"Got a feeling '21 is gonna be a good year..." -OR- catasetums of this year
 

kudos if you get the song reference in the title!


so i started this year a wee bit dissapointed with all female blooms but then i got one male flower and have since gotten another all female spike Buuuuuuuut,,, there are some more on the way....

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e17fc3ab_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...56282848_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5366d314_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bb4df2c0_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...61b8552f_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...29406930_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr

Looking good! Just look out for those curly-tails! And the season is still young - these are just the earliest ones, and those plants very likely will do another spike or two later in the season too, especially the bigger plants.

NICE!

No winner-winner, chicken-dinner here. My mind shifted over to yesteryear, thinking about 4 Beatles on a rooftop in England singing the songs off their last album... "I've got a feeling, a feeling deep inside, oh yeah!"

Nice one!!

---------- Post added at 05:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:36 PM ----------

Pardon my ignorance, but I know nothing about Catasetum, and have not taken the time to read for the answer. How do you tell the difference between male and female flowers? And why is one preferable over the other?

Mind fog... don't know how I missed the other Brit fab 4. Especially since Entwistle is one of my favorite bass players.

fingers crossed the year still ends ok. Thx for showing your experiment DC. All I have going on is a few seedlings and I tried pollinating a flower which didn't work so not much in terms of experimenting going on, not that I have the time anyway at the moment. So does one try to pollinate the flowers with each other or why the need for the male flowers? Will you try growing out the seed?

The male flowers are the showy ones. On Catasetums they're easy to identify by the pollinia triggers (don't stick your face in front of them unless you're wearing glasses.. they can shoot with considerable intensity, you don't want them sticking to your eyeball! ) The females all pretty much look alike - like little helmets with the petals below. Pollinaters clearly can identify which is which, but to the human eye, if you have seen one you have seen them all... maybe a bit of variation in color but that's it. A plant can produce either one, and occasionally both on the same inflorescence.

Wow, that's a lot of happy plants! Great growing!

Black jade is opening gracefully, slowly….building the excitement as only a true performer can!!