Cattleya warscewiczii var. sanderiana Ecuagenera
 

Note: When I first posted this a couple of hours ago, I thought I bought this plant in fall 2019. I was mistaken. Keysguy had fall 2019 in mind when he made his post, below. Read on:.....:shock:

In January 2019, Pepe Portilla of Ecuagenera Orchids spoke to our society. He brought plants to sell. I bought a bare-root Cattleya warscewiczii var. sanderiana. Its roots had been cut short. The plant was very healthy.

Cattleya warscewiczii is a magnificent species, and also a tricky plant to wake up in spring. It typically makes new roots only after the new growth has matured and flowered. This one crossed the equator, and had no roots. I recommend anybody wanting to grow this spectacular species read the detailed comments at the Chadwick Orchids site. They say it is important not to water the plant in spring until the new growth is far along.

I put the plant in my sunroom, out of any direct sun, but did not pot it up. I left it, bare-root, in the conical transparent plastic wrapper, open at the top. I removed the sphagnum moss around the roots. I watered it about once a month. I watched and waited. The pseudobulbs became deeply furrowed.

I put the plant into a basket with large bark. I put it where it gets morning sun, and is in front of the evaporative cooler. I began gently spraying the rhizome daily with a mix of KelpMax and fertilizer diluted to about 75 PPM nitrogen. Last week I noticed small, bright green swellings at the base of one pseudobulb.

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To my delight it is making new roots, along with three new growths. That means it will have some fresh new roots to take up water to support those growths.

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Fred Clarke at SVO has seedlings of this species from time to time, including right now. Fred's plants are bred to be very vigorous, and make multiple leads one after another. I recently bought one, SVO 7179t.

So it took 2/3- 3/4 of a year for it to wake up and do this?
Wow you've got a lot of patience.

Orchids teach patience.

Orchids teach patience.

And great minds think alike... our responses crossed in the ether. I think it's a mantra.

This one is definitely on its way to flower!

Also - notice how sharp ES's uploaded pics are? ------ that's because ES is an OB supporter!!!!! :gh

I don't know. I have usually posted with photos taken on cheap phones with lousy cameras. This time I used a phone with a pretty good camera.

Those returning to this thread... note my first post was in error. This plant has been waiting to grow in my sunroom since January 2019, not fall 2019. Eighteen months.

Three growths plus new roots is nothing short of spectacular! Congrats, may its roots grow long and branching! This thing will be a monster in no time (in the orchid timescale, of course).

I just read the Chadwick article and very interesting that it is pushing growth now in July, but of course that makes sense that July is [seasonally] our January in the southern hemisphere.

Thank you. It's also funny that I potted it so the newest lead was facing the center of the basket. The new growths are not coming from the newest lead. Orchids do as they will.

Also...dammit that 7179t is tempting!!!!!!

I'll post a photo tomorrow after work.

I've never seen them push new roots with a new growth. Very cool!

Moving strongly seasonal plants between the northern and southern hemispheres can be very tricky. Well done!

A note... Ecuador is pretty marginal for southern hemisphere... it is squarely on the equator (so nearly half the country is northern hemisphere...) . The seasonality is not going to be as strong as it would be for a plant sourced from Peru or from southern Brazil.

I didn't get home early enough for decent light to photograph the SVO 7179t. Tomorrow.

But I did go admire both of them.

Cattleya warscewiczii SVO7179t, in a 3" / 7.5cm pot:

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I think there might be two seedlings in the pot. It appears as though there are two very small growths at the center of the pot, with two chains of progressively larger pseudobulbs growing in opposite directions. There is a new lead breaking at the base, which was not there when this plant arrived on July 7 of this year. It is at the far end of the pseudobulb chain opposite the newest, longest shoot.

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Edit: Almost each seedling Cattleya I got from Fred at SVO on July 7 has begun making a new lead. I find this is normal with plants from him. They are very vigorous and break new leads continuously during warm weather.

Nice! What are the parents?

From the current Sunset Valley Orchids Web page listing of species Cattleyas:

SVO 7179t
Cattleya warscewiczii (C. warscewiczii 'Stuart's Meteor' x C. warscewiczii 'Michael' AM/AOS)
This has to be my favorite labiate Cattleya species: Tall plants, huge flowers, and beautiful lips – what more could a grower want? I have been carefully collecting these for years and selecting the best quality flowers and plants for vigor, an important consideration with warscewiczii, as they are a bit slow to mature. 'Stuart's Meteor' is a very select plant from Stewart Orchid. It's a strong grower and produces 5-6 blooms per stem. 'Michael' has great form with large 7.5” flowers and grows well. Its roots and root system appear to be a bit more robust, too. These plants are growing well, and I expect good stems holding 4-7 large lavender flowers with full-formed lips and two yellow “eyes” in the throat. This desirable Cattleya species is not often seen for sale and can be very expensive when available. These protocorms were treated with oryzalin (t), a chemical that can double the number of chromosomes. The hope is that some of these will be tetraploids....

Sounds amazing! I have Fred's other warscewiczii (Bedford x self) and have been very happy with it. I bet his other ones will also be excellent.

Dammit again, it looks so good!! Maybe someone will send me a division in a few years. Hopefully my rexes will be good bargaining chips for trades, lol.

Lol they certainly would be if if if if if.

I just divided my warscewiczii... 😜😜

warscewiczii is a summer bloomer, right?

Yes.

They probably did mean it to be called 'Stuart's Meteor'. But wonder if it could have been 'Stewart's Meteor'. Or if the Stewart family had somebody named Stuart ----- as in Stuart Stewart.

Yep, but some varieties bloom in the early summer and some bloom later in the summer. It depends on where they're from.