Catasetum pileatum var. imperiale

[AdamD]

Yes, it's 'SVO Blood Red'. I bought a tiny piece from Stephen Moffitt two years back. Honestly I didn't know if it would survive. It didn't do much the first year. It rebounded nicely this year, until one night in July we had a terrible storm with 75mph sustained winds. Beat up all my plants pretty bad. This one in particular. Snapped one out of four leaves. Somehow it pulled through and put on quite a bit of mass. I'm surprised it bloomed this year.

I have to say pictures don't do it justice. The substance of the flowers is amazing, the texture of the lip is like porcelain. This plant is a stud for sure. I can't wait for it to grow up. Enjoy

 

[SlipperFan]

That is stunning!

 

[abax]

Gorgeous color and looks like it's made of red wine.

 

[Mark Karayannis]

Magnificent

 

[NYEric]

..until one night in July we had a terrible storm with 75mph sustained winds. Beat up all my plants pretty bad. This one in particular. Snapped one out of four leaves.

How did the winds get inside your house? oke:

 

[AdamD]

lololol I grow outside in an open sided shade house when the lows stay above 60F. The plants are in hanging pots

 

[Ozpaph]

great colour

 

[Happypaphy7]

Good save.

I'm really partial to the white flowering variety, so I bought one (Dinner Plate x Jumbo Green Gold).
It was a very small plant, well, the size the two pseudobulbs it came with last winter. The newer growth grew to about 6 inch tall, which is about twice as tall as the previous growth, still rather small, but it started two spikes in late August. I was super excited!!!

Then, just as the buds were showing, one spike suddenly turned yellow and dried up in days. The remaining spike had three buds which made it to open bloom just recently.
Those green buds right before opening looked like peppers!
When they finally opened, I was disappointed the flowers were not white, but more like the other parent, green and yellow.
Also, all flowers had varying degree of shape issues.
One was terribly malformed, one had split lip with this horn at the back side, and the best looking flower had a lip with uneven lip.

Plus, the flowers stayed fresh for about two days.
It took about two days to fully open, and then two days looking fresh, then the tips of petals and sepals except for the lip started to look tired.
They are still on the spike, but the green has faded into yellow now. I had fun triggering the pollen pop out last night since the flowers were nearly spent anyway. That was fun!

I don't think I want to buy any more Catasetum.
I know I'm not a Catasetum person, and it has been confirmed this year trying some. I'll stick to Swans.

This from two days ago, showing the "best" of the three.

 

[blondie]

That's a lovely read congrats

 

[AdamD]

Yea the flower longevity is not great, but I think that’s adds to the allure for me. A day or two of enjoyment never leaves time for you to grow tired of the flowers. Some paphs I catch myself muttering under my breath “just fall already!”

 

[Happypaphy7]

Hey, you can always cut them off, but dead flowers don't come back to life. haha