My first Cattleya from ebay
 

I received my first Cattleya which I ordered from eBay. It is an Rlc Mieko Araki ‘Volcano Queen’. There are two new growth shoots on it. There are roots growing out of the bottom along with drier shriveled stringy roots.

It arrived in a 4” pot with a second plant, an oncidium Sharry Baby ‘Red Fantasy’ packed in a long box, wrapped in a silver padded outer insulation wrapping enclosing individual paper nets, each one wrapped around rolled outer bubble wrap and newspaper rolled around the individual plant with shredded newspaper, slightly damp, packed around and within the leaves. I was impressed with the care and neatness of the packing of the plants.

I am so new that I can’t appraise the plants. Though I do know the smattering of tiny speckled black spots on the Sharry Baby are something I need to watch. Maybe it’s because the shredded newspaper was a bit damp? I read it can be typical?

I isolated both plants from each other and from my other plants. They came from Florida and I am in dry southwestern Colorado at high altitude. I watered them throughly. Now I will let them dry out. It’s very dry air in Colorado. My other orchids are Phalaenopsis.

What do you think? Can you see the new growth? Is it going to be a new pseudobulb? Can you tell how far away from blooming the Catt is? Years? Do you think it has bloomed before? Am I starting with a healthy plant? I think I need to move it off the window sill because it’s southwest facing. I am so excited!

The Cattleya has not bloomed before. It is impossible to say how far it is from BS. Some hybrids bloom this size, others need to be 2.0 to 2.5 times as tall.

Small black spots on foliage of intergeneric Oncidiums is common. Don't worry about it.

Thank you, Fairorchids, for your expertise. I love the orchids and I am patient and in for the long haul. I hope to learn what these two will like, and that I can keep them happy. I have the orchid bug.

It looks like a very healthy cattleya, and nicely shaped too.

The new growth that I can see in photo 2 is most definitely going to become a pseudobulb. It looks to be about 1 to 1.5 inches long. In my climate that would take about 3 months to reach its ultimate size. Then it will harden off a bit and it’s likely that as it’s early in the season another new lead will emerge from its base.

P.S. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Sharry Baby without black spots on the leaves.

Arron

Nice Catt and good choice. Do you plan on repotting since it's got new growth? How does medium look?

Thank you, Aaron, for answering my questions. There’s so much to learn! I hadn’t thought about plant shape before, consciously. So now that’s on my radar.

I don’t think that little growth is that long more like between a quarter inch and half an inch. There’s another one that long, and a third one, too, but the third one is older with a dark dried up spot on the end. Now I am going to learn over time about how the catts grow. It’s fun and exciting.

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Oh, Waterwitchin, I got lucky making a good choice. I got nervous about ordering from eBay before I found this board and the advice not to. I am glad I did ok. Beginner’s luck. We’ll see if it likes it here. A few more are coming, too. It’s so easy to get carried away with orchids. When I got that taste a few years ago by my friend, I vowed to get involved with again one day.

Repotting... hmmm. The roots are coming out of the bottom of the pot, too. And it has trouble sitting upright because of that. The medium is fir bark in big chunks and some porous rocks that stay fairly wet. First, I think I need to let it adjust to this place... Colorado is a whole different world and elevation than Florida. It was in a box being shipped for four days. It looks ok right now, but if orchids are anything like me, they might have a delayed reaction. Haha. So, I will think about it again in a couple of weeks. Do you think that’s ok? Or do I need to act fast if I am going to repot?

No harm in waiting a couple of weeks. Everything happens sloooowly in the orchid world. Use those couple of weeks to 1) get your confidence going and 2) think about how you want to repot.

And another piece of advice. If you're new to orchid growing, don't get too many different genus at once. Research and get ones you believe will do well in your conditions/culture. Then branch out as you gain knowledge.

Paul, that made me laugh... about the black flecks on the oncidium.

Waterwitchin’, oh, my goodness, you’re probably right... but the greenhouse potential plus the good light I have inside the house has me all enthusiastic. I have been here since November. It’s been a long harsh winter by myself caring for my horses in snow and mud. Spring is about to pop. So, here I am... shopping for orchids. Hahaha... how much restraint do you think I will have? Especially since my kind father-in-law sent me a generous surprise check? Ut oh...

So, a few catts, oncidiums and a Dendrobium. They will be ok. I already have four phals. The latest a supermarket rescue that is finally coming around. I ordered a couple of cool humidifiers, cheap ones, and cheap humidity monitors.

Eeekkkk... I have the bug. It’s better than when my late husband and I got it for horses. That was 30 years ago, and I still have 3. I will always have horses... but just not 10. I will slow down now with the orchids and learn. Thank you for pulling on the reins. Heh.

If you want to go diverse, rather than specialize, try to find an orchid show. I’m pretty new but have so far been successful with a relatively diverse array of genera. When I go to shows, I set myself a price limit per plant (I don’t want anything too painful $ to lose). Then if I see a plant I really like at an acceptable price, I talk to the vendor about care and what conditions I would be subjecting it to. Sometimes they’ll steer me to a different plant or suggest things I could tweak to maximize survival chances.

The plants are so diverse even within genera that you can find a ton a different plants that need conditions that would work for something like a Cymbidium or a Phalaenopsis or a Cattleya. If you can get your Sherry Baby happy and growing, pretty much any Oncidium intergeneric would be fair game. It’s worked for me so far, although there is always an impulse buy or two when I go to shows that I get home and wonder what I was thinking.