An Email Interview with Don Carley on Cattleya Culture

by Marianna Max

Don Carley is a member of the North Jersey Orchid Society, a long time grower of Cattleyas and other genera and recently retired so that he can devote more time to Orchid growing and granting interviews such as this one. Don grows in his Greenhouse, basement and on Windowsills as well as in a lathe house in the summer. Don has also started flasking his own crosses in a homemade flasking cabinet that he has set up in his basement. The following is an email interview with Don.

 If one wants to grow standard size Cattleyas what would you say are the minimum requirements? Can they be grown in the home or do you really need a greenhouse? 

 Yes, Cattleyas can be grown in the home. There are two possibilities, either on a windowsill or under lights or a combination of the two. Like all orchids, the better the growing conditions the better the plant growth and flower production. The conditions that one has to pay attention to are light, temperature and humidity. One can easily start on a windowsill, as I did with my first orchid (a Cattleya nearly 40 years ago). Of course good culture is as important in the home as in the greenhouse. Proper watering and picking the right time to repot are vital. 


Light 

The key to successful blooming of Cattleyas is enough light. In the summer they should have about 50 % of full sun and in the winter as much light as you can give them. In a windowsill the best exposure is southeast. A west or southwest window may be OK if it does not get hot in the summer. Don't even try to grow them in a north window. A good test if you are concerned about too much light is to simply check the leaf temperature by feeling it with the sun on it, if it is warm it is getting too much light and the leaf may burn.

 
Don standing next to his home built plant stand. Notice that the window light is supplemented with mounted florescent fixtures. Trays pull out for easy care of the orchids. 


A very good technique is to supplement whatever natural light you have with supplemental lighting. Either fluorescent fixtures with the special tubes for plants or the less expensive warm white bulbs may be used. If the light has to be far from the plants, flood-lights may be used. Extra lighting is probably a good thing to do in all windowsill growing. Supplemental lighting corrects one of the big problems with windowsill growing. Unless you are lucky enough to have a corner window the light comes from a single direction that means that much of the plant receives little light. Another good technique is to summer your orchids outside. Most of the growth occurs in the summer and the plants can really get a boost that will last year round. Find an area shaded from the midday sun and put them outside. Early and late day sun is OK, It is kind of like getting a sunburn at the beach, avoid the midday sun! Remember to check the leaf temperature.


Temperature 

Temperature is probably the easiest need to meet, Cattleyas like the same conditions people like. They do need a day/night differential of about 15 degrees. In the home a night temperature of 60 and a day of 75 degrees is ideal. As the day temperature goes higher the light and humidity needs to increase. 


Humidity and air circulation 

 Humidity is difficult to control in the home. The plants do best at around 50-60%. This is hard to achieve in the winter, too easy in the summer. Humidity trays do help. Make sure the plants are not sitting in water. They need to set on stones or screening or something else to keep their feet dry. I do not believe that trays alone work very well. I have found that adding a small fan, similar to those used to cool electronics, is a big help. Try to find 4 inch fans rated at about 7-14 watts depending on the noise level you can tolerate in the growing area. Seven watt fans can not be heard beyond 4-6 feet. I just bought 4 of these at a flea market for $2.00 each. Radio Shack has them for $15-20. They often come without a power cord. I solder on a cord and then insulate the close spaced electrical terminals with successive layers of glue from a hot glue gun, making sure the connection area is well covered. I insert a piece of coat hanger wire through the fan mounting holes and bend it so the fan sets at about 45 degrees. I then put the fan right on the shelf, blowing on the water tray under the plants. This not only makes the water evaporate faster, it also provides the needed air circulation for the plants. The real trouble that windowsill growers will face is that as you grow better and better and acquire more plants, you run out of windowsill, particularly with full size Cattleyas which will be in 7-8 inch pot when mature. The next step is to set up a system to grow entirely under lights. 


Whew! so it sounds like you have done nearly everything thing you can to maximize the amount of light that your Cattleyas get. It seems that there is no getting around it though, Cattleyas, at least the big standard ones, take lots of space. Do you have any recommendations for those people who want the beauty of the Cattleya blooms but can only find room on their window sills?

I would guess that more people grow Cattleyas on windowsills then anywhere else. Again as I have said earlier the key is good light. This means a window that will get several hours of bright light a day. South or southwest is probably best. Since most of the growth occurs during the long, warm days of summer, putting the plants outside in an area that will get light shade would help them store up energy for fall and winter blooming. Remember to check leaf temperature if you think they are getting too much light. 


There has been a lot of work by breeders to develop Cattleyas that are relatively small and bloom more then once a year. The blooms of some of these can be nearly as large as full size plants and are surprising large when compared to the plant size. There are also delightful small blooming varieties. These plants are ideally suited to the limited room on most windowsills. Another advantage of this breeding trend is that most of them bloom when the growth matures and thus are not very sensitive to day length or temperature to initiate the blooming cycle which is an advantage in the home. Growers such as Gold Country Orchids of California and H&R Nurseries (808-259-9626 or send a postcard to H&R Nurseries 41-240 Hihimanu Street, Walmanalo, Hawaii 96795) are very active in this mini-cat breeding. 

Another big plus is this approach is the wide range of colors, number of blooms pre spike and shapes available. These plants come in what is called miniature and compact. These don t seem to have very clearly defined sizes, miniatures seem to be less then 8-10 inches tall at maturity while compacts go up to about 15". I would suggest that people start with the compact size first, I think they are a little easier to grow. When mature they are in 4 or 5" pots and are thus easier to water. As well as the bright light you should try to have a day night differential temperature of 10-15 degrees F. The bright light and lower temperatures, about 60 degrees at night, help the plant to store up food better. The lower temperatures also let the blossoms develop more slowly producing better size and color.

A splash petaled Catt, one of many in bloom in Don’s Greenhouse during my visit following our trip to Parkside Orchid Fest.

You've been growing Cattleyas for many years. I assume that you still have some of the classic early hybrids. Can you tell us something about their breeding and do you have any that are particular favorites? 

Trying to identify a favorite is like picking a favorite grandchild, I love them all. The easy answer is that I like the one blooming now..............Seriously, I do have things that I look for in all my plants. 

Easy to grow and bloom 

In my plants, the way I grow, there is surprising variability. I have some plants that I have had for years that have never grown well enough to bloom. One of these is my first orchid cross. I made the cross in 1987 and only one of the plants is a consistent bloomer. I have several others of the cross that have never bloomed. If they did not have the distinction of being my first cross, I would have junked them. On the other hand there are plants like C. percivaliana Summit FCC/AOS that blooms reliably every Christmas. Another cross is one I got at an NJOS auction 20 years ago, C. Helen Krumbhaar. This plant was named in 1926 and is cross between C. Portia and C. trianae. It has never been awarded but it makes multiple growths and produces 5-6 five inch flowers on every new growth every year.

Another of Don’s Cattleyas	Resistance to rot and disease  There is also a wide range in the ability to resist black rot. One of the reason that the cross I made has taken so long to bloom is that is seems to be the first to exhibit black rot and often loses the new lead. Other Cattleyas never seem to be bothered by anything. They don t get black rot, their blossoms don t dry up or have premature wilting when we have air pollution.
Growth habit Maybe this is a strange one to put on the list, but some plants just behave themselves better.  One of the really famous group of old plants I have are several varieties of Blc. Norman s Bay. I have Low Gothic and Lucille. They are similar, all have large full purple blossoms. They also have a bad growth habit of very wide spacing between the pseudo bulbs. Low, which is the best and has a FCC is the worst for this. Spacing between growths is typically 1.5-2" which makes it very difficult to keep in a pot. If you follow the normal rule of thumb and allow for two years of growth a 4 bulb plant would go in a 10" pot!.	Cattleya percivaliana (not Summit). Plant grown by Dale Borders.

 What I end up doing is to try for multiple breaks and let it grow down over the edge of the pot. By the way, Low received an FCC in 1976 and is listed in the 1968 Jones and Scully catalog for $300! Other plants like a mini I have, Pot. Beaufort Gold, a cross between Blc. Waikiki Gold and Sc. Beaufort 'Yellow Lip" grows especially well. This is a really good minicatt and the cross has received at least 16 awards. It stays in the pot and grows in all directions with upright leads and compact rhizomes and blooms on every new growth I have used this in a cross with another good yellow that I have just flasked this and they are growing well.

Fragrance

Fragrance is often overlooked as a real plus in orchids. There is nothing nicer then going into the greenhouse and smelling something wonderful (or unpleasant, fortunately less common) and searching for the flowers that caused it. I have not kept track of my fragrant orchids so I do not have specific recommendations. I notice that many of the suppliers are now indicating which plants they think (crosses) or meristems (a near certainty) are likely to be fragrant.


This brings me to what I guess is my favorite Cattleya, Blc. Pamela Hetherington ‘Coronation’ FCC/AOS (Lc. Paradisio x Blc. Mount Anderson). It received an AM in 1977 with 86 points and an FCC in 1981 with 90 points. At this time meristeming was relatively new and to protect the clone Stewart Orchids patented it so it has only limited availability now. This plant has everything. It is easy to grow and blooms every year. It is also very fragrant. It has eight inch blooms, two to three blooms per stem. It is all you could ask for in a Cattleya. 





Don demonstrating his homebuilt flasking cabinet made from a large plastic storage unit.




Some of the growing Cattleya crosses that Don has made. Most of these flasks appear to be ‘Mother flasks’.

Thanks Don, for a Great Interview!