I love the nudibranch lips on this species, so when I saw this plant at a hobbyist's cleanout sale about 9 months ago I bought it. The squirrels have been hell this year and have already eaten 2 spikes off it with 6 buds, but finally some made it. The color is deeper than it looks in these photos to me, sort of a grape bubblegum color. Light sweet scent. There is another small sheath with shadows in it, so maybe there'll be more!
One weird thing- the earlier 2 spikes were on older pbulbs, with sheaths that had been cut but didn't show signs of spikes. These buds are on the next-to-youngest pbulb, with the developing sheath on the youngest. Do these guys mature growths throughout the year but coordinate blooms on all unbloomed growths from previous year or something? It's very weird! This is a one lead plant! It wasn't in bloom when I bought it.
C. maxima
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