Greetings from sunny Southern California

[RosieC]

Welcome to Orchid Board

Originally Posted by Jeffery

Cattleya orchid ) T-4605 Lc. Nice Holiday 'Suntopia, cattleya orchid ) ) T-4305 C. Chocolate Drop 'Kodama', Cattleya orchid T-4539 Sc. Crystelle Smith 'Gold Thro

this is 3 of the Cattleya's Orchids I do know, I dont know what that Lc, C, Sc stands for..

The following turned in to quite a long post, but just trying to help you understand the names

C stands for Cattleya.

The other two are what we call intergeneric hybrids. This means that they are a cross between two (or more) orchid genuses.

Lc stands for Laeliocattleya which is a cross between Cattleya and Laelia.

Sc stands for Sophrocattleya which is a cross between Cattleya and Sophronitis.

I'm not sure what the T-4605 type numbers are in front of the names. I can see your orchids with that reference online but it mostly seems to point back to one ebay seller so it may just be his reference for the plants. Someone else may know more on that.

Generally I would expect your orchids to be listed as...

Lc. Nice Holiday 'Suntopia' HCC/AOS
C. Chocolate Drop 'Kodama' AM/AOS
Sc. Crystelle Smith 'Gold Thro'

The first one or two letters are the abreviations for the genus name. The next part of the name is the hybrid name. These are hybrids rather than species and the name starts with a capital letter to indicate that. The part of the name in quotes indicates the 'clonal' name. This is the name given to a particular clone of the hybrid or species.

In this case the first two were awarded clones and so the last part of their name indicates the awards (HCC, AM, AOS).

Having said above that Sc. stands for Sophrocattleya (which it does), it seems that Crystelle Smith is registered with the Royal Horticultural Society as a pure Cattleya rather than as a Sophrocattleya, but that may be simply because they are always reclasifying things and moving them arround. I'm sure they do it just to confuse us.

Anyway, the pictures I've seen when looking these up for you look fantastic and Chocolate Drop is always a favourite amoung many of the people here.

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by RosieC

Welcome to Orchid Board



The following turned in to quite a long post, but just trying to help you understand the names

C stands for Cattleya.

The other two are what we call intergeneric hybrids. This means that they are a cross between two (or more) orchid genuses.

Lc stands for Laeliocattleya which is a cross between Cattleya and Laelia.

Sc stands for Sophrocattleya which is a cross between Cattleya and Sophronitis.

I'm not sure what the T-4605 type numbers are in front of the names. I can see your orchids with that reference online but it mostly seems to point back to one ebay seller so it may just be his reference for the plants. Someone else may know more on that.

Generally I would expect your orchids to be listed as...

Lc. Nice Holiday 'Suntopia' HCC/AOS
C. Chocolate Drop 'Kodama' AM/AOS
Sc. Crystelle Smith 'Gold Thro'

The first one or two letters are the abreviations for the genus name. The next part of the name is the hybrid name. These are hybrids rather than species and the name starts with a capital letter to indicate that. The part of the name in quotes indicates the 'clonal' name. This is the name given to a particular clone of the hybrid or species.

In this case the first two were awarded clones and so the last part of their name indicates the awards (HCC, AM, AOS).

Having said above that Sc. stands for Sophrocattleya (which it does), it seems that Crystelle Smith is registered with the Royal Horticultural Society as a pure Cattleya rather than as a Sophrocattleya, but that may be simply because they are always reclasifying things and moving them arround. I'm sure they do it just to confuse us.

Anyway, the pictures I've seen when looking these up for you look fantastic and Chocolate Drop is always a favourite amoung many of the people here.

Thanks Rosie for the info, those are 3 of 6 I bought from the same seller, unfortunitly, I didn't save the info from the 1st 3, I contacted him in hopes he keeps better records than I so I can find out the other 3..
good day and thanks again..

[Jeffery]

Will, I just checked my email and he sent me a reply, I now know what my other 3 our..
Sc. Crystelle Smith
C. Ahchung Yo Yo
Blc. Tsutung Beauty

[epiphyte78]

ewcia1028, I'm glad to hear that you plan on leaving me some overgrown specials If you end up with any extra keikis please keep me in mind.

Most of my orchids seemed to really enjoy the rain we got this last weekend. Probably because the rain water is higher quality compared to our tap water...and most of my orchids are mounted so they have great drainage.

[ewcia1028]

Originally Posted by epiphyte78

ewcia1028, I'm glad to hear that you plan on leaving me some overgrown specials If you end up with any extra keikis please keep me in mind.

Most of my orchids seemed to really enjoy the rain we got this last weekend. Probably because the rain water is higher quality compared to our tap water...and most of my orchids are mounted so they have great drainage.

Carlos,I can only imagine how great your orchids must feel after that rain,I wish I could take mine out and let them have some shower, and for sure rain water is so much better then tap water.What keikis are you looking for?and where do you find those overgrown specials?We are already in March and another 10 days and there is SB Orchid Show and I am looking forward to it!!Our display is almost ready and all we need is a lot of Orchids from Members of our Society.I wil put my Dendrobium 'Wonder Nishii' for judging this year again.I have 32 spikes with a lot of flowers.

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by ewcia1028

Carlos,I can only imagine how great your orchids must feel after that rain,I wish I could take mine out and let them have some shower, and for sure rain water is so much better then tap water.What keikis are you looking for?and where do you find those overgrown specials?We are already in March and another 10 days and there is SB Orchid Show and I am looking forward to it!!Our display is almost ready and all we need is a lot of Orchids from Members of our Society.I wil put my Dendrobium 'Wonder Nishii' for judging this year again.I have 32 spikes with a lot of flowers.

if I am not mistaking, you can take tap water and soak it in peat moss and it will almost duplicate the water value of rain, rain water is soft and acididic...peat moss will do the same thing

[epiphyte78]

ewcia1028, I'm always on the lookout for any keikis of epiphytic species that might be able to grow outdoors. As for overgrown specials...usually Andy's has a couple and last year I picked up a few from the Santa Barbara Orchid Society booth. Congratulations on your 32 spikes! I look forward to seeing it in your society's display.

Jeffery, interesting two cents...haven't heard of that technique before. Most of my orchids seem to squeak by with tap water but I have a couple (ie Dracula polyphemus) with burnt leaf tips that would probably appreciate better quality water.

[ewcia1028]

Carlos,maybe on Friday the 12th I should follow you in search of those keikis?I love orchids from Andy and every year can't resist and always have to get a few
Jeffrey I haven't heard of it either and this is very interesting and thanks for sharing with us

[Jeffery]

I learned about that when I was spawning Neon Tetras, I use to collect rain water to add to my spawning tank, because of the low ph and softness, which they need to prompt them to spawn, I am not 100% sure, it was a long time ago, but rain water is very soft and a ph of 5.6, since rain water was not always available when I had big fat preggy Neons, another fish breeder told me about the peat moss trick and my Neons did spawn, when I compared the 2 levels rainwater vs peat moss water, they were very similar, I could take tap water with a ph of 7.6 and hard and soak it and the next day the levels dropped a lot, sounds like a lot of work huh..
I always wondered about the tap water here in Glendale and actually also the rain, since rain falling here would be a much lower ph than normal rain because of the air pollution and my thoughts is polluted air equals polluted rainwater = Acid Rain... to much to think about hahaha!!

[Jeffery]

I want healthy and beautiful plants also, being a newbie to the hobby maybe I am overreacting, but I am thinking of using bought water that goes through 6 stage reverse osmosis, its only $1 for 5 gallons