Rescued Cattleya intermedia

[Toddybear]

Two years ago I was given this poor, sad Cattleya intermedia. Two years later the foliage is still very pale, regardless to what I do, but at least it managed to put out a single flower. maybe it's finally on the road to recovery.

[Magnus A]

Pale? !
Many Cattleya should have light green foilage! That meens that they get enough light! Dark green general mean to little light, the plant mass produce chlorophyl to harvest the little light it get. I would say that those leaf on the picture looks healthy!

[Frdemetr]

Todd,
I think Magnus is right; for me the picture shows a healthy C. intermedia.
Frederico

[Toddybear]

In fairness, the newest growths are greener than the old ones (which are not shown). The newer growths are smaller than the old yellow ones....I would think the newer ones would be starting to get larger now that they have a good root system (the plant had hardly any roots when I first got it)...perhaps I just need to be more patient. Frederico, being from the land of intermedia, you would recognize a healthy one...thanks to both of you for your kind comments.

[Barbara]

Very elegant flower, it's well on the road to recovery. Good rescue.

[Tindomul]

Thats a beautiful flower. Congrats on all you hard work. Nothing like helping a plant recover.

[Mahon]

Looks good! I agree about the leaves, typically most Cattleya species should have light green foliage. Also, size doesn't always matter (I'm talking orchids here! )... A very tall plant of a species may mean incorrect conditions (like too little light). I once had a Cattleya acklandiae with canes a little more than a foot long (which was AMAZING for this smaller species). WHEN it would produce flowers (it usually matured two growths within a year, giving two seasons to bloom), it would only produce one flower per growth. I put it in more sun, and the growths got smaller. Since the change, the plant produced 2 or 3 flowers per short cane, and was starting to ramble about on the mount. The plant looked healthy and great when the canes were very long, and looked sickly yellow and spotted with purple spots when I placed it in the sun. Pretty much the same story happened with the few rupiculous Laelia species I had (they needed more sun and got MUCH smaller as a result of the necessary change)...

Anyways, you have a great plant there, and a wonderful bloom!

-Pat

[Magnus A]

Todd, could you take a picture of the hole plant so we could see the difference you are wooried about. In your picture above the leaf looks good but we can not see the bulbs and new growth.
/Magnus

[orcdfrk]

Great color on that bloom. Leaf coloration looks normal to me too.

[Shadow]

Nice colour. I think the shape will improve next year.