My C. warscewizii Quest

January 10, 2012 in Cattleya Species, Orchid Notes & Culture by Masood Raja

Of all the classic Cattleya species that I had set out to collect and grow, the quest for C. warscewizii turned out be the most interesting and also the most fortuitous. At first I could not find even a single plant on Ebay, and for one plant listed a few months ago the bids quickly exceeded my budget.

I then looked elsewhere to see if I could buy a plant from some commercial sellers but most of them either did not have it or their prices were too high for me.

Then suddenly, I found one seedling listed on Ebay (1 below) and I was able to buy it at a very affordable rate: it is now happily growing in my greenhouse.

Then a few weeks later, someone listed a flowering size plant on Ebay. Aware that the last plant of this size had gone for quite a hefty sum, I was not sure if I’d be able to get it but I placed my maximum bid anyway. I ended up winning the bid well within my budget, even though another bidder tried to “sneak-buy” it at the last moment. This plant (2 below) is on its way but it has also gathered a sister plant in the process. It turned out that the same seller was also selling some seedlings of C. Gigas (which used to be what C. warscewizii was originally called), so naturally I was interested. This was more interesting because this particular seedling is a very dark variety (3 below) and since it was being sold by the same seller, I could combine shipping. As a result both these plants are on their way. Thus pretty soon, I will end up having three varieties of C. warscewizii.

So, the ultimate lesson is that patience usually works but also a bit of information about the species also goes a long way. For example, had I not known that C. gigas used to be the original name of C. warscewizii, the third plant would have not caught my attention.

The details of the plants are provided below:

1. C. warscewiczii var semi alba ‘Katia’ x self