Welcome to the newly reformatted Orchid Ezine. I want to welcome all of you to this exciting new chapter for the Orchid Ezine. I hope to make the publication on a more regular basis. I am trying to get enough material together to be able to publish once a month. If any of you have anything you would like to share from culture information to unique experiences to even an ode to your orchids. Please submit it to
paste it into the newsletter format. I look forward to hearing form you whether it is to submit an article, a question, an idea you would like to see an article on, or just a comment you would like to share with us. I look forward to an exciting year and I hope you will enjoy the Orchid Ezine as much as I do. Sincerely, Fred Williams
me at bulboboy@earthlink.net. Each submission will be reviewed and you will be notified if we intend to use your material in an upcoming newsletter. We will continue to have exciting articles written by commercial growers, hobbyists, and now and then a taxonomist. Your articles may include pictures or art work if you wish. The best format to submit your articles is in a Word document. From there we will cut and
Catasetums
The genus Catasetum offers their grower a unique and rewarding display of flowers. For those of you that already have them in your collection, summer time is the peak blooming period for this unusual genus. For the most part this is a very easy genus to grow and flower if a few simple 'rules' are followed. During the spring and summer the large pseudobulbs start the new growth at the base. They grow fast and furious through the spring and
summer. During this time they benefit from lots of water and heavy feeding. Each new growth has lush leaves numbering about 6. They can grow to a full foot in length. They grow well in same light as a Cattleya and in the same potting media. I use both coconut chips with charcoal added and straight osmunda. I grow them in clay pots or in hanging wooded boxes. The plants generally bloom in the summer and have large waxy flowers.
The flowers are dimorphic and have female and male flowers that look totally different. The male flowers are usually the showiest. The flowers come in all colors from white to green to red to a dark mahogany that looks almost black. In the fall and winter the leaves will fall off and you will be left with a bare bulb. At this time reduce watering to almost nothing and wait until spring until the new growth appears and the cycle starts over again.
