Cattaleya species - opinions please

[Ron-NY]

I was browsing Cattleya species today and thought, If I could only keep one Cattleya Orchid species, what would it be? I love Cattleya walkeriana and could do a collection around just this one species with it's varieties. I thought getting some opinions would be fun.

If you could just grow one Cattleya species what would it be and why?

Here is a list of Cattleya species for you to chose from
Cattleya aclandiae
Cattleya amethystoglossa
Cattleya araguaiensis
Cattleya aurantiaca
Cattleya aurea
Cattleya bicolor
Cattleya bowringiana
Cattleya deckeri
Cattleya dolosa
Cattleya dormaniana
Cattleya dowiana
Cattleya eldorado
Cattleya elongata
Cattleya forbesii
Cattleya gaskelliana
Cattleya granulosa
Cattleya guttata
Cattleya harrisoniana
Cattleya intermedia
Cattleya iricolor
Cattleya jenmanii
Cattleya kerrii
Cattleya labiata
Cattleya lawrenceana
Cattleya leopoldii
Cattleya loddigesii
Cattleya lueddemanniana
Cattleya luteola
Cattleya maxima
Cattleya mendelii
Cattleya mooreana
Cattleya mossiae
Cattleya nobilior
Cattleya patinii
Cattleya percivilliana
Cattleya porphyroglossa
Cattleya quadricolor
Cattleya rex
Cattleya schilleriana
Cattleya schofieldiana
Cattleya schroederae
Cattleya skinneri
Cattleya tenuis
Cattleya trianae
Cattleya velutina
Cattleya violacea
Cattleya walkeriana
Cattleya warneri
Cattleya warscewiczii

[tucker85]

Many growers have success with Cattleya walkeriana but the flowers would always fail to mature on the two plants I had. After several years I finally gave up on them. Cattleya violacea is also very tricky to bloom. I would also stay away from Cattleya amethystoglossa which needs to get quite large before it will bloom and the blooms don't last very long. Cattleya intermedia, Cattleya loddigesii, Cattleya jenmanii, Cattleya percivaliana and Cattleya maxima have all been easy for me to grow. Cattleya lueddemanniana, Cattleya trianae and Cattleya mossiae have beautiful traditional type blooms but I've never grown any of them. I don't think they're difficult though. Good luck with choosing just one.

[Ron-NY]

Thanks Jeff but I actually was asking that question of our members to see which one they would grow if they only could grow one species. I have 4 or 5 walkers. They do well for me & are not big plants.

If you could just grow one Cattleya species what would it be and why?

[leafmite]

I am guessing I would go with the aclandiae. I love the size and the fragrance.
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[jhodgson]

Tough for me to pick. The Cattleya species that seem to thrive the best in my sunroom are labiata, percivaliana, lueddemanniana, trianae and skinneri. But I don't have a favorite at the present time.

labiata - grows extremely well for me, but my mature plant wants to go through a third growing cycle in the fall which seems to diminish the flower count. I have a couple of near blooming size plants that seem to have a more normal growth cycle so I hoping the flower count is higher on them.

percivaliana - easiest cattleya I have to grow. My growing conditions are a warm summer with cool winter which seems to be perfect for this plant. The drawback to this plant is it has only one growth cycle per year, but it does send out several leads in the cycle. Beautiful flowers, but my plants seem to have a wet latex paint scent (that is tolerable to me).

lueddemanniana - even with my cool winter conditions, the plants I have do well. Two growths per year, and blooms in the spring. However, the flower count is not high, but the flowers are extremely fragrant.

trianae - grows well for me, with two growth cycles per year. So far I have not been able to get flowers to fully develop. The buds fill the sheath but then die. The best I can tell this may be due to the sudden cooler temperatures in my sunroom from fall to winter. I will keep trying!

skinneri - again grows well. The drawback is the flowers do not last long and have no scent.

[Lizgeo]

Geez, Ron, how can I only pick one? It's harder than picking your favorite kid...

When it comes to orchid purchasing, I am as compulsive as it gets, often not realize what I really bought until I got home.

[Roy]

Ron, you pose an interesting question. I suppose it depends on your choice on color & flower count per spike.
Stretching my personal likes & dislikes, C. guttata/leopoldii/tigrina would be my choice. Flower colors vary greatly & they have a wonderful head of flowers on a mature plant. They do grow tall which is a possible downside.

BTW, C. Dolosa is a natural hybrid, not a species.

[coeruleo]

so we can only choose one... seems real hard, but judging by the size of species catts, who has room for a second in real life? i've only had one real cattleya, a huge bowringiana. the first time it flowered i got rid of it because the flowers were pink. and it was a huge honker of a plant. cut it into 4 huge plants and gave it away. all i have now is a lc trick or treat, and it's small. beautiful orange flowers... and i have a lc canhamiana seedling. but if i had to get another cattleya species, i'd go with velutina... it's spotty, red & orange are my colors, and fragrant, plus i can keep it outside. or maybe a deep red leopoldii.

[Halloamey]

No second thoughts, in such a scenario (god forbid hehe) I would definitely go for Cattleya labiata, just this one species has so many color and pattern forms that it could make a big colorful collection. My real choice though would be Cattleya purpurata (earlier Laelia) as it comes in a much greater variety and a much better flower count, but I do not see it mentioned in the list above.

[stateless]

Cattleya aclandiae