First Blooming Bud Watch: Cattleya walkeriana 4n
 

Made the mistake of only buying one of these guys this spring... should have bought more. Very vigorous walkeriana that puts out large growths and good roots. Did anyone else pick any of these plants up? How are yours growing?

C. walkeriana 'SVO Whopper' 4n x C. walkeriana 'SVO's Passion' 4n AM/AOS

https://i.imgur.com/0XTFaU7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DPyj1CO.jpg

I've got this one and it is about a week or two behind yours :)

It looks healthy and great. I bought one that bloomed fast but has a very ugly growth and is very small.

Very nice! There are surprisingly few spike photos online of walkeriana and nobilior. Thanks for posting this!

I noticed that when I was frantically searching for pictures of budding growths early on in the development. :lol:

You may catch up! Once those postal votes come in hehehe

I did get one but I am struggling with this one... it's put out 3 new growths earlier this year but they quickly turned black and died. I just had 3 new growths start in Oct, which 1 died again... still trying to figure out how to grow a walkeriana.

I'll enjoy yours vicariously - looks close!

Echo the thanks for the spike post and would like to request some more - do you have photos of when the spike first started to push out from the bulb?

Also, how long after the new bulb was complete did the spike start to grow? I'm staring at mine at the moment.

unfortunately I did not take pictures previous to this. this bulb was completed early/mid summer. this growth started in october. if you are trying to look how to tell whether its a specialized growth or not its very hard/impossible early on. once the growth develops a bit the specialized flower growth will have a protective outer leaf "hood" at the end wheras a new bulb will look a bit more spiky. my coerulea makes tiny leaves with its specialized growth so they look a bit different.

hope this helps.

---------- Post added at 07:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:00 AM ----------

they need lots of water and feed when they are growing. it sounds like your plant lacks calcium if they're going black on you. they need to be potted so you can give them ample water and fertilizer during these periods without rotting the roots.

Here is mine - it's actually doing better after I decreased the watering and feeding frequency. I have two growths going and you can see a few of the growths that died prematurely. Not sure if these are new p-bulbs or spikes, but I'm praying that it will live!

Mine is the reciprocal cross of yours. Cattleya walkeriana 'SVO's Passion' AM/AOS 4n x Cattleya walkeriana 'SVO Whopper' 4n