A Merry Caulocattleya Chantilly Lace 'Twinkle ' Christmas

Wishing all my friends and readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love the dainty, lilac-coloured Caulocattleya Chantilly Lace 'Twinkle '.

Caulocattleya Chantilly Lace is currently my favourite Laeliinae orchid hybrid. There is a mild, nondescript but pleasant scent and the flowers come in bunches of 3 to 6 blooms that last about a month.

Vegetatively they resemble a large and robust Caulathron bicornutum plant and behave somewhat like their Caulathron bicornutum mother with the tendency to sulk a while if the roots were disturbed during repotting. However, once growth resumes they are quite forgiving and easy to rebloom.

Brassocatanthe Little Mermaid

This charming little orchid has only three species from three different genera in its genetic make-up, and it has inherited mostly the best qualities of each and every one of its parents. This plant is Brassocatanthe Little Mermaid.

Brassocatanthe Little Mermaid - the size of the flowers relative to the plant is huge!

Registered by Dogashima in 1997, which by the way makes this a 20 year old hybrid, is a cross between Cattleya walkeriana and Brassanthe Maikai. Bsn. Maikai is a rather old but pretty hybrid made up of Brassavola nodosa and Guarianthe bowringiana. Thus Bct. Little Mermaid is 50% C. walkeriana and 25% each of B. nodosa and Gur. bowringiana. However, the vegetative form of the plant is more like Bsn. Maikai, except for the broader leaves, which is not surprising as most B. nodosa hybrids look a bit like B. nodosa, with sub-terete leaves and narrow pseudobulbs.