cattleya schilleriana bud watch

[Optimist]

Well it is nearly ready to bloom. If you look closely you can see a second spike forming. This seems to like my conditions.

[silken]

Ooh, exciting! I just got one of these but no buds on mine. What are your conditions??

[Optimist]

(Warning, temps in Fahrenheit)

This is the desert. Lots of wind. Cold mornings, hot afternoons (about 80 degrees now), can get about 47 degrees at about 3 am but only for an hour or so. Under the shade of our pecan tree it is about 10 degrees less. It is under shade after noon, because the sun here easily burns cattleya/ any orchid leaves (except cymbidiums). I water about 3X per day by dunking the pot. We haven't had any rain, I just dunk and let dry, dunk and let dry etc.

Where they grow in Brazil it does not get above 80 F, so I have to tweak to keep it a bit cooler. I have a micro climate in my little "garden" area where the back part is much cooler than the exposed area. I think maybe 70-75 degrees is as hot as it should ever get.

That's what I am trying now, and it seems okay for now.
I plan to keep them a bit cooler though as it gets hotter here. In their natural environment they never completely dry out. So don't let the roots totally dry out like a phalenopsis. (Or my Recchara friend who is growing 4 new leads).

---------- Post added at 02:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:56 PM ----------

Oh, I also use dyna-gro fertilizer, but I am sure any good orchid fert would work.

---------- Post added at 02:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:05 PM ----------

After it flowers it goes dormant. Yours might be just young because this is about when the bulbs form and bloom (may-june). The next sheath I am getting might not bloom according to its habits.

[pipsxlch]

I just got a seedling one also. Hmmm, I'm already in the 90s. I got it from an in state vendor whom I've had good luck with before and he said they do well around here, hopefully that's true. It really hasn't had time to show stress yet.

[Leslie]

Congrats! These are traditionally (along with aclandiaes) very hard to grow, much less bloom!! Can't wait to see the flower!!


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[No-Pro-mwa]

Cute little plant.

[silken]

Mine might have to go outside hung from a tree for the summer, to escape the hot greenhouse. My aclandiae grows fine and even blooms tho, so I must keep it a bit happy

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by silken

Mine might have to go outside hung from a tree for the summer, to escape the hot greenhouse. My aclandiae grows fine and even blooms tho, so I must keep it a bit happy

I was kind of shocked to hear it was hard to take care of. I just really paid attention to the cultural tip that it was not a cattleya that liked to dry out like some do.

I like the Cattleyas the most though the paphs and phrags closely follow.

[silken]

Cattleyas are my favourite too. I like a lot of others tho like Oncidiums, Phrags, Paphs, Dens Phals. Love Zygos but keep failing with them.
I did read one article about schilleriana that said it was fairly easy to grow and hard to understand why more people don't grow them. I guess time will tell. I just got mine bare root from Ching Hua and it is very root challenged, so I need to get it established before I can hope for blooms.

[estación seca]

Carter & Holmes is selling small seedlings now. I ordered one in March when they first offered them. It arrived quite healthy. It appears to have developed a sheath, though it should be far too small for that.

I ordered another, but they sent me a different plant that has a very similar catalog number. We are still trying to get this settled.

So if you order one from them, ask them to take special care to send you the correct plant.