upgrading orchids?
 

I recently got C. Swingtime Dancer. I wanted a large flowered white Catt. I got to looking around and noticed there is a Catt by the name of Jose Marti 'Mother's Favorite' that supposedly has a more compact growing habit. My plant has two to three inches between pbulbs while Jose Marti seemingly has a lot less space and still has large fragrant white flowers. Would you do the upgrade? Maybe there is someone here with personal experience.

Are you really asking if you should buy the smaller plant and dispose of the larger one? If that is your question, I do that all the time. I give away plants that no longer hold interest, or they are too big, or they are too difficult to grow and need better homes.

In the past six months I have become interested in Laelia rupicolous orchids from Brasil. They are like the bigger Cattleya but you can grow several plants of different form and flower color in the space of one standard plant. There are Vanda alliance, and Dendrobium, and Oncidium plants that are also smaller in size that I've started collecting and getting rid of their larger cousins.

The flowers on both of those hybrids are similar, just minor differences in shape/form.

If the question is limited growing space, and you only have room for one plant of this type, then yes, I would consider getting the Jose Marti 'Mother's Favorite'. You can gift the other plant to someone, trade, sell it on Ebay, etc.

The picture in my avatar is C. Jose Marti 'Mother's Favorite'. I had it for a few years but gave it away to a friend. It was a huge sprawling plant that was too big for my growing area. I trade up all the time. I'll buy a plant that I think is better, then I'll wait a year or two to make sure it's what I want and then give away my older, less desirable plant. Sometimes the old one turns out to be better. I haven't found the perfect white cattleya yet but I had a NOID that was close. I have a few white cattleyas on my list of possible purchases.
C. Ranger Six 'A-OK"
C. Ruth Gee
C. William Gee
C. Sierra Blanca 'Mt Whitney'

You diddnt like Jose marti then tucker? Was it a family compact growing plant? What do you mean by sprawling?

I liked the way it bloomed. It held the flowers up high over tips of the leaves. the flowers were large and usually three to a spike. I don't remember the exact size of the flowers. The plant was a full size standard cattleya, not what I would call compact. Mine only had a light fragrance, not very strong. When I say sprawling, I mean the pseudo-bulbs weren't close together. The new growths spread out more instead of growing in close. Mostly I gave it away because it was a huge plant and I had another NOID white that bloomed at the same time and I liked it a little better although it had smaller flowers. Jose Marti is a very nice orchid. I would have kept it if it was the only white I had blooming that time of year. My other white has smaller flowers but self supporting flower spikes that don't need to be staked. It also held the flowers at a perfect angle for presentation. It's very fragrant too. I'm sure you would enjoy Jose Marti. It seems like most white cattleyas are good reliable bloomers.

I am also 'upgrading' orchids for their smaller cousins. First it was the Oncidiums, then the Dendrobiums, and now, currently, it is the Cattleyas. I do love the white C. Mossaie so that will stay but the Jose Marti is going. I just don't have the space for both. I've also given away the C. schroederae seedling and bought the C. gaskelliana instead as it is a smaller cattleya and still has that 'delicate' look. Lately, I have been finding new homes for large cattleyas just to make space. I didn't realize how large my seedlings would get until I began seeing them at our Orchid Society meetings. They were huge! But there are smaller, fragrant cattleya species and often you can find them in the alba/white form. Good luck!

Tim, Jose Marti is also known for having lots of flowers. When you look up award winning cattleyas they usually have 4 or 6 flowers at the time of judging. The awards for Jose Marti show 24 flowers on one award and 36 flowers on another. That's a lot of flowers even on a big plant.

Thanks for the info! I think I'll try it. Your knowlege is so amazing! Eventually I would like to get a bench of five or six full sized catts. Getting the most flower power out of a plant with limited space is paramount though :) I might get Jose Marti and keep both white catts at least for a trial spell if not permanently. Either way it will stay in the family. Another idea I had was to get a white Catt that will bloom per each season. One for fall one for winter etc. I love the white catts so much. I'll have to get a tangarine and a coral colored one at some point. Maybe a semi alba.

I have a Jose Marti blooming now. I got it last summer, I think it's huge. I love it, however I, at least for now, have room for it. I would like to get another big one.

I love all my orchids but when this thing bloomed it was like........the King at last :bowing :rofl: Ok that may sound strange but wow it is huge! It is 6 inches across and if I pull out the tips of the side petals it is 7 1/4 inches.

It is in an 8 1/2 inch pot and I had one hell of a time this winter finding a pot big enough to re-pot it in, but I finally did. I want to keep it this big for a while to see if I can get an outstanding display. But before I could get it potted I noticed that it indeed was going to bloom. So I was afraid to re-pot, in hind sight I probably should have, it may have helped it.

I have a tendency to underwater, even though I am trying very hard to do it right. So I let this dry to much and one sheath dried up, there were 3 going to bloom. Then it lost the other buds inside the sheath so I only have one flower on each one. I think they smell great.

As soon as it is done I am going to re-pot and put picture up as I had a thread on it but....well then the buds happened. Allot of people were trying to help me so when I do it I will post. Here are my blooms and I will try to do the plant also. But sometimes this will not let me post more than 2 pictures at a time.







Opps that last one is not Jose