(Cattleya) Laelia purpurata blooms

[nemesis]

Can someone please tell me generally, how long Laelia purpurata blooms last. They have only been out 1 week and I think they must have blasted. scent is gone and flowers are wilting.
Filtered bright light
70% humidity.
Grown in Orchiata bark...large.
72 degrees F
Good watering schedule. F.
Plant looks very healthy and has been on Ray's regime of Kelpak, Quantum Total, and K-lite.
Thanks,
Kelly

[Roberta]

Mine tend to last a week to 10 days, sometimes as much as 2 weeks. Not terribly long-lived

[ebrookmi]

Mine just finished blooming, my blooms lasted about 15 days. A week doesn't seem unreasonable to me though. I'd agree with Roberta, 1-2 weeks is typical!

[SouthPark]

I agree ----- 10 days up to approximately 2 weeks is about right. Even if 7 days only, that's not too bad ----- at least it's not like the short open times of say the beautiful but very short-lived night flowering cactii hehehe

Plenty of time to take lots of nice pics in a week!

[avian]

How do I get mine to bloom? They are blooming size, outdoors in bright light, putting out new growth and roots, and look healthy.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by avian

How do I get mine to bloom? They are blooming size, outdoors in bright light, putting out new growth and roots, and look healthy.

Not sure that I could shed any light on that problem... I totally do nothing to mine. Don't even protect them from rain. Fertilize very little and not that regularly. Some ugly leaves, but they seem to thrive on neglext.

[tmoney]

Originally Posted by avian

How do I get mine to bloom? They are blooming size, outdoors in bright light, putting out new growth and roots, and look healthy.

totally with you! this is the one plant we have not been able to bloom. keeps growing, but never looks great. i think i'm gonna do like you and throw it outside with the rest of the trash!!

[estación seca]

tmoney... what kind of light does it get Fall through Spring? If your natural daylength, that's not enough.

[tmoney]

Originally Posted by estación seca

tmoney... what kind of light does it get Fall through Spring? If your natural daylength, that's not enough.

yeah, natural light only. in winter we had it right in the south window.

well, boo. this was one of the first plants we bought when we didn't know better and thought all orchids were the same. maybe time to rehome it since we don't plan on getting lights anytime soon....

[estación seca]

You'll have trouble blooming lots and lots of orchids with such short days. They're tropical plants with much longer winter days than yours. Many, from tropical deciduous forest and monsoonal climates, expect more light in winter than summer.

I was in Frankfurt once at midsummer. At the botanical garden they had multiple high-pressure sodium lights focused from outside the greenhouse onto some cacti inside. The cacti (Astrophytum) were placed as close to the glass and lamps as possible. I asked the gardeners why they did that. They said the cacti would not flower reliably without the supplemental light.