| A cattleya can bloom in several different ways:
1) When the new leaf (leaves) of a new growth open there may be a sheath inside. The buds form inside the green sheath until they are too big and the sheath splits and the buds come out.
2) Same as above but the sheaths dry up and turn brown with the buds waiting to grow and emerge for one or several years.
3) Same as #1 above but when the new leaves open, there is no sheath and the new buds are already out and forming.
The length of time this takes varies greatly. I have a cattleya hybrid that reliably flowers every 6 months. It takes about 8-10 weeks (which to mee seems on the fast side) for the flowers to go from small buds in sheath to open flowers. But as I have mentioned in #2 above, sometimes the buds won't develop for a year or more.
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