Cattley purpurata werhauseri

[monocotman]

The five purpurata clones that I grow have reacted in the same way to their new grow room. In their second season and their first full year of growth in the room, they’ve done very well with nice big leads and sheaths. Two of them produced a second growth after the first matured in late winter, also with sheaths. I’ve not seen this before when they were grown on a windowsill.
However they’ve been very slow to bloom this year. The first one did so about a month ago and is now breaking a new lead. This is the second to flower and the others are showing some buds at the base of the sheaths.
A primary hybrid of purpurata, xcanhamiana coerulea is also just showing buds and again is very late compared to previous years.

Quite why they’re so late is unknown. It could just be settling down in their new home or it could be a reaction to the new lighting or temperatures. Time will tell. I will try to tweak a few things over winter.

 

[treefrog]

Lucky you!!!! The flowers are spectacular. I grow a few purpurata and they are strong and big....however, I believe the lack of seasonal temperature changes we have in French Guiana prevent them from flowering!!! Would love to have nice flowers like yours!

 

[terryros]

David, with the proviso that in-situ natural habitat conditions do not always produce the best flowers, purpurata is an outlier in the unifoliate Cattleya group. It is native to a narrow coastal stretch of Brazil that the Baker culture sheet says was originally about 750 miles long. Much of the zone is at about 30 degrees south latitude. This means that it has a day length that varies from about 10 hours to 14 hours throughout the year, and the light intensity falls by 35-40% in mid-winter. The temperature range is also the greatest in the unifoliate group, with hot summers and cool winters. Much of the range has mid-winter high temperatures of about 18-19 C. Rainfall is primarily steady throughout the year. This all means that inflorescence development depends somewhat on cooler days that are shorter with lower light intensity. In the wild, purpurata blooms in the spring. I don't think these conditions need to be mimicked to obtain excellent blooms, but they give the direction that tweaks in growth conditions might take if improvement is desired.

 

[monocotman]

Very interesting information Terry. I will definitely tweak the winter conditions and give the plants more of a dip in light and temperature this year. Quite how far to go I’m not sure but I’ll have a play.
The only other problem species is warscewiczii. I have two big plants of this species and they don’t even give me a sheath despite big FS growths.
I was going to say the same thing about x hardyana after last season but this year I have sheaths and buds on both plants.
All the other species I grow seem to be happy with the current set up.

 

[terryros]

C. warscewiczii is different. At latitude 6 N its change in day length and light intensity is modest. It also has almost steady temperatures during the year. What it has is drier few months in mid-winter. This may be what triggers inflorescence. So a modest dip in day length and light intensity along with less frequent fertigation could do the trick. My alba warscewiczii bloomed this late spring. In-situ the plants still get dew/mist, so they don’t completely dry out but the rain total is about half of the rest of the year.

 

[GuRu]

Really lovely flowers !

 

[monocotman]

Thanks Terry, I’ll reduce watering this winter and see what happens. It’s odd that they flowered well on the windowsill when I watered them the same as everything else.

 

[dodidoki]

A little late, but very nice werchhauserii.

 

[terryros]

Thanks Terry, I’ll reduce watering this winter and see what happens. It’s odd that they flowered well on the windowsill when I watered them the same as everything else.

I think the windowsill gave you a natural decrease in day length, light intensity, and temperature. You likely had lower humidity as well which gave overall less moisture to the plants even if you were fertigating as usual. All of this was enough to trigger inflorescence.

 

[David B]

So you did not say that the new grow room was natural light only but I will assume that as you did not address and artificial light. I see that the daylength changes from a low of 9 winter to a high of 17 summer for you so that is an excellent bloom trigger. After more that one year of this seasonal natural light variant, I believe the plants will etch this into their memory and your blooming times will stabilize annually. For the last three years, I have done blooming pics on my phone stamping the date of important plants, it is interesting data. Below is a canhamiana x werkhauseri, a quite distinctive hybrid. The mossiae in the background lengthens the bloom by almost a week over straight purpurata. Cheers.

 

[monocotman]

David, there is a window in the grow room so the plants get a bit of natural light but by far the most light is from three LED lights. It may well be that the plants are just adjusting to their new conditions or I may need to tweak things as Terry says. Time will tell.
Love the coerulea hybrid. Very deeply coloured.

 

[Ozpaph]

love the 'blue' lip

 

[DrLeslieEe]

C. warscewiczii is different. At latitude 6 N its change in day length and light intensity is modest. It also has almost steady temperatures during the year. What it has is drier few months in mid-winter. This may be what triggers inflorescence. So a modest dip in day length and light intensity along with less frequent fertigation could do the trick. My alba warscewiczii bloomed this late spring. In-situ the plants still get dew/mist, so they don’t completely dry out but the rain total is about half of the rest of the year.

Warsc like 12:12 hours all year long.