On Sat, 21 May 2005 16:12:11 -0400, "Mick Fournier"
"bob" wrote in message
oups.com...
I purchase a cattleya at H.D. It was a seedling about 4" high in a tiny
pot. Cost was less than $5.00 Did I throw my money out? Took it home
and repotted in a 4" plastic pot with many drain holes on the base.
Potted it in bark wih mixture of sphagnum moss. ( for water retention)
Leaves now fairly rigid and dark green. Placed it on patio with other
orchids ( phals in flower) and it is in dappled sun. Any suggestions?
Patio faces southwest and is screend in.
Bob
Now Mick, be nice.
Bob,
It will just take the seedling a long time to grow to be
blooming size. Blooming size could vary greatly depending on the
particular parents used to make the cross. Does you plant have a
small name tag in the pot? Generally they are white and have
black bold faced type with some abbreviation and the name of the
plant. The abbreviations could be C, Bc, Lc, Slc, Pot or several
others. If you can find such a tag it will help. Sometimes the
HD plants come with out any name tags and have a general
description tag that says something like Cattleya Orchid and a
couple of comments. That is next to useless. If that is the
case we will not be able to predict size to bloom.
In general you do not want to give orchids too much room when you
'pot up'. They need to be repotted into fresh mix every year and
thus need only enough room to grow the year. If they have too
much mix it is harder to even out the water cycle and easier to
over water.
As to sun. Your catt should require more sun than the phals to
bloom. For now keep it in the dappled shade and watch. IF the
leaves get very dark rich green it is not getting enough light to
use all the food you are giving it. S_L_O_W_L_Y move it to a
brighter area. It will sunburn just as you and I do, so be
careful to protect it from direct sun. If the leaves get a light
green it is probably growing as hard as it can. It should have
very hard leaves. Not soft fleshy ones like a phal. Some catts
get as stiff as shoe leather. Again this will depend on the
parents and how big they are.
Many people in RGO like to grow their plants from seedling to
bloom and feel it is more their accomplishment because it took so
long.
Good luck and have fun.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php