# Cattleya percivalliana 'Summit' FCC/AOS



## John M (Jan 5, 2015)

Here are 3 divisions from my specimen Cattleya percivalliana 'Summit' FCC/AOS. My original plant was a division of the original awarded plant, not a meristem. I got it in the early 90's and it did very well for me; growing into a gorgeous specimen plant with no medium, just bare-root, in a 10" clay pot.







The first two photos below (plant with 3 flowers and plant with 4 flowers), are growing in 6" clay pots, also with zero potting medium. There's just bare roots attached to the inside of the pot.

Although, it survived the freeze in 2008, not long after, without my realizing it, some mice imported lots of organic debris into the pot and made a nest. When the mouse nest began to rot, so did my plant! By the time I realized that the plant was in trouble, the rot had consumed all of the connecting rhizome in the bottom half of the pot. I was lucky to save "satelite" divisions from higher up around the pot perimeter.

I've sold off the extra bits, including the 4 flowered division, pictured below. The single flowered division is my last bit still for sale. I'm keeping the single lead, 3 flowered divsion and starting over. 'Hope to get it up to specimen sized again.


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## paphioboy (Jan 5, 2015)

Beautiful specimens! A real pity about the rot that affected the plant, but you managed a good save.. The quality of the flowers looks consistent even between plants of different sizes.


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## Migrant13 (Jan 6, 2015)

That really is quite a specimen you grew of a classic Catt. Fantastic growing and rescue. Do you grow other big catt's without medium?


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## John M (Jan 6, 2015)

Migrant13 said:


> That really is quite a specimen you grew of a classic Catt. Fantastic growing and rescue. Do you grow other big catt's without medium?



I tend to not like repotting. This is a jungle collected percivalliana growing "in" a 6" plastic pot. The plant was over 4' across. I've had others like this; but, eventually, they become too valuable to just leave untouched. So, I chop them up, sell the bits and pay bills.....and start over.

Had my 'Summit' clone not met it's match in the form of a mouse, it would've been as big as the one pictured below, by now. *sigh* 'Guess I'll have to wait another 15 years to see that finally happen....and keep the mice away in the meantime!






Unfortunately, this moster perci died in my greenhouse freeze of 2008. I was really crushed!:sob:


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## Ozpaph (Jan 6, 2015)

really amazingly well grown plants.


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## JeanLux (Jan 6, 2015)

Gorgeous Blooms :clap: !!!! Jean


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## Secundino (Jan 6, 2015)

Oh! That's a wonderful sight!


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## Lmpgs (Jan 6, 2015)

Amazing plants!! How do you grow them?


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## John M (Jan 6, 2015)

Thanks everyone.

Intermediate temperatures; intermediate light intensity; water when dry; don't worry about humidity - or lack of it; feed weakly weekly in summer and weakly monthly in winter......standard Cattleya care. Nothing special.


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## Justin (Jan 6, 2015)

Holy moly! And poison for those little rodents...


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## John M (Jan 6, 2015)

Actually, after that I started buying 50 new mouse traps each fall and placing them all over the greenhouse. They last about 6 months before the moisture rots the wood. The mice are not any trouble at other times. But, in the fall, they find their way inside, where it's warm and then there's competition for good nesting sites. Plus, they start to do damage to my plants. So, the population needs severe culling from early fall until winter sets in and the mice outside are in their burrows and not still looking for ways to get into my greenhouse. In the spring and summer, when the vent is open and the door is open whenever I'm inside (which is much of the time), I have no problem with mice. They don't bother with the greenhouse much. But come October......they're a real menace!


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## John M (Jan 6, 2015)

'Thought I'd add this too. This was taken in May 2007. It's Lc. Carla Off. Each flower is about 7" wide. It had over-grown an 8" clay pot and was heading to become a huge, round ball; but, the freeze the next year set it back. Luckily, it did not die; but, it will still take a few more years to get back up to that size again.


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## phrag guy (Jan 6, 2015)

those are amazing plants John,the fragrance must be over powering when in the Greenhouse. I must stop down your way one of these days for a visit


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## Erythrone (Jan 6, 2015)

Stunning plants, John!


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## Wendy (Jan 6, 2015)

Oh man those photos make me want a classic cattleya again. I saw these big ones in person and they were breathtaking. John you sure know how to grow them. :clap::drool::clap::drool:


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## Linus_Cello (Jan 6, 2015)

I'd love a piece of the perci (but alas, I'm in the USA).


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## orchidsimplicit (Jan 6, 2015)

Very impressive growing!! Would I LOVE to have seen that guy in person.


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## SlipperFan (Jan 6, 2015)

Wow, John! These are such gorgeous specimens! That freeze must have been devastating, but I'm so glad you came back from that experience. Some would have given up.


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## abax (Jan 7, 2015)

Your 'Summit' is the best one I've ever seen and I'm not just talking size of
the plant. The individual blooms are...well...perfect. I've seen a LOT of
'Summits' and none with blooms so perfectly shaped and such intense color.

I'm gonna have to email Jerry Rodder and let him take a look at your plant.
I think he'll be flabbergasted!


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## John M (Jan 7, 2015)

phrag guy said:


> I must stop down your way one of these days for a visit


 Sure Russell. Just say when and we'll set it up. Although, the big specimens are not still here, of course. The perci 'Summit' got divided, thanks to that mouse. The HUGE perci specimen dimped in the freeze and the Carla Off was cut down in size by the freeze; but, it's coming back.

Dot, I almost did give up. I was in shock and rather robotic for weeks afterwards. It was a HUGE shock to my system. 'Never want to experience that kind of loss again.

Angela, the photo of my 'Summit' while it was a specimen shows flowers that were larger and of better form (wider segments), than when the original mother plant was awarded the FCC. So, you've got a good eye. This plant of mine is a division from the mother plant, not a meristem. If you've seen "a lot" of 'Summit's', then most, if not all were clones. Clones are usually very nice and worth the trouble; but, they cannot be relied upon to be 100% identical to the original. In theory.....Yes; but, in reality.....No.


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## Trithor (Jan 7, 2015)

Those specimens are a feast! Wow John, you grow these catts incredibly well. It is inspiring to browse through a thread like this, thank you!


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## Happypaphy7 (Jan 9, 2015)

Beautiful! It is a moment like this looking a large well grown specimen of epiphyte when I wish I had a greenhouse. 
Thanks for sharing!


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## eggshells (Jan 9, 2015)

Incredible.


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## fibre (Jan 9, 2015)

Absolutely gorgeous! 
Your photographs are quite dangerous: I might fall in love with Catts and put all my Paphs in the compost heap! oke:


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## KyushuCalanthe (Jan 9, 2015)

Wow John, that is a beauty, and it takes a lot for me to like a large Catt. The beauty you lost in 2008 would have killed me too.


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## John M (Jan 9, 2015)

Thanks for your nice comments everyone!


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## John M (Jan 9, 2015)

KyushuCalanthe said:


> Wow John, that is a beauty, and it takes a lot for me to like a large Catt. The beauty you lost in 2008 would have killed me too.



I almost gave up completely. Here's that big specimen percivalliana after the freeze, shortly before I took it down and threw it into the dumpster that I had to rent to cart away all the dead plants.






Now of course, I'm glad that I did not give up; but, I was sick for a long time over that sad event!


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## SlipperFan (Jan 9, 2015)

I can only imagine.


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## Ozpaph (Jan 10, 2015)

John, amazing specimens.
That last picture would break my heart; like yours.......


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## John M (Jan 10, 2015)

Thanks. 

Well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...right? It's -15*C outside right now. Winter is scary when you have a greenhouse. I won't really relax again until about early May.


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## Rick (Jan 10, 2015)

Awesome show John:clap::clap:


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## Bjorn (Jan 10, 2015)

Never seen anyhing like that John. Come move to Norway, we are north of you probably (at58degreesN) and temperature is much milder, around 3C now. Summer is also cooler........
Great show!
B


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## KyushuCalanthe (Jan 10, 2015)

John M said:


> Well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...right? It's -15*C outside right now. Winter is scary when you have a greenhouse. I won't really relax again until about early May.



After looking at your last photo I can see why.


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## SlipperFan (Jan 10, 2015)

John M said:


> Thanks.
> 
> Well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...right? It's -15*C outside right now. Winter is scary when you have a greenhouse. I won't really relax again until about early May.


Me, too.


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## Ozpaph (Jan 10, 2015)

Gotta love the sub-tropics.....................


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## John M (Jan 10, 2015)

Bjorn said:


> Never seen anyhing like that John. Come move to Norway, we are north of you probably (at58degreesN) and temperature is much milder, around 3C now. Summer is also cooler........
> Great show!
> B



Summers here are hot and winters very cold to bitterly cold! I expected that you'd be a lot colder than me; but, perhaps you get a moderating effect from the ocean? That would be nice!


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## John M (Jan 10, 2015)

Ozpaph said:


> Gotta love the sub-tropics.....................



BIG envy here!!!


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## Alec (Jan 11, 2015)

simply spectacular


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## cnycharles (Jan 11, 2015)

Beautiful flowers, aaargh to rodents. Favorite vendor in early '80's had many trays of deflasked orchids and one night a red squirrel are through side of greenhouse and wiped out over 1500$ of plants


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## John M (Jan 11, 2015)

cnycharles said:


> Beautiful flowers, aaargh to rodents. Favorite vendor in early '80's had many trays of deflasked orchids and one night a red squirrel are through side of greenhouse and wiped out over 1500$ of plants
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



I believe it!

The mice that made a nest in the Cattleya pot were little Deer Mice. The very small ones with big ears, big eyes and long tails. They're actually pretty cute. Usually, they don't cause damage. However, just one Field Mouse can put you into bankruptcy! Field Mice have little ears, little beady eyes and very short tails. They look like a miniature Ground Hog. They will mow down plants just for the fun of it. I once lost about $600 worth of Phrag. ecuadorense plants to a single Field Mouse in just one night. The little bugger cut all the Phrag's leaf fans off right at the pot level. It looked like a lawn mower had run over the pots. They will also climb up Vanda plants and cut the flowers off the stems....just for fun. I've seen that happen a few times. I come into the greenhouse and there's dozens of chewed off flowers laying all over the benches.......a couple dozen $60 plants rendered unsaleable. So, I set out 20 or 25 traps all around in the area and I catch just ONE Field Mouse and the damage immediately stops. It was just ONE Field Mouse that caused all that damage!


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## Bjorn (Jan 11, 2015)

This mouse thing sound serious, the locals here do normally just take the flowers...... However sometimes we have hoards of them. This fall i took an estimated 300 (yes, three hundred) in traps and they destroyed the main part of our berry and winegrape crop. Just for household use but nevertheless.....
Arrghh! Death to all rodents!!:viking::fight::arrr:


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## Hamlet (Jan 11, 2015)

Absolutely stunning plants! The freeze and the mice sound like a nightmare. Good that you didn't give up and managed to save your plants so spectacularly. Very inspiring thread!


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## PaphMadMan (Jan 11, 2015)

Bjorn said:


> Arrghh! Death to all rodents!!:viking::fight::arrr:



Let the capybaras live. They don't cause much damage to greenhouse plants.


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## John M (Jan 11, 2015)

300 mice! Oh, that's really creepy. I figure it's a bad year if I catch a couple dozen. Heck, just that many mice do enough damage! I wouldn't want to be dealing with hundreds of them. Wow! I guess the healthy Hawk, Owl, Fox and Coyote population around here are working hard....and being fed well.


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## Bjorn (Jan 11, 2015)

I managed to keep the mice out of the orchid house, but our three cats had a great time. Predators of all kinds as well. Never seen so many buzzards as last season. Owls had a gret time also. Unfortunately, we manged to kill a least weasel (musela nivalis) in traps in our attic the other day. Big surprise, we never knew we had those indoors! Must be food for them there:crazy: its difficult to avoid rodents in our home as its an almost 300years old wooden structure


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## The Mutant (Jan 11, 2015)

Bjorn said:


> I managed to keep the mice out of the orchid house, but our three cats had a great time. Predators of all kinds as well. Never seen so many buzzards as last season. Owls had a gret time also. Unfortunately, we manged to kill a least weasel (musela nivalis) in traps in our attic the other day. Big surprise, we never knew we had those indoors! Must be food for them there:crazy: its difficult to avoid rodents in our home as its an almost 300years old wooden structure


Sounds like you need more cats... And maybe a dansk-svensk gårdshund (Danish-Swedish Farmdog) or two, apparently they were used as rat-catchers among other things.

I'm so glad I live in an apartment sometimes.


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## Parryaw (Jan 11, 2015)

Bjorn said:


> I managed to keep the mice out of the orchid house, but our three cats had a great time. Predators of all kinds as well. Never seen so many buzzards as last season. Owls had a gret time also. Unfortunately, we manged to kill a least weasel (musela nivalis) in traps in our attic the other day. Big surprise, we never knew we had those indoors! Must be food for them there:crazy: its difficult to avoid rodents in our home as its an almost 300years old wooden structure



300 hundred years? That older than any building here in Singapore! No rodent problems unless I count those plantain squirrels that love chewing the new Dendrobium shoots!


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## Stone (Jan 12, 2015)

Supreme!


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