# C. tenebrosa 'Rainforest'



## SouthPark (Dec 2, 2020)

Just sharing a pic of C. tenebrosa 'Rainforest' captured toward the end of the day - close to sundown. I purchased this plant in January during a short holiday trip. I carted it home in a plastic bag on the plane - bare root, and potted it right away once I arrived home late in the evening. I noticed that the sheath can take many months (eg. 6 months) of no activity before something happens. But things happen relatively quickly once activity starts up in the sheath.


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## Guldal (Dec 2, 2020)

It's gorgeous with that beautifull red in the lip...oh, that lip!


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## monocotman (Dec 2, 2020)

Very beautiful!
David


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## SouthPark (Dec 2, 2020)

Privileged to share the latest flowering pic with you!

The pics below are nice and relaxing to look at too ------ which are from January --- on the day I purchased the orchid on the holiday trip, and took some pics after putting it on a table in the hotel room. A nice holiday casual look.

The pics below are the previous bloom from January of this year 2020.


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## DrLeslieEe (Dec 2, 2020)

Very nice. It’s a good grower and will overtake your grow space soon (like mine lol).


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## Ozpaph (Dec 2, 2020)

That's exciting. My tenebrosa is just opening, too!! (6 months in sheath).


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## SouthPark (Dec 2, 2020)

DrLeslieEe said:


> Very nice. It’s a good grower and will overtake your grow space soon (like mine lol).



hahaha ...... know what you mean DLE! Space is needed for where the big Catts roam!!!


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## Ozpaph (Dec 2, 2020)

i hang mine!


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## SouthPark (Dec 2, 2020)

Ozpaph said:


> That's exciting. My tenebrosa is just opening, too!! (6 months in sheath).



Looking forward to see more tenebrosa pics very soon!

I'm currently waiting for a Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown to open the flowers. Almost there. Hopefully I get a chance to take a pic of its flowers with the tenebrosa flowers both together. That would be nice --- fingers crossed with the two buds soon to open. Hopefully pans out nicely. The previous flowering of that one can be seen here.

Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown 'Sweet Afton m. Splash' :


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## SouthPark (Dec 2, 2020)

Ozpaph said:


> i hang mine!



Very workable! For my limited number of orchids, I mainly have them on the floor with the pots sitting on drainage grates - growing under a balcony.


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## Ozpaph (Dec 3, 2020)

Ive never seen the 'splash' form. I assume a mericlone mutant and sold as such?


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## SouthPark (Dec 3, 2020)

Ozpaph said:


> Ive never seen the 'splash' form. I assume a mericlone mutant and sold as such?



I had seen online pics of mutated 'Sweet Afton' - but hadn't seen this particular one before. Actually - this one was sold with the tag of 'Sweet Afton' - but is clearly not 'Sweet Afton'. It is likely a mutated 'Sweet Afton' - so is no longer 'Sweet Afton'.

*Roy* from another forum reckons himself that it's a selfing - but hard to say if it is a selfing (or not). I don't reckon that he knows for sure. So I'm just casually going with an arbitrary name for it. It is at least a Memoria Helen Brown.

I also grow two other unflowered mutated 'Sweet Afton' mericlones (apparently splash petals) as well --- so also no longer 'Sweet Afton' ---- almost getting there to flowering size! But these other two are not expected to be the same as this one here.

I grow a non-mutated (or at least - visibly non-mutated - or true to flower form) 'Sweet Afton' too.

And also growing three mericlones having *tags* of 'Sweet Afton'. One of those three flowered for the first time last year, and also again this year ------ and it's definitely not 'Sweet Afton' ------ although it is a Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown ------ will attach a couple of photos of this one below.

A second one of these plants is going to flower for the first time - developing buds, which are still small buds right now. Maybe another 3 or 4 weeks to go before flowering time. It will be interesting to see what its flowers will look like.


Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown (no cultivar name) 2019:








Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown (no cultivar name) 2020:


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## SouthPark (Dec 3, 2020)

And this is a pic of a previous flowering of Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown 'Sweet Afton m. Splash' captured by the previous owner. I like his photo a lot - a nice refreshing image.

Anyway - the more sun the flowers get - the more yellow they become. They can stay chartreuse or green-yellow for a long time if the flowers are kept in a shady spot. This goes for all Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown flowers.

Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown 'Sweet Afton m. Splash' :


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## BrucherT (Dec 3, 2020)

That lip is everything.


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## Ozpaph (Dec 4, 2020)

the lip colours are quite different.


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## SouthPark (Dec 4, 2020)

O.P. ----- true! The lip colour and the lip shape are quite different ----- that's between my Mem. Helen Brown (no cultivar name) and the 'Sweet Afton m. Splash'.

And even for 'Sweet Afton m. Splash' itself ----- quite significant difference in the amount of purple and white colouring on the lip ----- maybe due to different temperature during the time of flower bud development. The 'Sweet Afton m. Splash' was originally growing in a temperate climate part of Australia - toward the southern part of Australia ------- and my region is toward the northern region of Australia. Generally warmer here in my parts.

The buds of my 'Sweet Afton m. Splash' are doing ok right now ------ but noticed the buds were piling up against the leaf. So I just shoved a piece of scoria rock to form a wedge between leaf and spike stem for some re-direction ---- getting some clearance between buds and leaf heheh. I took this pic today of the buds hehe.


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## Guldal (Dec 4, 2020)

SouthPark said:


> ... I ... shoved a piece of scoria rock to form a wedge between leaf and spike stem for some re-direction ---- getting some clearance between buds and leaf heheh.


Great Idea, David! Noticed on my memory card!


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## SouthPark (Dec 4, 2020)

Guldal said:


> Great Idea, David! Noticed on my memory card!



Guldal ----- monocotman's name is David ...... were you thinking that you were posting to him?


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## Guldal (Dec 4, 2020)

SouthPark said:


> Guldal ----- monocotman's name is David ...... were you thinking that you were posting to him?


Oh, I'm so sorry SP! You are so right, I got your posts mixed up - the due credit should rightly go to you!


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## SouthPark (Dec 4, 2020)

That's ok Guldal! Absolutely no problem


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## SouthPark (Dec 6, 2020)

Some activity now ----- all systems are go. Throttle up!

Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown 'Sweet Afton m. Splash' buds opening 6-Dec2020:


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## Ozpaph (Dec 6, 2020)

you use of stones is intriguing.


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## SouthPark (Dec 6, 2020)

Ozpaph said:


> you use of stones is intriguing.



Hi OP! ..... Another orchid grower friend recently mentioned that he does similar sometimes - but he uses cork instead of rock.


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## Ozpaph (Dec 6, 2020)

Maybe use a styrofoam peanut - less abrasive.


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## SouthPark (Dec 9, 2020)

The tenebrosa held up ok despite quite strong blustery winds. Finally captured a nice pic of C. tenebrosa 'Rainforest' and Rlc. Memoria Helen Brown 'Sweet Afton m. Splash' together.

Google drive link (higher res): *Pic link*


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## DrLeslieEe (Dec 9, 2020)

Wow Rainforest looks like a giant compared to Helen!


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## SouthPark (Dec 9, 2020)

DrLeslieEe said:


> Wow Rainforest looks like a giant compared to Helen!



haha .... DLE!! After taking a look at the pic, it does indeed appear to look like a giant hahaha. Thanks for teaching me how to create monster size flowers hehehehe.

The tenebrosa is closer to the camera for that pic. But I think the tenebrosa span is larger than the span of each of these two MHB flowers. For the previous flowering - I had a one-bud flowering ----- the second bud didn't make. The size of that single flower was probably a bit larger than each of these twin MHB flowers.


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## Ozpaph (Dec 10, 2020)

What is the natural span of 'Rainforest'? Your petals are much wider than mine, but mine has stayed very flat.


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## SouthPark (Dec 10, 2020)

Ozpaph said:


> What is the natural span of 'Rainforest'? Your petals are much wider than mine, but mine has stayed very flat.



OP ....... the natural span I measured just a moment ago is approximately 18 cm. I really liked the flower when I first saw it --- for the first time in January of this year while on holiday in Bris --- the tan/brown coloured tepals and purply coloured lip --- exotic looking and reasonably good size flowers. The curly tepals was really appealing. I wasn't going to buy anything at all on the holiday, but impulse just kicked in hehe.

The kind of tenebrosa you showed in your recent pics is so nice too. Beautiful. That was really great to see the recent flowers from your tenebrosa. Fantastic timing.


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## Guldal (Dec 10, 2020)

Ozpaph said:


> Your petals are much wider than mine...


Here one can talk about being into flowers - show me yours and I'll show you mine!


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## SouthPark (Dec 10, 2020)

Guldal said:


> Here one can talk about being into flowers - show me yours and I'll show you mine!



The gift of digital photography technology, internet, a good orchid forum, and sharing


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## Ozpaph (Dec 11, 2020)

iphone photos have come a long way and make sharing very easy


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## SouthPark (Dec 11, 2020)

True! iphone pic quality is really good. I haven't got an iphone but have seen the results. They seem to work pretty well under fairly low light conditions too. For my old Samsung S2, it doesn't work well or at all when the lighting gets a bit low ----- blurry pics and auto-focus issues (under low light). But even under good lighting, the lack of a manual focus on my S2 is a bit of a problem sometimes. I just stick with the old S2 as it we can tinker with its operating system and turn off the beeps and bells that manufacturers (and govt) impose on us ----- such as for the camera 'clicks and beeps', and video record button beep noises.

The old S2 (and similar phones) also allow pretty much full image backups to be done - copying a full back-up of operating system plus everything onto a hard drive. Proper system image. So the back-up image can just be transferred to a second phone of identical kind (eg. my spare S2) ----- and the newly imaged S2 will then start up and will be exactly the same as starting up the first phone - same apps, same settings, same contacts, emails, web bookmarks, same everything - a real clone hehehe. The new model phones probably can't do that - due to hardware security features. Will have to check to see what people do for the late model phones. They probably do have their ways. Hopefully.


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## SouthPark (Dec 15, 2020)

Sharing one pic of the white-coloured table in the background of the previous image, captured 2 days before the previous image hehehe. A cat among the catts. And some bananas thrown in for good measure hehehe. Actually, I accidentally cut down the wrong banana palm. Hence the immature bananas ---- oops! But that's ok. There's currently plenty more bananas developing on the other palms heheh. But I won't make that same mistake again heheheh.


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