Understanding Flower Duration

9 years ago

Good morning everyone

I've made it through my first Spring blooming season and need some help understanding the factors governing the differences in how long a Cattleya will hold its flowers. I've had some last 5-7 days, some 3 weeks and I have one who's flowers have been there for over 2 months now.

Is flower duration simple plant specific, or are there growing factors I control such as light, water, fertilizer, etc which come into play allowing my plants to hold their flowers longer?

The pic is from my Lc. Puppy Love 'True Beauty'. These flowers are going on 2 months old now and still looking great.

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Comments (4)

fortyseven_gw
9 years ago
Beautiful. I read your post about light on another thread and will clip it.
After residing on the east coast for many years, I 'm fortunate to be in California. Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Fri, Jul 18, 14 at 20:17
Jetson15
Original Author
9 years ago
Hi Joanne

Wish I were still there. My company had me living in Irvine in Orange Co for about a year before they put me here. I envy you and others who get to live there. The condos I lived in were using orchids as hedges mixed in with birds of paradise. Pretty awesome. Mornings were special watching the Hummingbirds make their daily rounds through all the flowers.

Alan
fortyseven_gw
9 years ago
Yes , all of that is native here , to my delight, when I saw orchids growing as hedges and Birds of Paradise and varieties of hummingbirds , I realized I could grow orchids.
Am now wondering if Birds of Paradise are related to orchids. Your set up is quite impressive for indoor gardening. Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Tue, Jul 22, 14 at 1:47
shavedmonkey (Harvey in South Fl.)Z10b
9 years ago
Everything affects duration. Size and quantities have various influences. Catts is a large group. They live and thrive in many different environments. They are natural at sea level and mountains. If you can match their preferences they will have more, bigger and longer. Reduce or eliminate your good culture will cause a lot of variation. Then the hybrid trick.

A vanilla orchid flower is viable for a few hours. But they are sequential bloomers. Cross that then what?