Den Cathy Beck control plants first flowers

[jerrymeola]

It finally opened this morning. The cane is about 3 inches and the flower about one. It is much more maroon then I expected but it may change over the next week. I had expected more lavendar, although, we may get variation in seed grown plants.

I was surprised to see the petals were a darker solid color, whereas, the septals were light and trimmed in white as I expected.

It is a tough little plant. I though it would be fun to photograph it on a 5 inch Cattleya that is open, since the whole plant is smaller than the other flower. The balance did not work and the plant fell 3 feet. Fortunately the flowers were not broken.

The plant is now well rooted into the pot. It did not come out of the pot, only a little of the bark came off the top. All the roots are apparently adhering to the bark in the lower part of the pot.





A second control plant has put up a spike yesterday. Kortney is one of our younger members and was waiting for her income tax refund to join the project. She gets the second one in spike on Monday. Good things come to those who wait. And with orchids sometimes the wait can be long.

[orchid_girl]

Very nice!! Lovely color!!

[brandank]

The flower looks fantastic Jerry!

[articuno75]

I so can't wait for mine to bloom now! This is exciting!!! Kortney you are sooo lucky!!!

[solay]

Very pretty colors. Amazing to see such a small plant bloom.

[patticake]

Thanks for the photos, Jerry!! I can't wait for mine to bloom!! My new growth is good, but no signs of a spike yet. The color is a lot different from the pic.s that you originally posted. I can't wait to see everyone's results!

[patlee]

Ooooooooow, I can't wait til mine blooms. Your control is gorgeous--are you using worm tea on it still? I sometimes feel that the worm tea has something to do with the orchids putting on a more brilliant display than anticipated

[sandra]

tease, tease, tease! I can't wait now!

[Jirel]

So the bloom comes from the older plant and not the newer one?

[sandra]

Originally Posted by Jirel

So the bloom comes from the older plant and not the newer one?

Spiking on Dendrobiums occur on last year's canes and older. This years growth will spike next year.

[jerrymeola]

patlee

All the plants including the ones I shipped had been treated with worm tea and SuperThrive.

Since then they have been treated with a mixture of Worm Tea, Companion (pure bracillus bacteria for fungal inoculation, although I do not think Dendrobium need it I treated everything I own), and Essentials rooting hormone. This was by drenching since I was treating all my Cattleya for fungal rot.

I am spraying the entire greenhouse with this mixture every two weeks. This plant had budded before the extra treatment and after a lot of abuse with the greenhouse collapsing on it. I mentioned it another post that this was one of the smallest plants I own. The second one that budded this week was a larger plant (all of a 4 inch high cane).

The small new growth on the plant was not there when the buds first appeared, and it is nice to see new growth while a plant is in bloom. This often indicates the possibility of blooming more than once a year.

Most of the plants I shipped had flowered last year but this was a first time for this plant.