It is definitely Cattleya trianae time in our Warm Americas section with three clones flowering at the moment. This is the more usual colour form with long lasting large flowers.

Cattleya trianae is the national flower of Colombia and is endemic to that country. In our greenhouses it always flowers in February and March where its very large flowers always create a stir. The lip colour changes to yellow up inside the lip presumably to help the pollinating bee locate its reward.

The other clones in flower this week are our Cattleya trianae ‘albas’ which are yellow and white apart from a slight pink edge to the lip (see below) so we call them albescens rather than alba.

We grow all our Cattleya trianaes in baskets filled with a course bark and no moss. The plants produce masses of roots and we keep them just damp in the winter but much wetter when in summer growth. We hang the baskets up in Warm Americas where they get lots of light (the auto shading is activated at 500 Whatts/ square metre)

We hope to lots of our web watchers at the Cheltenham Orchid Show today.