Ctt. Tiny Treasure "Star Amethyst"
Flowers just 3 inches across, natural spread, and the lip is a brighter, truer yellow than seen here.
This grex ( Tiny Treasure) has been awarded half a dozen times, for as many different clones. Orchidwiz pictures seem to show that this clone is the darkest pink , amethyst, or whatever you might call it, other clones are paler but with bigger flowers or wider petals. There is one other clone I would buy if I saw it offered where the end half of the lip is a dark red.
In the case of the award for my clone, it got that shown with 5 flowers - which I think would be very good indeed.
I think I have had this plant for 3 growing seasons, although this is the first flowering - installing supplementary lighting over my cattleyas almost an year ago has made a huge difference to the culture. It is not only that we have short dark winter days when catts just don't grow ( without added light) but also that my greenhouse is hidden between a 10 ft high hedge along one side on the boundary of my garden - and the greenhouse top is only about 7 feet above ground , the floor being 3 feet below ground, and on the opposite side there is a similar although a bit lower "wall" of greenery to hide the greenhouse from the house itself; which of course means that it gets very little direct sun until the equinox, since the sun does not rise very high in the sky to reach over the hedge etc until then.
The lighting is 600 watt "dual spectrum" lights on light-tracks, motorised so that the lamps move back and forth only inches above the op of the plants. It works !
I can see that the last three bulbs are all about the same height, but the 2016 bulb is twice as thick as the previous ones in my care.
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Originally Posted by sciencegal
