Cattleya bowringiana

[Ricardo in PR]

A friend had this plant in her porch for about twenty years between 1980 and 2000 when she lived in the western part of the island. The plant was in a basket and grew well although the pseudobulbs never attained their full potential. Then my friend moved away and gave it to her sister which took the plant to our capital city San Juan, where it stayed for about seven years. Then her sister moved to the US and the plant was given to me. The plant had many small pseudobulbs when I received it. I will see if I can help it reach its full potential size of between 20 and 30 inch tall pseudobulbs. It may not have the most full of Catt. bowringiana flowers, but it is a really tough survivor. Every September it blooms with several inflorescences but not all necessarily at the same time.

[Marci in SoFL]

That's a beauty, Ricardo. My C bowringiana started to bloom last month and more inflorescences are stretching up now.

[Ricardo in PR]

I used to have a plant that had particularly beautiful flowers but lost due to the bane of the Cattleya plants, the media started retaining too much water. When I discovered the problem it was too late to save the plant, an amazing thing it itself given the tough resilience of all my other bowringianas. Sometimes plants that have the nicest flowers can also be weaker than the average ones.