Description
It seems that every violet/purple orchid species gets bred in a quest to develop a true blue flower. Well, it seems that like beauty, blue is in the eye of the beholder. Cattleya maxima is an outstanding exemplar of the Cattleya genus, with big blooms on sometimes big plants (there is a lowland form which is tall, and an upland form which is shorter). There have been many individual plants of this species that had violet blooms approaching what one might call blue, making this type very desirable amongst collectors, and breeders. Every orchid breeder on the coerulea bandwagon is hoping to get a true blue, and maybe that will happen someday. Most attempts seem to intensify the violet, which still makes for a very desirable bloom even if it falls short of actual blue.
The plants we’re offering were all grown from seed, so you might just get lucky and bloom a true blue Cattleya. After all, if an iris can be blue, why not an orchid?
Catt. maxima was one of the earliest Cattleyas cataloged by Europeans (in this case, Spanish botanists in the late 1700s). It is tolerant of a wide range of conditions, making it a good species Cattleya for a newer grower.
