Cattleyas for cool climates

[Fernando]

Of course, and I would like to grow a blue Ceanothus here if only I could get one!

But you can not compare bushes (echium) or hapaxantic growth forms with epiphytes like orchids.
Our bushes are summer - heat - dormant and re-green with the first rain. These bushes don't mind if the summer stays wet, as long as there is dry air, sun and good ventilation. They thrive well in continuous wet and fresh conditions, like in our mountains in winter, when there is every day clouds, and fog, and rain (horizontal rain, mostly = condensed fog on the branches and leaves).
Orchids from semiarid regions need a dry and cold rest and rising humidity makes roots appear - than begins the rainy season - and the warmth.
I'm now trying to grow Dendrobium speciosum outside. But if you compare the rainfall pattern from Brisbane with ours - both more or less 28º latitude -, you'll notice that the rainy month are the warm months, there too.