Cattianthe Jewel Box 'Scheherazade' in bloom again

Cattlianthe Jewel Box 'Scheherazade'

 

     These flower developed incredibly quickly (by orchid standards).  In February, I posted about the pseudobulb finishing its growth, with a hint of swelling in its sheath.  Less than two months later, I had two open flowers (03/26/13).  This sets the length of bud maturation at around 6 weeks.

 

Cattlianthe Jewel Box 'Scheherazade' closeup

 

     The flowers are unscented, and about 3 inches in height and width.  The color is a deep scarlet, with orange near the lip.  This makes a great difference from the last blooming, when the flowers had a paler and pinker magenta tone.

   

Summer blooming on left, winter blooming on right

 

     The difference in color is the result temperature variation.  Last years flower buds developed in the heat of NY summer (flower opened in mid June 2012).  The heat led to a more adulterate red coloring.  Meanwhile, the current flowers developed during February and early March, when nighttime temperatures often decended into the 50s (if not lower) where the orchid grew.  As a result, the red color is much more intensified.





 

Two new growths mature on Ctt Jewel Box 'Scheherazade'

Cattlianthe Jewel Box 'Scheherazade'

     The new growth I posted about in October has matured and fully opened its leaves, as has the growth before that.  The newest leaves are on average an inch longer than the older leaves, and the newest pseudobulb is taller as well.  All signs point towards a healthy growing plant.

     The newest leaf has some physical damage at its tip, which is entirely my fault. Impatient for the leaves to finish opening, I tried prying the two halves apart before they were ready.  Instead, I ended up ripping some of the leaf's tissue.  No serious harm done, though it does mar the look of the foliage.

     Both pseudobulbs opened with sheaths.  The one on the older pb has since dried up, while the newest one is freshly green and (possibly) swollen.  I'll know soon if there's anything to be seen there.

Dried out sheath 

Possibly swollen sheath on newest pseudobulb

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.