Two questions to Cattlianthe growers

[rbarata]

Two simple questions with, probably, not so easy answers:

How is their watering? Do they like to dry out between waterings?

And what about light...? I've read they don't like so much light as Catts.

Thank you

[estación seca]

The hybrids can be treated as the other Cattleya hybrids.

Do you mean Guarianthe species? My experience has been they are not tolerant of drying out while in new growth - not even for a day or two.

[JScott]

I only have two Cattlianthes, but I grow them both right beside all my other Cattleya-type hybrids, and they do great. Typical Cattleya care will be fine for these. Let them get dry-ish, but not bone dry between waterings.

[rbarata]

Do you mean Guarianthe species? My experience has been they are not tolerant of drying out while in new growth - not even for a day or two.

No, it's an hybrid. Don't know the mane but I can show you the flower.



I'm asking this because the two sheaths that were next to bloom are drying. I looked at older photos of this plant and it blooms from green sheaths so I think it has been getting too much light and/or too little water.

[IMG]Let them get dry-ish, but not bone dry between waterings.[/IMG]

In a low HR and high temps environment last summer I was watering once a week so that must be the problem.
But it has two new growths...I don't have this plant for that long to know how much time it will take to bloom from the new growths.

[Orchid Whisperer]

My oldest Cattlianthe (Golden Wax) sometimes blooms through a green sheath, sometimes a brown sheath, or sometimes without making any sheath at all! It has bloomed virtually every year for 32 years, usually more than once a year.

As far as care, I treat Cattlianthe the same as other Cattleya hybrids (same light, potting, watering, etc.). They always seem pretty bullet-proof.

[rbarata]

My oldest Cattlianthe (Golden Wax) sometimes blooms through a green sheath, sometimes a brown sheath, or sometimes without making any sheath at all! It has bloomed virtually every year for 32 years, usually more than once a year.

So, there's still hope!

Mine, when I bought it, had two flowers. 3 months later it bloomed again.
From your words I infer they bloom from the new growth, i.e., not from the next-to-last growth.

[JScott]

I keep mine on a south facing porch in Oklahoma during the summer, and they get several hours of direct sun in the morning (from maybe 9 to 12 or 1) and I water them every other day, or even every day in August when the daily high temps are regularly in the mid-90s, so watering once a week is not nearly enough.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Originally Posted by rbarata

So, there's still hope!

Mine, when I bought it, had two flowers. 3 months later it bloomed again.
From your words I infer they bloom from the new growth, i.e., not from the next-to-last growth.

Yes, on the same lead, they bloom from the most recently matured growth.

I have always been amazed how tough my old Cattlianthe is. My main plant is pretty robust, but I had a smaller division of it that was nearly rootless, struggling, severely dehydrated and in trouble. Over the summer I tied it to some random scraps of cedar with a little sphagnum, hung it in a shady spot outdoors, and hoped for the best. I recently gave it to a co-worker (also an orchid grower), with a spike and 3 buds on it. It is now blooming and growing well.

[rbarata]

Is it normal for the older pbulbs to shrink?
The older ones are shrinked but the new ones are ok.

I have a concern with it. Not only the shrinking but also this: those black spots on the sheath and the sheath covering the pbulbs (although all of them always had them with that look...maybe that's normal).
Also one of the leaves in one of the oldest pbulb got brown and die (see the photo).

Do you see anything unusual on the photos?











This wrinkled leaf in the photo bellow was already like this when I got the plant so it's not a concern.







But not everything are bad news. I have two new growths with sheaths that look healty.

[estación seca]

Cattleya sheaths around pseudobulbs normally turn brown like paper, as yours are doing. Many people peel them off, so you don't see them on photos. Some people think insects can hide under the pseudobulb sheaths.

Leaves live for several years, then drop. They drop sooner in low-humidity environments, or if they aren't watered enough. The oldest ones tend to drop first.

New pseudobulbs stay thick and not wrinkled as long as conditions are good. It is common in houses for pseudobulbs to become wrinkled.

I don't know whether it is normal for the flower sheath to turn brown like that. Did it do so before?