Cattleya amethystoglossa palha 'Gloriosa' x 'Palhinha'
 

Gets better each year!

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4719/...f84479dd_b.jpgCattleya amethystoglossa palha 'Gloriosa' x 'Palhinha' by Stephen Van Kampen-Lewis, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4714/...5da26724_b.jpgCattleya amethystoglossa palha 'Gloriosa' x 'Palhinha' by Stephen Van Kampen-Lewis, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4708/...286fae00_b.jpgCattleya amethystoglossa palha 'Gloriosa' x 'Palhinha' by Stephen Van Kampen-Lewis, on Flickr

A beauty

Love, love, love, the spots!

Wow!

I am in love. That's a feast for the eyes and the spirit. Great photo. thanks for sharing!

Steve, those are beautiful and elegant flowers!:)

Wow that is really something!

Fantastic flowers!

Is that worth taking in for judging?

awesome flower and great pictures..... I have a dream to grow a few amethystoglossas to 3 ft tall and have massive blooms, hopefully similar to yours... thank you for posting

Now that is stunning! This is my first winter with mine, it’s still a very small plant in a 2” pot and the largest growth is about 6”. Do you have any winter care tips? I have been giving mine a little sip of plain r/o water about once every two weeks and that, with my high humidity, have kept any sort of shriveling at bay. So do Im thinking I’ll just wait for some new growth to appear before I resume normal watering and fertilizing? Also, something I read was that people found this species to have only one new growth per year instead of growing in multiple directions with 2 or 3 leeds. Have you noticed this on yours?

Nice one Steve!

I'll be glad when my supposed alba decides to spike or at least a blind sheath would be a good starting point.

Now that's a stunner. Great growing.

Outstanding job there, Esteban (figure, being in Texas, you should by now have learned at least your name in Espanol :-).

Steve

Yes and no! I think these flowers have a shot at being awarded and will enter the plant in the Austin show next weekend, though I doubt it will be awarded this year. I'm curious to see what the other judges think.

Growing this plant under lights during the winter caused more flowers on one side of the spike than the other, which detracts from the presentation's symmetry. Having more flowers on the spike will also increase the chances of being awarded, so I think next year has a better shot.


My amethystoglossas don't seem to stop growing! I've got maturing growths on both my plants. I stop fertilizing and water once per week during this time of year, but I see no reason to make the plant stay really dry. Less water during the cold season makes sense to prevent rot, but you can probably water a bit more often.

Ha! Actually, I lived in Tucson from 1996-2002 and had plenty of friends call me Esteban! I actually think Esteban flows better off the tongue that Steve. ;);)

---------- Post added at 04:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:33 PM ----------

I should mention that I'll be selfing this plant after the show. Hopefully I'll have a ton of seedlings!

SaraJean, I have a growing room that is frequently quite warm during winter days. A lot of plants, including bifoliate Cattleyas, continue to grow when they're "not supposed to."

Oh, I forgot to ask you for the measurements of the plant (not the blooms). It looks to be a fairly beefy plant (which, I know to be the habit of this species when it's grown well). What is the height and diameter of the largest pseudobulb? Leaf length and width?

Thanks--and sorry for being a pain by asking you to go out in the middle of winter for this (oh, wait, you're in Texas so "winter" isn't really winter, right?).

This plant is actually the smaller of my two amethystoglossa and is probably on 2n. My polyploid plant (likely 3n since its from H&R) is easily twice as big and put out its first spike this year, which I promptly snapped off by accident. :((:((:((:((

Anyway, the amethystoglossa in this thread is outgrowing its 6.5" pot, the currently blooming bulb is 20" tall (but put out its first sheath on an 11.5 inch bulb), 0.5" wide and has leaves about 8" long and 3.25" wide.

I remember seeing H&R polyploid amethystoglossa at shows when I lived in Hawaii. Those bulbs (more like canes) were about half the thickness of my wrist and likely stood 4-5' tall, not including the pot. Amazing!

You're not kidding! I planted all my seeds outside today and put in some mature vines as well. Winter was brutal this year and lasted about 2 weeks. ;);)

---------- Post added at 04:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:25 PM ----------

I agree. The bifoliates seem to be more opportunistic in their growing habits than a lot of other orchids with defined seasonal growth. They seem to grow whenever given the conditions to do so.

Gorgeous. I love the flowers and almost bought one a few years ago...until I realized how large it became. Thank you for sharing your beauty! :)

That’s really interesting about the continued growth. I just checked my little amethystoglossa and it does have a new growth starting. I’ll try watering it a bit more for the rest of this winter and see what happens. This has been my first year of growing bifoliate species (or any sort of Cattleya, for that matter..) so I’ve just been trying to observe my little guys and take notes for the most part. Thanks!