the darker one bloomed first and I brought it inside leaving the other one in the greenhouse, then when it bloomed I brought it inside as well. It will be interesting to see what the third division that is in bud will look like. Another interesting observation is that the yellow on th lighter plant is much more intense and covers more of the bloom.

[Joseia]

I've got a rescue NOID Phal that I got with its last blooms still on, and it had white flowers with lots of big purple spots, and absolutely no fragrance. When I got it to rebloom a year later in my office, it came out with white pinkish flowers, absolutely no spots with a dark purple lip, and a slight morning fragrance. I KNOW it is the same plant, no way it got confused with another Phal because all of my other phals are species.

I have read that the flowers can look different depending on culture, but I am surprised that the changes can be so drastic.

[RJSquirrel]

you have the signs of a virused plant... virus bleaches out the colors in the flowers when it rears it head. you cant always tell a plant has a virus ..if it never flowers. virus can be dormant and then bammm.. IMO you got a virused catt bro.

Orchid Viruses

dont be alarmed you can get test strips from agdia...5 of them is 25 bucks. Its hard to tell from 1 set of flowers. But sure looks viral to me. If its not, we are all learning here

[Dub3]

Thanks for the info. I think Agdia is now 42.50 + shipping for 5 strips and Cripple Creek is 5.00 per test and they do the test. Is there any reason not to use Cripple Creek?

Thanks

[silken]

Colour break virus was my thought as well when I saw them.

[PaphMadMan]

How long was it between the first one blooming and the second? Temperature and light during development strongly affect color in some Catts, and can change quite a bit over just a few weeks in fall. There will be different levels of affect depending on the stage of bud development too.

And your flowers do look like the plants have virus. Virus itself affects color, and if one plant is more stressed by the virus than the other the affects from temperature and light could be magnified as well.

[Dub3]

It was about 2 weeks between blooms. One difference was the cooler weather, the later bloom was in the greenhouse during a cool spell that droped the night min. temp. from 70-75 to 59-60 and day temps from 85-90 to 67-75 max for at least 7 days. I have noticed that since the paler plant was brought inside the color break appears to be diminishing and the color is getting deeper in the 73 house climate.

I do plan to do a virus test and was thing of using Critter Creek Labs. has anyone had any experience with them?

[Brooke]

I have used Critter Creek and there service is OK. I suggest you call and tell them you are sending the plants. I emailed them, told them in the email and again inside the package what I wanted run. I sent the package over night.

Three days after receipt of the package I called to find out the results. Yes they received the package on Tuesday but didn't know what they were supposed to do with it. Well, duh, open the box and read my instructions or READ YOUR EMAIL.

I had sent them my credit card number inside the package but they don't, or didn't, take credit cards and I had to send a check.

Anyway, call them, tell them what you want, send the money, and wait.

Edited to add: I also think it is the color break virus.

Brooke