Guarianthe skinneri coerulea 'Robert' x Guarianthe skinneri alba 'Viva el Jardin'

You may be more familiar with this genus of orchid by the name 'Cattleya'.  With all of the switching between genera, this one ended up in 'Guarianthe'.  Guarianthe skinneri is the national flower of Costa Rica.  It is a beautiful orchid that can have as many as 1,000 blossoms on one plant.  Once the flowers open, unfortunately, they do not last very long.  Usually, mine has lasted two or three weeks.

This season the blooms on this plant have been the best yet.  I cannot find any registration for this cross.  However, it is a cross between the cerulean color form and the white form of the plant. (Please don't ask me about the spelling of "coerulea".  That is the way it is spelled on the name tag of the plant.  I have seen this word spelled several different ways.  Probably because most, like me, are not sure of the spelling.  But based upon a check on the spelling before I wrote this blog, it seems that the world should be spelled "cerulean".)  The flowers seem to be more delicate the most skinneri.  The current blooms opened very fast.  Last night the buds were just barely beginning to peek open, and this morning I took these pictures.  There are still some buds on the plant that will probably open today or tonight.  This plant seems to like the 60 degree temperatures that we have had at night during the month of February.

When I bought this plant, it was already mature and in full bloom.  Unfortunately, whoever had put the plant in its wooden basket had mounted in with spaghnum moss around the roots.   That is a recipe for disaster for someone who grows these plants outdoors without cover.  The moss simply holds too much moisture and gets too soggy in our summer rains.  For awhile the plant just languished, so I started teasing out all of the moss.  I replaced the moss with only a slight amount of long tree fern fiber.  The plant began to recover and each season the blooms have gotten better. 

During the summer, the plant must be protected from direct sun.  It does best with about 30% to 40% of direct South Florida sun.  However, in the winter months, the amount of light needs to be increased.  These orchids grow in nature on deciduous trees so in nature they get more light during the winter months.  More light will result in more blooms and stronger, more upright blossoms.  In one of the pictures below, you can see a picture of a single inflorescence that is quite strong and upright with multiple blooms.

Do you have a Guarianthe skinneri?  Questions on how to grow it?  Send me an email and I will help in any way that I can.