Cattleya cernua
 

in bloom again - there is a hidden 3rd bud. This year I have 4 new growths, hopefully all will have blooms. 1 down, 3 to go. It spent summer outdoors and hasn't received a lot of fertiliser.
This was my project catt ( sophronitis cernua ) and a lot has happened since then - its grown considerably and I have flasks of my own selfing due in the next month or so.
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Such a pretty little flower!

Nice healthy plant, great orange flowers. Congrats!

Looks good! How do you water your cernua? It looks mounted and I'm assuming you're growing it inside!

Wonderful!

That's a beefy little plant. Looks like you have cernua culture perfected.

Awesome. This is a great plant. I watered mine by soaking it in a bucket of rain water and fertilizer until I for got about it for a couple of days. Now, no more ceruna. I can't seem to find them anywhere either. I was hoping H&R would offer them again but no such luck. Yours seem to like the cork. Mine was mounted on tree fern and it did well too. Just don't leave it in a fucket of water for a few days.

Beautiful plant, beautifully grown. The gray of the cork is the perfect backdrop for those dark green leaves and those salmon/orange blooms. SO pretty!

Very nice! I love this species and look forward to hearing about your seedlings.

So cute! I just ordered one from Gold Country Orchids and I'm super excited. Can you elaborate on your conditions? Especially, how cold does it get in your culture?

Thanks!

mine goes outdoors when temps are consistently about 60f. I think I found the perfect spot hanging in a shrub - with morning and then late afternoon sun. I hardly ever have to hose water it as rainfall seems sufficient. Then its back indoors into a shaded south-facing window for the rest of the year. Temps in the heated room don't go below 70f but do do go higher when its sunny outdoors. I have seen up to 85f....
However I think mine is kept cooler at the roots because of the mount and the mount stand. I have it hanging on a bottle full of playground sand and that is always a lot cooler. The roots touch the bottle in places..and still do well.
The cork mount has a number of holes through it and the roots crowded through. This was mounted in April 2012 and I think I cut the binding within 6 months as the roots are that strong. There is no moss backing.
As for watering - its roughly 1x per week and I drench water, using a small watering can, until the roots go green. The cork dries almost instantly. See photos.
I usually had 3 growths per year, now there's a 4th - in the middle of the plant- so my conditions in the last year must be just right.
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Nice to see your blooms! Your roots look really great! My cernua's roots never look that great. I think it might be because I forget about it most of the time. :|

Thanks for the cultural info!

My cernua came yesterday. I'm going to mount it on a piece of cork I've been saving as soon as it roots. If anyone from the SF Bay Area is growing this I'd love to hear about your experience. I don't grow a ton of species.

I am not from SF but, for me, this one has been very easy...so easy I usually forget completely that I have one until it blooms. :)

Drill a couple of scattered small diameter holes through the cork. The roots soon find them and crowd through. Its easier to water when the roots are able to spread out easily and are not covered by leaves. You can see by the photos - front side, roots so-so green - backside, roots nice and green when watered. The roots definitely prefer the smoother side, where its also darker ( less light ).

What a cutie.

An update. There are at least 6 new growths and a lot of new root development. I have started fertilizing ( very weakly ) and watering 2x per week.
The seedlings don't appear to be doing that well - maybe because they are slow growers anyway - but I think I haven't been watering them sufficiently. Also upgraded to 2x per week and we'll see if that's a help.
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Wow- like how the roots seem to like the holes you made, really nice mount😊

Lovely flower and the plant looks so cute and healthy😃👌🏻

I think the seedlings looks healthy, but never seen any to compare with though- so dont know.

that's a great little specimen, could appreciate your growing tips as well... Mine's been sitting there doing nothing for a year... actually it' blasted two new growths within that year, darn thing! So jealous!

I noticed that is very sensitive to spend more than a few hours with wet feet. Perhaps those planted in pots should be mounted on cork.

I tried 2 on cork. The roots didn't attach and after 2 months I put them back in pots. Maybe they need to be a certain size before mounting. I'll try again at a 5 growth stage.

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I tried 2 on cork. The roots didn't attach and after 2 months I put them back in pots. Maybe they need to be a certain size before mounting. I'll try again at a 5 growth stage.

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The seedlings look good for seedlings that size.

Wow your mounted one looks really good. I have one potted also. I have to water it every day. It grew a new leaf coming out of one of the leaves this fall and did have another growth. Now I'm just waiting for something new to happen. Someone said they don't have two leaves on one but mine does.

This truly is a care-free species. No bugs - ever ! I think my cultural conditions of maximum sunlight, quick drying cork and roots being kept cooler are just right. It will soon go outdoors and let's hope I get plenty blooms in Fall. I have just bought a catt jongeheana which is going to get the same treatment. Its a mini-catt with enormous flowers.

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Update - first of my cernua that has been outdoors for a while now. Lots of new roots and I see new pbulbs starting to form as well. Hopefully these eventually spike.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...48d7c128a3.jpg



Next - I selfed the above cernua a few years ago. The seedlings were not doing too well in pots so I have finally got round to mounting them all on a nice sized piece of cork. As with parent, no sphagnum cushion. I will leave the piece horizontal until the roots attach.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...1999bc51bd.jpg

I hope it will put on a good show for you, and us ;)

Mine has 2 new growths and one of them is looking like it's going to be larger than the rest of it's leaves. I am hoping it may bloom.

I found that S. cernua likes to be mounted on cholla wood. I had my first one mounted on it and had great roots.
I had mounted some seedlings last Sept. and I have taken pictures in Oct. 2015, Feb. 2016, and some today. I kept it in my orchidarium the whole time until this May took it outside hanging under a tree.

Pics didn't upload, uploaded in my next post.

Pics did get uploaded some how...