They just went outside for the summer. If we get a couple of cold nights, I will cover with plastic.

I grow mine under Lights

Mine will be here Saturday. I plan on growing it on my west windowsill.

Just in... Andy's Orchids have a sale on their stick mounted walkeriana coerulea. Was $36 now $27 for limited time.

Andy's Orchids - Orchid Species - Orchid List

Mine are all grown in the windowsill. My small ones are in an east facing window and I just moved the larger one to the west window from the south facing one. In the summer I have to move them as the sun gets higher and doesn't shine on them.

I wish I could try some outside but my wind is just so bad here.

That is a great sale! The problem with Andy's, though, is you cannot just buy one orchid...not if you are an orchid addict. I would definitely recommend the mounted walkeriana he is offering, though. It is a work of art. :)

I know I bought a few plants :) Really small ones. I debated whether I should get another walkeriana... I still could add it to my purchase as they aren't shipping until 5/17 lol.

The temptation! I always figure that for the price of shipping, adding another is a good value if it is something I am contemplating. Then again, I do tend to like multiples of favorite orchids. Just for the walkerianas, I have the unknown one, the semi-alba and now the coerula. Then there is the alba dolosa which should look similar. :)

I may just have to buy this one. I just watered my walkeriana and my newest growth has come out bent as most the other leaves have.Then it broke in half. I thought they were just bent from shipping but maybe there is something genetic or conditions aren't right. I have all those new roots, not sure about this one. I have plenty of catts and this is the only one doing this. I just repotted into clay pellets, I have good luck with seedling catts in this where I just mist the pellets when they dry out. Disappointing to wait for new growth and it turns out like this :(

I have broken off new growths. They will usually try again, don't worry. If you are worried about over all health, though, that is a different concern. :(

The ones that Andy's Orchids are selling are really healthy...good roots, multiple leads and I was very pleased with it, so pleased, I wrote to tell them so. You would be happy with what they send you if you ordered one. I usually prefer them in red lava rock and had everything ready to remove it from the mount but it just looks so good....

The bag baby has a bent growth (due to the orchid being squished in the netting) but it is healthy and seems to be straightening as it grows. New roots are starting. I discovered another tiny Cattleya in with it but didn't think it would live...it is living, too and getting roots. I am surprised and impressed with the bag baby walkeriana.

I think there is something weird with mine as all the leaves are bent and the new growths are coming in bent. I was surprised when I got it because it came from SVO and I thought it looked a little shabby compared to everything else I got from them. I guess time will tell, but so far I'm not impressed with this one.

I think yours was a bag baby, wintergirl? They've been confused by irregular drought, strange temperatures and minimal light coming from unpredictable directions in shipping and at the store. I bet it grows properly soon.

No I could understand it if it was a bag baby. Mine is from Fred Clark at SVO. :( I'm thinking it is probably a moisture problem and maybe the new media will help. I hope :)

Zip Fred a note and a photo; I'm betting he'll give you some advice if it's cultural, or have a solution if it's a dud plant. He's always been very quick to respond to any questions I've sent his way.
AP

The new growths are all coming in bent? That is odd. I have not seen that before with a Cattleya. Yes, I would contact Fred and see what advice he can give you on this.

I thought it was odd too. Here is a picture of part of the broken new growth. You can see how bent it is. The plant still has an old growth with a bend like this. You can see in pictures I posted earlier. Now I think the plant had grown that way and had not been injured from shipping. I sent Fred an email and see what he thinks.

Attachment 120766

Hi, I just started on this because of my "success" with cattleya Shilleriana I decided to do this Cattleya Walkeriana. I just bought a semi-alba X species. I will read the rest of the posts to see what's going on!

Great!! Glad you will join in on the fun :)

Andy's stuff is great, i get most of my stuff from him for lots of reasons, main one being his conditions are similar enough to mine... and other main reason, I order from him and literally get it predictably that week!...

that said, they are Near blooming size, so they'd definitely need time to get to BS, so just keep patience in mind...

but many catts are tough and are great to try mounted if you're afraid to try mounted orchids still... and considering the pic I posted of one growing on a cactus, if you miss a watering on it mounted, it would be forgiving...

Wintergirl, that kind of weak bent growth is from my experience from low light and low water intake, the combo... if not watered enough, maybe the roots are compromised in some way? anyway, it could grow back, but would need to put out new roots with a new growth so give the guy a little time... but do let us know what Fred says...

in the meantime just get another one ;)

It gets plenty of light. It had a bent leaf from Fred's when I got it, I'm sure he gave it both enough light and moisture in his greenhouse. That is why I am wondering if genetic. I am trying more moisture now, we shall see. Oh the roots are good, tons of new ones too. See the pictures.

It sure looks like my Tropical Pointer Catt which kept doing that and it seemed like more moisture and better roots fixed the problem. But I agree, you would think it would get good care with Fred. No harm in asking him tho.

wintergirl, I went back and looked at your photos from April 24. The plant looks very thirsty with the wrinkled leaves. I think this degree of dryness could cause a deformed new growth. Go back and read the catwalker808 message Leafmite dug up. He was advising another OB member who was having trouble with poor flowering, and catwalker808 explained how much water they need:

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...-blooming.html

My regular plant from SVO is in S/H and the roots never dry out. My coerulea from SVO is still in its pot with the sphag plug in the center. It hasn't dried out completely since I got it, but I let the bark get completely dry. Both had warm days throughout the winter.

The regular one completed its growth. Just in the last 2 days, it has begun enlarging another eye at the base. I sunburned a spot on the just-completed leaf a couple of days ago, but it's not a huge spot, and the plant seems like it won't get worse.

The coerulea made 6 growths after it arrived in December 2015. They aren't quite mature yet. The plant is making profuse new roots now, and... a new growth. (Or... can I dream?) I just picked it up and noticed the leaves are a little wrinkled. I watered it 2 days ago and it's dry already.

(sniped by me) When I got it from Fred the p.bulbs were pretty full, it looks hydrated to me and still had a bent new growth. It's not really clear at the angle but it was. Here is when I got it:
Attachment 120770

It doesn't even look like a very nice plant really. All the other plants I got were great but this one had issues.

Ordered one from Andy's, added to my order for next week. Also got an email back from Fred Clark. He says he is in Mexico now and will look at the pictures when he gets back next week.

A question for those who know. Is 50F night time temp a problem for walkeriana?

I am looking forward to seeing pictures of your new one, Wintergirl! :)

I hope you will let us know what Fred says about your other. When orchids are crossed, weird things can sometimes happen. Fred might have thought it would be okay and it just wasn't. Good luck!

In doing some research I found this:
During the Summer, get them outside in about 60% full sun at the peak of the day. Early morning sun or late afternoon sun on the leaves is also good. To be moved outside, night temperatures should be in the mid 50’s F. However, if the night temperature dips a bit lower occasionally, this is OK.

Cattleyas and their care | Blog - New Earth Orchids

We are getting some cold night temperatures this weekend (maybe snow) and I will probably just cover everything with a plastic drop cloth and put some buckets of hot water underneath the shelves to keep it warm for the night.

50s at night should be fine, from what I've read about this plant, it should be good at even cooler night temps provided its on the dry side--ie no water on the foliage/in maturing growths

Thanks for the answers folks! The Catts I put out so far are still acclimating to sunlight so they're under an overhang where I have control over moisture. The next couple nights temps are expected to be closer to 40, so I'm erring on the side of caution and bringing them in nights for the time being.

From my reading so far, walkeriana has about the same range as Cattleya loddigesii. This is in the MIOS journal online. The walkeriana lives as an epiphyte, or as a lithophite, and has constant water on the roots in the sense of rainfall, or moving water such as "streams" not as a stagnant pool. There are pictures of this area, the orchids are totally out in the open, on big grey rocks, no cover, no trees, and they live alongside cactus, and other grass, and even other types of orchids. Huge fields of orchids on rocks. further reading places them in the "cold hardy" or temperature hardy division of cattleyas (27 to 100 F), Hybrids are more likely to be more intermediate. However there is a natural hybrid between walkeriana and loddigesii. I am thinking that I will be potting it in an over sized pot, (to keep in more moisture) in lava with some marble or granite chips, and then will throw it outside in full sun and water it X3 per day like the others. In fact, if anything, the care will be more like the Reccharia/Myrmecocattleya.

Wintergirl I have the same one. I didn't think it looked as healthy as the other Catt's I got from Fred either. But it did have a nice big full psb. I of course under watered it and they are not as full. My leaves are not as bad as yours but my new one from last year has a small curl in it and now the new one looks like it is going to have one also. My small ones, remember he sent me a smaller plant that turned out to be 2 in one pot, they both look good. I had re-potted them in separate pots the smallest in a 1 1/2 inch pot. It had started a new growth and I wasn't watering it enough and it dried up. I now water the 2 small ones every day and the smallest has a new growth and now the middle child has 2. I re-potted the biggest one about a month and a half ago and I water it every other day. I didn't have roots like my other SVO Catts did but enough to grow.

I will be waiting to hear what Fred has to say. I also have a hybrid that is from him that will be opening soon that had 2 growths one stopped with it being short and the leaf didn't seem to be coming out of the stuff around the psb so I cut it off. It's kind of funny looking but the silly thing is going to have 3 blooms. The nice big one is only going to have 1, go figure.

I have attributed it to me not watering enough.

Thanks Shannon. I was wondering what you thought. All my other SVO orchids are just wonderful and get the same care as the walkeriana. Maybe it is a combo of reduced moisture and a weak plant. I really thought it is doing well with the new growth but when it came out bent I was puzzled. The new growth was very soft and had a moist feel, not dry at all. Glad we are doing this project, it is good to see other plants and how they are grown.

My normal walkeriana in S/H was getting about 3 hours of direct morning sun through the sunroom window, but it was back about 6 feet from the window. I moved it right next to that window. Everything was fine until we had a pretty hot day, with outdoor temperatures up to 102 F / 39C. Inside the sunroom it was in the upper 90s F / 37C. The plant got a big burn in the middle of the just-completed leaf. Some of the other Cattleya seedlings in the same window also got burned spots. None of them is seriously damaged, and most are making new growth.

I bought a portable fan and pointed it at that group of plants, blowing air from behind them directly at the window. So far no more trouble.

I also have a plant from Fred that arrived looking like wintergirl's walkeriana, and made a bent growth that never fully expanded: Slc. Golden Wax x Blc. Guess What. Since I began watering more, the same growth that made the bent growth has put out a normal growth, which is bigger than the bent one, and is expanding normally. I don't know whether the plant had trouble at Fred's and has outgrown it, or whether I underwatered at first.

I also think that granite rock dust is important to the care of these, possibly all cattleyas from this area. Decaying granite, and greenstone are always mentioned in conjunction with their care. Granite dust is actually a very good fertilizer.

How about just some added calcium like oyster shells?

So yesterday I decided to take off the stuff around the psb and the leaf is sort of rolled up in there. I also felt a lump of something in my C. Leoloddigossa x C. bicolor that was opening. I split them and it looks sort of like your walkeriana does. I really think it is under water or humidity. I'll try and get a picture of them both.

Outside, hanging on a palm with filtered


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it's really worth noting (and excuse me if already said here) that when you get seedlings it's really a crapshoot because out of a batch there will always be weaker ones...and in general there will always be ones with different genetics than others. Some plants are just reluctant to bloom. Growers throw them out. Some plants don't grow well, growers throw them out. etc.

The plants that are awarded have top genetics on top of having good culture. Getting divisions or meristems give you more of a guarantee towards success. they also cost more. So it's very possible some of the c. walkeriana's may not be "good".

One particular case for me that's memorable is that i got a dendrobium torresae that never ever bloomed. I thought i was doing something wrong and never got it again. then I eventually succumbed and got another one from a different vendor that looked amazing, and it's pretty much has grown steadily and blooms all the time for years whether it gets high light low light, high temps or low temps... sometimes it really is just the plant.

already I'm thinking the c. walkeriana I have may not be a good egg either. From the sound of others it should be putting out more growth... and i really give it prime real estate conditions wise for it... looks otherwise healthy though...

This is a great point; one of the Aussie hybridizers recently launched a discussion about this in another group that I belong to. The conversation condenses down to a few key points:
-When looking for potential quality in plants, a grower should be obtaining 12-15 seedlings of the same plant (under ideal conditions, the grower should be able to hand pick these)
-Seedlings should be placed in uniform media and grown on following the same regimen; furthermore, they should be graded, ie the top 3, the bottom 3, the middle group.
-Given identical care, all should flower in roughly the same span of time; the 3 with the best quality flowers are the keepers; the rest should be passed on
A lot of what is available from nurseries are either meristems, divisions or seedling crosses; meristems should typically be consistent with the original material used for culture, provided said material was not treated chemically (ie colchine)--if the parent material was a stellar plant, the meristems should be as well. The same goes for divisions; they should be identical to the parent plant; a possible exception being in the case of variegated divisions. Seedling crosses though, it's anyone's guess--hence the advice to purchase 12-15 of the progeny.

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If the vegetative sheaths are tight, resulting in leaves that are unable to emerge properly, I'd be more inclined to think it a humidity problem. I have an Oncidium flexuosum that exhibits this tendency if the rh drops too low. A second scenario might be if the developing lead was suddenly subjected to massive root loss, though the plant should correct this on subsequent growths, provided it has put out new roots.

With mine the sheath wasn't tight. Everything seemed soft and supple but there was just a bend at the end of the leaf. The leaf was basically emerged but not opened yet and had a bend at the bottom part.