Clowesia Rebecca Northen

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Oh gee, you managed to bloom it and that says a lot! Yes, we would love more open flowers perhaps, but the flowers have a certain charm. But for me, a little “cuppiness” is acceptable.
 
Here is one that I ran into on the judging table late last winter.
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Now we tried, I tried to find a reason to grant this a Cultural Award, a CCM. But as floriferous as it appears my argument lost steam with fellow judges.
These types of plants always present an issue. The lowest pointed CCM’s had more flowers then you see here. Even though the award goes to the grower in recognition of their good culture, this failed to get an award!
But I would love to have the plant! Clowesia Rebecca Northern.
 
MGP, I like the colouring of your flowers better than the the ones of the specimen plant, that Big C presents. Keep it and see where it goes - you can always discard it, if you are not content with what it develops into!

Keep it as an odor neutralizer next to a bulbo lol.
My dear Leslie, this is a traumatizing speciesist uttering... and I would urge every Bulbo, that have not yet grown to specimen size, to find a safe space and immediately take cover! It's a flagrant stereotypical, prejudiced statement, if ever there was one!
If I'm not totally mistaken, Bulbos are the largest - or at least one of the largest genus within Orchidaceae. And of course there are a few black sheep - or would rotten apples be a more appropriate expression, in the barrel: such as, mentioned by MGP, B. echinolabium (breath of Death) or B. phalaenopsis (dead and decomposing elephant). But may I remind you, and everyone else with ears to hear, of the lovely scent of B. ambrosia, B. lobbii and B dearei to mention, but a few!
I hope you stand corrected, but would of course never have dreamt of taking recourse to such harsh language, weren't it for the fact, that these vulnerable, innocent and highly misunderstood creatures couldn't speak on behalf of themselves! 😇 😇 😁 😁
 
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Year three.
Sixteen flowers on the first spike, with two more on the way.
Color is not great. Fragrance is powerful citrus/eucalyptus but also not great.
I see the potential for impressive displays, but...
I have a 'Grapefruit Pink' that has much nicer color and sweeter scent. Will post photos when fully open.
Also waiting on a 'Mikabi' AM/AOS to bloom.

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Yeah, I like the darker pink ones better but they seem harder to find now.
I regret for not getting some of the remakes that were offered eariler this year or last year.
I got a remake of Grace Dunn instead. It will be similar but almost quarantined to be white in bloom.
 
So on Rebecca Northen and Grace Dunn, I just want to weigh a little bit. I have grown both in the past, and they are both charming, but for me the fragrance is the tipping point on growing or not growing them. Last year I obtained a Rebecca Northen 'Mikabi' and bloomed it respectably. The story for me is the exponential growth of the pseudobulb. I have been using what I would call professional nursery fertilizer for just over the last two years, and the results are in that this is working, and of note, catasetum and clowesia are HEAVY feeders. I do not over rest these plants as I keep them at least evenly moist during dormancy never letting them get totally dry in the root zone. Never. The pics below are Rebecca Northen 'Mikabi'. It was obtained with two small bulbs and the new bulbs have more than doubled each year. The current lead is 13cm.high by 6.5cm wide and hopefully this huge improvement will result in better flowering. Cheers, I will post if results are noteworthy. I also just obtained some Grace Dunn from SVO and am hoping for good results with them.
 

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