Using rooting hormone to rescue rootless orchid

Rlc (Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' X Chia Lin 'Shinsu #1')

This is my sickest orchid that is still alive after the long drought of neglect.  The orchid is in a sad little state, compared to my last post about it, almost 4 years ago. 

I've found that severe underwatering is just as capable of killing off orchid roots as overwatering.  A dehydrated orchid will put out new growths, but then lose them before they have a chance to fully mature.  In the picture above, you can see two nubs of pseudobulbs, which lack a leaf at the tip.  The leaves had rotted off when I neglected to water the orchid during a critical period of growth.

Two new growths at base of cattleya orchid

Looking closer at the base of the orchid, I can spot what looks like two new growth starts.  They look a little like purple onions.  I am hoping, that with more diligent care, I can nurse these two growths into maturity.

Normally, it seems that in a struggling orchid, new growths must develop first, and then they can put out a set of new roots.  Old pseudobulbs can provide water storage and nutrients to support the orchid, but do not generally produce active growth.  I am curious whether I could trigger some more growth activity.  I purchased a small amount of rooting hormone, to test out whether it can help spur better recovery for the orchid.

Orchid covered in rooting powder

The instructions on the rooting powder indicated to dip the base of the plant directly into the powder, and then to pot.  I padded the rooting powder along the base of the plant (though mostly trying to avoid the new growths themselves).  Afterwards, I returned the orchid to the smallest size plastic pot that I own.

Now, the onus is on me to remember to water the orchid every 3 days, so that it never experiences extended periods of dryness.  I'll check back in a few weeks to see whether the rooting hormone had any effect.  In the meantime, with two new growth starts, diligence in watering should be all that I really need to assure survival.

New York Orchid Show 2013: Cattleyas

Laelia superbiens

     Laelia superbiens was a striking tree-like specimen.  Many of the growths were over 5 feet tall, raising the mops of lilac blooms over the heads of passersby.

Rhyncattleanthe Fuchs Orange Nugget 'Lea'

     A name to pronounce at ones own risk.  This orchid, and the next one below, were both blooming in the miniatures terrarium.

Rhyncattleanthe Hsinying Catherine 'Dogashima'

Repotting the Cattlianthe Jewel Box 'Scheherazade'

Hollow dried roots

     After noticing several surface level roots dry out and die on my Ctt Jewel Box (formerly 'Slc Jewel Box'), I became concerned with the health of the plant and decided to repot.  Although cattleyas are said to be finicky about repotting, I figured that the orchid wasn't doing much growth currently anyway, so that if there was trouble beneath the surface I would rather find out sooner than later.

Ctt Jewel Box before and after trimming dead roots

     When I removed the orchid from its pot, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the health of its root system.  The root mass was significantly large, and at least half of the roots were in good health.  In the left panel above shows the dark dead roots and the healthy tan ones.  I trimmed away most of the old or dying roots and repotted the cattlianthe into a slightly bigger ceramic pot.  

     I arranged the orchid slightly off-center, so that the two newest pseudobulbs face the middle of the pot, with plenty of room for further growth.  I've heard that cattleya orchids can pout for a long while if their roots are disturbed, so we'll see how successful my repotting has been.  Hopefully the orchid will be happy in its new pot, and I won't have to move it for a while. 

Is my cattleya preparing to flower?

attempting closeup pictures like this really make me want a better camera

    My original goal when buying all my orchids was that I may someday be able to always have at least one blooming at all times of the year.  However, in the 6 months that I've been growing them, I haven't yet had any blooms.  In part, many of my orchids are still in recovery mode.  The two oncidiums and the small phal are recovering from near death.  My paph sanderianum, cymbidium, and den victoria-reginae are still too small to flower.  And two of my orchids (the big phal and the paph) I bought in bloom last summer, and it is too soon for them to bloom again.

     After discounting the sick, the young, and the already-bloomed, I am left with two orchids which may be ready to bloom in then ear future.  One is my angraecum leonis.  The other is my slc 'scheherazade.'

     This cattleya's usual blooming season is in mid-February.  I bought this plant in its healthy adult form, with two flower sheaths on its newest pseudobulbs.  The flower sheaths are a sign that the pseudobulbs may bloom sometime in the future.  While one of the sheaths is completely empty, the other appears to have some new growth inside.  I tried to capture the shadow of that growth in the picture above; the triangle shaped silhouette at the point where the sheath emerges from the leaf and pseudobulb.

     The sheath on the other pseudobulb doesn't have anything like this.  Is that tiny shadow a promise of flowers in a month?  I don't know... but I'll be hoping and waiting.

Ctt Jewel Box "Scheherazade" AM/AOS (C aurantiaca x Lc Anzac)

     At this point, I was the owner of 9 orchid plants: 2 phalaenopsis, 2 oncidium, 2 paphiopedilum, 1 dendrobium, and 1 angraecoid.  Room under my lights was starting to run out.  I had representatives of most of the common orchid subtypes, but I had intentionally neglected the cattleyas.  The catts (also known as corsage orchids) have a very large following, but I just didn't see what the fuss was about.  All the orchid-selling websites seemed to have huge selections of cattleya hybrids, but none of the photographs of those blooms really impressed me.


     I changed my opinion on the catts after seeing a few specimens in person at the botanical garden in DC.  These blooms are often massive, overwhelming the plants.  What looked like messy crumpled flowers on the photographs, were large resplendent blooms in real life.  At that point I decided to give cattleya culture a try.  Enter the Slc 'Scheherazade.'


     I purchased this plant from the same vendor who sold me my den victoria reginae, and my paph sanderianum.  The vendor's nursery was local to New York, and both my previous plants from him had shipped in pristine condition.


     The orchid arrived with two flower sheaths.  Flower sheaths are simply leaf-life growths at the tops of pseudobulbs which indicate that the orchid may bloom from those pbulbs when in season.

sheath #1

sheath #2

     I haven't noticed any change in the plant over the last 2 months, except for one new root near the surface of the media.  However, if all goes well, I may be able to see flowers around February.  I will be monitoring the sheaths for any developments.  

Edit (2/23/12): I came to the understanding that due to taxonomical shakeups in the cattleya genus, the slc Jewel box has been renamed to cattlianthe (ctt) jewel box.  I will refer to the plant by its current name from now on.