Slc Love Castle x C Candy Tuft

[Piper]

This is a compact floof. It's actually a flying compact floof - this is the soccer ball I was kicking around my living room in April.

While recovering from knee surgery, I mishandled pots from time to time and this guy got unpotted and then sat bare root on my kitchen counter for about two weeks (standing to repot was difficult then). I threw a damp paper towel over the roots from time to time. I was tempted to just toss it (out) since it had been growing like a weed in the 14 months I had it, but had never rebloomed.

I finally repotted it and as I was putting it back, I tripped and tossed the pot again. At this point, ready to cry, I repotted it yet again. Three days later I noticed a bud! (Talk about tough love). I would have expected many more buds, but I'm sure the vacation on the kitchen counter effected that.

Anyway, it is a pretty little thing (3" flower), despite a slight inward curl of its lower lip.

Julie

[bench72]

That is very lovely Julie, glad you didn't throw it out...

So, do you think that the stint on the kitchen table was like a "rest period". It seems to me that many of these Cattleya alliance plants go into a rest period during the dry period in their natural environment. So I guess just having a damp paper towel is like the drier period...

Or is this more like the plant thinking, "I'm gonna die.. aaaargh! I'm gonna kark it, so I better make for babies!"?



Cheers
Tim

p.s. I guess the point is should I throw my 'chids around or just with-hold water!

[Piper]

Interesting question Tim, but I suspect the latter is more likely the case. That bud was there big as life as soon as the sucker was back in its pot. It had to be thinking, "this here's got to be a shot across my bow and I'm now a probie. If I don't cough up some excuse to be spared, it's the salad shooter for me (or worse, given her spasticity...)"

I really think if it had been happily watered I'd have had bunch more buds. I bought it in bloom in Feb '04 and I think it had 8 flowers at the time. The way the things been putting out leaves and roots, I've been hanging on (and on and on) hoping for a really spectacular bloom.

I think what's going on is that the conditions in an apt. windowsill (I don't put them out in the summer) are so very different from the grow houses that new aquisitions are aclimated to, that their blooming schedule goes right out the window (or across the living room floor, as it were.) I patiently wait twelve months. Then twelve and a half, then twelve and three-quarters and start thinking the sucker's crapped out on me. This one hadn't bloomed for fifteen months, and I knew the light and water levels were fine. (Till the mishap.)

So much for my impatience. Ya hear that, the rest of you? (Addressed to the plants around me, not fellow forum members...)

Put up or you're sports equipment!!!

Pele

[LJA]

Well hell, I'd curl my lower lip too if you did that to me.












Nice one!

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Hi Julie!

Beautiful catt.

We all guess sometimes why some plants bloom in one location and others similar to the ones that bloom will not. I wonder if it could be the stress of being moved to another location that caused it to produce a bud?

Withholding some water and food, and/or changing the level/amount of light can both cause stress for an orchid. I'll venture to guess that if the plant was growing lots of new leaves and roots while it was potted and located in good light, it was "satisfied" and felt in did not need to reproduce. The conditions were right to grow. Once you gave it a "kick in the seat of the pants" and it ended up on the kitchen counter in a different kind of light where it was not getting the regular amounts of water and food, well it may have stressed the plant enough to make it bloom.

I am not suggesting that we stress the orchids that are not blooming, but we have had some success by simply changing where we grow certain plants in our greenhouse. For instance, about three summers ago, Lou after repotting and dividing many of our old catts, hung them up high in the greenhouse-- which in turn gave us more bench space. The light is much better up there for the catts and the plants we put under them on the bench got more shade. BOTH seem to be much happier and the catts did bloom lots more than they did before being raised up into the light.

So, that is my guess. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if you had two of the exact same cross, growing side by side, and only changed the one.

Gosh, I was just going to say how pretty the bloom was, guess I still need my morning coffee. LOL!

Cheers,
BD

[RSJ]

Gorgeous bloom, Julie. Tell me, does she smell good? I found my Slc cross to be "barely" scented and wondered if that is an Slc trait?

And Bruce, if that's how much you can share "without coffee", I can imagine how fast your students think you talk "after coffee"!

RSJ

[Piper]

Thanks all!

Ronnie-Sue, you guessed it - it has the slightest hint of a fragrance late afternoon, but it requires a good nose and a good imagination to smell it.

Julie

[Diane]

Well, I guess the orchid world is smaller than I thought. I had an ACL replacement done end of February and had to beg friends and neighbors to help tend my babies for a couple of weeks. Hard to handle pots when you are on crutches.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

And Bruce, if that's how much you can share "without coffee", I can imagine how fast your students think you talk "after coffee"!

RSJ

Ronnie-Sue, I am sure my students could tell you plenty of stories... It seems like I never have enough time in class to cover everything I want to cover.

Cheers!
BD

[Gin]

That's a beauty Julie , wanna come to my house for a game of kick pot on second thought not a good idea :badidea: Thanks for sharing her . Gin