A Portrait of Cattleya Portia
I've had lots of help trying to identify this Catt. and it's been fun, but a little frustrating. Fortunately, I ran into the owner of the nursery that I bought it from, and he told me it was the last one of several old Portias he had inherited a few years ago and dragged out the tag from a bunch of old ones he had in a drawer. No clonal name, though. The original owner hybridized many catts, so perhaps this is the result of one of his bowringiana/labiata experiments.
It desperately needs to be divided and repotted, but I hate to break it up. I just noticed today for the first time that it has a lovely, delicate scent.
There are 10 blooms on the top spike and 8 on the lower one, with a good 5" natural spread. I wish I could keep it in bloom longer, but it's starting to fade even now.
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