Cattleya lueddemanniana concolor ‘luz de luna’

[monocotman]

Very first bloom for me from a plant that I acquired three years ago from Max Strauss. Always good to see that the label appears correct if you look at photos of this clone on the web.
It’s a good grower with three decent leads and seems to like its conical mesh pot and has loads of roots. The flower is a good size being 14cm across even when slightly cupped. If this flower were close to flat it would be 18cm. There is also an amazing sweet scent. Far stronger than I remember from other clones of this species.
Anyway this is my first success in the new growing room. The catts are all still sat on the floor under vipara LED’s with a fan to circulate air. This growth was produced mostly in the new grow space. The LED’s and fan are switched on when I get up and the room gradually heats up to close to 25-25c over the course of the day. I switch everything off at night and open the door to the rest of the house and this results in a drop in temperature to 18-19c overnight as well as a reduction in humidity.
Overall the new growths on the catts look good with some even producing new leads so I’m hopeful that things will settle down well.

David

 

[Guldal]

Congrats on your first success in your new growing room, David! Lovely flower - a nice token of pleasures to come. And pretty amazing, that your plant has so readily adapted to as well its new growing conditions as its recent nomadic life!

 

[NEslipper]

Glad thing are settling in so quickly! Love the soft pastel pink, and I always love the flower to plant ratio of lueddemannianas, the flower looks enormous!

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Nice … but will still take 2-3 years to get cattleyas fully settled in new space. I’m sure an experienced good grower like you will do a smashing job of it.

 

[Ozpaph]

very pretty

 

[monocotman]

Fingers crossed guys!
things are looking good.
this is about my best, most well established lueddemanniana with 14 pseudobulbs with leaves and three leads as well as a ton of roots. If this one doesn’t do it, there is little hope for the others!

 

[PeteM]

Congrats. Growing in a room is challenging, I keep my growroom door cracked 24/7 for air exchange. The night time dips in temp are important for storing energy. Also, the night time spikes in humidity are important as this is what occurs in the wild. Just wanted to comment on this incase it’s helpful down the road. Thanks for sharing this beauty, great job blooming it out after so many years… it’s one of the most rewarding feelings.

 

[monocotman]

Thanks for your comments Pete. I agree with you about the night time dips. The only way for me to reduce the temperature is to open the door of the room and then the humidity also drops. However we do live in Cornwall within a few hundred metres of the coast so the humidity never drops very low and will always be over 50 or 60% year round, so I’m hoping that is enough.

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Cattleyas are forgiving of humidity due to the presence of bulbous storage. So you should be fine.