Cattlianthe Golden Wax: Why suddenly a fragrance after 30 years?

[Orchid Whisperer]

I have posted quite a few times about one of my oldest plants, for example:Cattlianthe Golden Wax, differences with light intensity

Maybe I'll post pictures of the most recent blooms later, but here is the latest puzzle with this plant. As the title says, I have had this plant since 1985. It has bloomed reliably each year, typically more than once per year. It started blooming sometime over the USA Thanksgiving holiday (most likely within the last 5 days), blooming in my office (nothing special - 20 story 1980s brick & glass building with fluorescent lights and cubicles; I am not near a window; I do have an under-cabinet light where I switched out the standard-issue fluorescent for a 6500K daylight bulb). So, neither the best nor the worst environment for an orchid. The spike is a good one, 8 blooms, but I have had up to 12 on this plant before - so the spike is quite nice, but not the best ever.

The mystery: This plant has had no fragrance to speak of for 30 years. Occasionally as the blooms age there is a vague, faint sweet odor that I associate with aging blooms of many orchids (guessing that may be sugars and various volatile compounds given off during the last days a bloom is open). However, this morning, there is DEFINITELY a fragrance; strong pleasant spicy with some underlying sweetness. A co-worker noticed this too.

Another plant that recently bloomed in the same space Cattleya Orglade's Blaze: Two is company, three's a crowd, four is . . . also had better fragrance than usual.

Both of these plants initiated spikes outdoors, finished the last few weeks of development in my office.

Any guesses as to why I am suddenly getting fragrances now in these plants? I am (pleasantly) stumped.

[katrina]

Is this the first year you've had them in an office setting w/you?

My thinking is that maybe they were fragrant those other years but maybe you weren't near them during the fragrant time of the day. ?? With that many years of blooming...it's the only thing I can come up with.

[Leafmite]

It would be great to have this mystery solved. I had a Dendrobium that was occasionally fragrant but, most of the time, wasn't. Then there are all those 'fragrant' orchids I buy that are not fragrant. I have always wondered if it was something I was doing.....

[Orchid Whisperer]

Originally Posted by katrina

Is this the first year you've had them in an office setting w/you?

My thinking is that maybe they were fragrant those other years but maybe you weren't near them during the fragrant time of the day. ?? With that many years of blooming...it's the only thing I can come up with.

At least for the Cattlianthe, I've bloomed it in my previous office, no fragrance noted. At home, I've certainly been around it blooming at just about any time of day imaginable - noted no fragrance (except what I mentioned in the OP). The Orglades Blaze always had a fragrance, it was just much stronger this time around, which I chalked up to just blooming stronger.

Your suggestion makes perfect sense - but unfortunately does not fit.

---------- Post added at 10:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:45 AM ----------

@Leafmite . . . I am also tempted to think my situation could be cultural. The only thing I can think of that has changed is I switched fertilizers to one of those "bloom booster" formulations with lower relative N, higher relative P (switched mainly to provide less N than I had been) Otherwise my culture for the year has not changed - similar to what I have been doing for at least the last 4 or 5 years. I don't know if it is the new fertilizer, new office, or something I did 6 months ago that seems trivial (??)

[Leafmite]

It might be the 'P'. When we were traveling to one of our children's HS events a few years ago, we stopped at a small gardening center and there was a fertilizer sold that advertised it had 'P' to boost fragrance. I have always thought of experimenting with this on some of my other fragrant flowers to see if it does work. Maybe I will need to do that when summer comes....

[Orchid Whisperer]

I like that idea! FWIW, over all, my plants do seem to be putting more into blooming and less into building larger plants - what I was aiming for when I changed fertilizer.

[silken]

I would bet on change in fertilizer, or.... could your sense of smell changed recently for some reason?? Since you have two different ones that are smelling different now.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Originally Posted by silken

I would bet on change in fertilizer, or.... could your sense of smell changed recently for some reason?? Since you have two different ones that are smelling different now.

I can honestly state that I don't smell any better this year than I did last year. some may claim that I smell worse.

Seriously though, no health or other changes that I know of that would affect my sense of smell.

[Leafmite]

Stronger blooms logically should lead to better fragrance since the entire idea of a flower is to attract a pollinator and reproduce.
What brand are you using? I need to get some....

[Orchid Whisperer]

Better Gro - can't recall the NPK balance at the moment. If it comes to me later I will revise this post.

---------- Post added at 02:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------

OK, found it in one of my past posts. It is 11-35-15.