Fdk. Kelly Longley first bloom
 

I've been about dying with anticipation over this one. I've wanted one of the "black" flowering orchids for a while, so I was really excited to see this on the SVO list last year. I'd been thinking about giving something in the Catasetinae alliance a try anyway.

I was going to just buy the one plant but the minimum order requirement delayed that . . . and then it occurred to me that my birthday was approaching, so I asked my mom if she'd buy me plants instead of books. (I sent her a list of 3 and ended up with 4, because Fred put an extra in!)

The spike started in mid-November, and the buds got to full size in about mid-January - and they were only partly dark, which I know was a possibility for this cross. And they sat there and sat there and did not open, but they got darker and darker and finally, this is what they are. :)

It was fun watching how the angle of the bloom relative to the spike changed so much, especially over the last 3 days - they started easing open on Friday, and I think this morning two of them may be as open as they'll get.

I like how backlighting shows how deep a red they are.

(Edited to add another picture to better show the angle change. I hope.)

They are as 'black' as I guess you can get - very nice.

Beautiful! And (perhaps belated) Happy Birthday!

Lovely blooms, and nice pictures too! Congratulations.

Beautiful! Your mom is a peach, too.

Thanks all :)

Yes, my mom was a very good sport about it! (Of course I emailed her some photos today.)

Happy Birthday! Great present! The Begonia is also beautiful.

Thanks! Despite being a rex, the begonia has been very easy to keep happy.

If either of you would like a nice elephant ear begonia I could send you one come spring.

Ohh, one of my other weaknesses. Sounds like that one could get big, eventually - yes, I'm very interested :) Thank you!

The Kelly Longley now has some quite interesting fragrance. I'm not good with descriptions - it's kind of a light/bright scent. There's general "floral" scent and something - I want to say it's peppery, at least in part, but there's something else going on there I can't get a good handle on. It reminds of some kind of candy or cookie I've had in the past. Maybe kind of an anise scent? Citrus? Anyway, it's really nice, though it's traveling far from the plant. Right now I don't detect it until I've got my nose up near the flowers.

The sun was out yesterday, and illuminated the flowers wonderfully: