Cattleya luteola: Nature's Little Pixie

摘要

I ALWAYS THINK OF CATTLEYAS as greenhouse plants because to grow them well you need to provide lots of sun, moving air, humidity and a night temperature around 58 F (14 C), which is a little cool for the average home. There is a notable exception to this rule, however, and that is Cattleya luteola. The smallest of the Cattleya species, C. luteola flowers well, not only in a greenhouse, but also under ordinary fluorescent lights, in a confined area with virtually no air movement. Although I still growa few plants of C. luteola in my greenhouse, most of my C. luteola now sit under fluorescent lights in my basement in a small room built to raise Cattleya seedlings in flasks. The room maintains a temperature of 70-75 F (21-24 C) at night, and when thefluorescent lights go on in the morning, the temperature rises to 85 F (29 C) and remains there until the lights go off in the evening. There are no fans in the flask room, and my C. luteola plants produce a constant flush of new growths and are in flower year round. I grow them in 3-inch (7.5-cm) clay pots in sphagnum moss that is not packed too tightly. Most of the plants I have came from Kenneth Tokach of FarWest Orchids in Lake-wood, Washington, where he grows them on cork slabs in a warm greenhouse with fairly bright light, so C. luteola can accommodate a range of conditions not usually acceptable to other cattleyas. Its most important requirement seems to be a warm climate day and night.