Mini-Catts

The mini-cats are plants that will stay under 5” tall and bloom in a 3-4” pot. It is not uncommon for mini-cats to bloom twice a year. Mini-cats, although not as popular as they were in the 80’s and 90’s, still command attention and are making a come back. The modern breeding has developed plants that are heat tolerant, produce larger flowers, brilliant colors and superb shape. Some of the excellent parents being used are: Sc. Beaufort, Slc. Tangerine Jewel, Sl. Minipet, and Lc. Mini Purple. There is always space for one or two more of these brightly colored mini-cats in every collection.

Compact Cattleyas

The compact growing Cattleya’s have been gaining considerable interest with hobbyist for some important reasons.

• Plants will stay under 12” tall and bloom in 4”- 5” pots.
• Space savings and more plants per sq. ft. makes for more flowers per sq. ft.
• Flowers are appealing, with large size and wide range of colors.
• New hybrids are bred to carry the flowers well, on strong stems that don’t require staking.
• They grow well under a wide range of cultural conditions.

The proven breeding plants used in the development of compact Cattleya’s are; Lc. Tokyo Magic, Blc. Love Sound, Pot. Rubescence, Lc. Culminant, Lc. Mini Purple and Slc. Circle of Life. There are also some promising newer plants that have the all the traits of a good parent like: Pot. Martha Clarke, Blc. Izumi Charm, Lc. Dimity, Lc. Love Passion, Slc. Sierra Gem and Pot. Pure Love. This parental stock will impart a strong growth habit and reliable blooming to their progeny.

The crosses listed below are the most modern breeding and will raise the bar for future hybrids. There are many outstanding hybrids here with great potential.

Standard Cattleyas

These standard size Cattleya’s will mature at 12” to 24” tall. They possess the similar growth habit of “Compact Cattleya’s”, just taller. These are bred to have strong stems caring 5 or more flowers and will be very impressive when blooming at mature size. These make excellent display plants for orchid shows and most will bloom during the spring show season.

Spotted Cattleyas

Spotted flowers have been a favorite of mine for years. Seeing those wonderful spots in the heat of summer is a spectacular sight. Today the development of spotted breeding include flowers that bloom in colors ranging from cream, yellow, pink, orange, green, and bronze. They can be speckled, spotted and blotched. The use of C. Mark Jones has improved petal width and size. While the hybrids with Lc. Jungle Elf, Slc. Jungle Gem and Blc. SunCoast Sun Spots will add their yellow color to the flowers.

An amazing variety of color, spotting and patterns are possible. These new hybrids are bred to carry the flowers well, on strong stems, and have compact plant sizes to be bloomed in 4”-5” pots.

Coerulea (blue) Cattleyas

In Cattleya’s the ‘coerulea’ color or ‘blue’ as it is referred to is very intriguing and rare in nature. In the early years of blue breeding there were not many known species in this coerulea color, so breeding was limited to a few possibilities. Almost always the crosses were slow to mature and produced large plants due to the influence of the known blue species at the time. Today, we have many species and hybrids to breed with, and the quality of blue flowers has been improving rapidly. Plant habit and speed to bloom have also been addressed; we now have compact plants blooming in 4” pots.

Species

I have been collecting select and awarded Cattleya species for many years. The collection is now over 700 plants. Recently, I started line breeding the best plants to have these choice and often hard to find Cattleya species available for the hobbyist. Here are some of the first things to come from the lab with many more to follow in coming years.