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| Cattleya Earl 'Imperialis' FCC/AOS an old hybrid that still ranks among the best |
I brought this orchid in the nineties, around 1995. It came from Hausemann’s Orchids in Illinois. I brought it because I remembered the delicious fragrance of white Cattleya I had experienced when I was young and I wanted a plant that embodied the pinnacle of white Cattleya breeding. This plant grew well in a shade house in the coastal region of Puerto Rico and eventually produced shapely and fragrant white flowers. In the year 2000 I took it to the Rio Abajo forest, where I work, this proved to be a mistake. The plant had been potted in a media mix that was perfect for the drier, hotter, climatic conditions of the coastal plains but the potting mix was unsuitable for the much wetter, colder weather that is prevalent at certain times of the year in the mountainous interior of the island. The potting mix started decomposing at an accelerated rate and the resulting debris blocked the flow of oxygen to the roots. The result was that the plant lost its roots. To make things even worse, a black rot started invading the pseudobulbs. When I noticed the plant was in trouble, in 2001, it was almost too late to save it. I took the plant out of the pot and carefully, and with a sterilized clipper of course, started clipping away dead and infected parts. At the end I finished with just a single healthy pseudobulb with a single living eye.
