Encyclia boothiana
I put this plant on my wish list after seeing a pic somewhere or other , and looked for it for years ; found it maybe three years ago - this is certainly the second flowering for me. The flowers turn out to be much smaller than I thought ; I had an inch or maybe a little bigger in mind, these are only half that , or 15mm, natural; spread.
Probably it is a variable species , and it just happens that the one I have is at the small end. But I have never seen it again, so this is what I have and will keep.
I think it is pretty, and of course having five spikes ( three seen here, the other two not quite so far advanced, but out in a week or two, I imagine) helps out. The pot by the way is a 5 inch net pot ; only the top half is used by the roots, although maybe they will go further when the next set of growths start.
It is a bit of a tease, this plant ; when the bulbs first form they are rather smaller, and I think "what have I done wrong ?" but they go on enlarging until the point when spathes form . There are actually seven leads now -0 up from the 4 when I bought it ; two of the bulbs have aborted spathes - those bulbs are a bit smaller ; hopefully the next growths will make flowering size bulbs, and i may get up to 7 spikes next year.... ever the optimist - thats me.
I have found this a very difficult plant to photograph. I suppose all small flowered plants are, and needing a depth of field of several inches, yet needing to be quite close, is part of the problem. Lighting it so that shadows from the front don't darken the back was the other part. I used a ring-light ( made up of a ring of LEDs, like a ring-flash, in the end, and needed a lot of tries to get it near right. Thank goodness for digital photography - using roll film the pics would have cost more than the plant !.
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