Brassolaeliocattleya Rustic Spots

A variable and colorful hybrid that grows well in the hot coastal lowlands of Puerto Rico.  The plants show their Brassavola nodosa ancestry both in their plant and their flower form.   

Blc. Deseo Sencillo (Blc. Orange Nuggett x Lc. Excellency)

This plant was brought to the April 10 meeting of the AOS judges in Ponce, Puerto Rico.  This is a R. Sobrino cross.

Blc. Taiwan Queen 'King's Monkey'

I saw this Cattleya hybrid at the 2007 Puerto Rico orchid society annual show.

Brassolaeliocattleya Golden Tang 'Tropic Yellow"

I have had this hybrid since 2003.  It blooms well under my conditions and doesn't need any particular special care to thrive.  I my experience the flowers have the yellow color that I like best when grown under saran cloth.  Too much sun gives the flowers a pink tinge.  White fly is an annoying pest of this orchid but it is easily controlled with a spray of rubbing alcohol.  

Brassolaeliocattleya Lyn Evans

Photographed at the 2014 Ponce orchid society show, Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Brassolaeliocattleya Zul Waimao Fantasy

Photographed at the 2014 Ponce orchid show, Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Rhyncholaeliocattleya Duh's Papaya

Photographed at the Ponce orchid society show, Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Brassolaeliocattleya Chia Lin 'New City'

Photographed at the 2014 Ponce orchid show, Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Blc. Lawless Walkiire 'The Ultimate'

A wonderful large and shapely Cattleya hybrid.  Unfortunately, the flower had a certain amount of wind damage due to the high winds that has blown intermittently in the locality in the last few days.   It really grabs your attention in the orchid house due to its bright reddish color.

Blc. Majestic Light 'Glory'

Brassolaeliocattleya Koa's Delight 'Sparky'

A cute "mini" Cattleya.  These plants are called "mini cattleya" because they are much smaller in plant and flower size than the "classical" Cattleya, the corsage orchid, which are larger.  You can grow several of these hybrids in the space that would take a single plant of a standard or classical Cattleya hybrid.

Blc. Chance the Chance 'Kiramaki'

Thanks to the meristeming process, in this day and age huge beautiful purple Cattleya hybrids are dime a dozen.  However it is rare to see one that is also capable of producing an impressive specimen one.  This plant, which had about fourteen flowers was truly stunning.  I was so impressed that did something I rarely do, I brought a huge blooming plant of this hybrid.  Let's see if I can get my plant to produce a show as splendid that of the plant in the first photo.

Blc. Dr. Joe Walker 'Ray Mishima'

I was drawn to this orchid because the bold contrast between the white sepals and petals and the lip in quite eye catching.  This flower is big, perhaps six inches across although the curling back of the petals  make it look stockier.  Seen at the 2012 Mayaguez Orchid society annual show.

A hybrid of Bc. Binosa x Blc. Erin Kobayashi

I saw this lovely hybrid at the Mayaguez Orchid Society show in September 2012.  The colors are great and the presentation very good.  I could not detect any fragrance.  I like this plant much more than its parent, Brassocattleya Binosa.

Potinara Creation 'Summer Choice'

This orchid was photographed at the 2012 Mayaguez Orchid Show, at the Mayaguez Mall.  The plant is relatively small and the flowers are medium sized for a Cattleya hybrid.  However the combination of delicate hues on the petals and the bright color of the lip was very eye catching.

Brassolaeliocattleya Samba Splendor 'Puerto Rico'

Photographed at the 2012 Mayaguez orchid society Orchid Show, at the Mayaguez Mall.  I used sunlight streaming through a skylight to photograph this orchid to really bring out the bright color of this flower.

Brassolaeliocattleya Valley Isle Plum AM/AOS

This Cattleya hybrid was seen at the 2012 Mayaguez Orchid Show at the Mayaguez Mall.  The flower was quite impressive in color and size and presentation.  However it was sadly marred by a bit of damage to the lip.  Since the damage was confined to a very fine line on the lip, I erased it with the help of a bit of computer magic.

Amandara Rafael Sobrino, Epidendrum ciliare x Blc. Toshie Aoki

This orchid is a cross between Epidendrum ciliare, an orchid species native of Puerto Rico and Blc. Toshie Aoki a complex Cattleya hybrid.  Its name is Amandara Rafael Sobrino made by Dr. Rafael Sobrino. The flower of this hybrid favors the shape of the Epi. ciliare parent.  The  Blc. Toshie Aoki influence is obscured to such an extent in this hybrid that if one saw this plant with no information about its parentage, one would have hardly guessed that Blc. Toshie Aoki was involved. This plant represents a departure from traditional orchid breeding.  Most hybridists pursue the goal of very flat flowers with wide floral segments and round lips.  They would hardly use a plant with the idiosyncratic fringed and elongated lip of Epi. ciliare when there are so many Cattleya hybrids that carry in their genome a concentration of the choosiest traits in an already advanced form.  For me this plant represents and experiment to see how the traits of the parental species would mesh and present themselves in a flower.  As for what I think of the flower, I can say I like it. But the truth is, to quote the romans, “De coloribus et gustativus non disputandum”.

Brassolaeliocattleya Glenn Maidment 'Aranbeen' a lovely semi alba Cattleya

 I brought this plant in 2005 from H&R Orchids in Hawaii.   This plant has been a joy to have around.  It blooms faithfully and has not been sick one day of the six years it has been with me.  The quality of the flowers in consistently good although I must confess that if the flowers are a bit undersized or of a lesser than top quality it is entirely my fault and it is probably due to me slipping on its care.  The plant has performed best when grown in bright light although I have never grown it in light as strong as the one Lc. Drumbeat ‘Heritage’.  This plant has thrived with the same care I give all my other Cattleyas.  I give them as bright light as they can tolerate short of sunburn and I fertilize it only when it is growing at the strength that is recommended on the label of the fertilizer.  I potted it in a wire basket in which it has been growing with no problem for the last six years.  My only complaint is that is has never produced a side shoot that would allow me to divide it into two plants.

For those who want to grow an eye-popping orchid, Blc. Memoria Crispin Rosales

Blc. Memoria Crispin Rosales

My hand in the back gives a scale to judge the size of this flower

This photo shows the tree fern pole, the roots and the size of the flower in relation to the size of the plant.

In recent years the interest of the more advanced orchid growers has been moving away from the traditionally grown genera and toward a rarer, more exotic fare.  That doesn’t mean that the most commonly grown genera are ignored, just that growers want to explore new and interesting forms in their flowers.  However for most of the public the Cattleya and its hybrids are still the stereotypical orchid.  I am not immune to their allure and I do grow a few Cattleya along with the orchids with weird and peculiar flowers.

But since it takes the same effort to grow a mediocre plant than a good plant I have tried to get the best Cattleya that I could afford.   One that I like a lot is Blc. Memoria Crispin Rosales, the reason is this plant capacity to produce enormous, brightly colored, eye popping flowers.  Blc. Memoria Crispin Rosales is an old hybrid produced in 1959 from a cross between Lc. Bonanza and Blc. Norma’s Bay.  There are many clones of this hybrid in the market, all are big and brightly colored but differ in details of the flower form and their shade of coloring.

But getting your plant to produce those enormous flowers demands some attention to their culture and growing needs.  My plant is rather picky when it comes to its growing media, it hates water retentive closely packed media and grows poorly on it.  For that reason I have it on a tree fern pole where its roots can roam freely in any direction they chose.  Another thing it has is that it is a pest magnet, white flies and scales seem to regard it as the most delicious meal imaginable.  I control both pests with a spray bottle full or alcohol and a Q-tip.  The alcohol kills white fly on contact and the Q-tip helps me scrape off any scale I see in the plant.  The issue here is that you have to inspect your plant from time to time to make sure it is not taken over by these pesky pests.  I recommend that every month or so you devote some time to inspect your plant for pests.  Killing the pests when they are few is much easier that when they have multiplied and damaged your plant.  Black rot has been a problem also but only when there is a spell of many rainy days that is accompanied with temperatures in the sixties.  In the years I have had this plant it has lost several pseudobulbs to rots that attacked  and propagated with surprising speed.

I have experimented with growing my plant in several light levels.  When grown in low light it won’t bloom.  I had my plant in a shadier position when it was young as I was concerned its root system was too puny to expose it to bright light that might have dehydrated it.  In middle light level my plant produces a single enormous flower as you can see in the photos.  In stronger light it usually produces two flowers of a nice but unremarkable size.  In the strongest light it can produce two or three flowers. When the plant tries to produce three flowers the last flower has been weaker and smaller than the first two.  I am sure that my plant would be stronger growing in a pot with an airy non organic media rather than in a pole but for the time being it will stay in the pole.  I water my plant every day in the summer when weather is at its hottest but only once or twice a week when temperatures are in the seventies.  I guide myself by how plump I see the pseudobulbs, if they are dehydrated I water.  I give it fertilizer weekly but only when it is producing new growth.

So if you want to grow an orchid that will reward your care with some of the largest flowers in the Cattleya alliance, Blc Memoria Crispin Rosales is really worth the modest amount of effort needed to grow it to its best.    Nowadays the staggering variation in the flowers of the Cattleya alliance means that there are flowers that can fit the taste of even the most demanding orchid grower, however Blc. Memoria Crispin Rosales has stood the test of time.