My hubby doesn’t generally say much about orchids. And if he does, it’s normally something in the line of: “Do you really need another one?”

So when we walked into an orchid nursery on our last holiday in South Africa, and he saw this yellow cattleya with one, sad looking wilting flower and with surprising enthusiasm exclaimed: “Wow! We’ve got to buy that one!!!”  I just knew we had to buy that one, regardless of whether I actually really wanted it or not.

Now, a few weeks later I feel that I’m growing to like this orchid and that I begin to look at it the same way as hubby. While I was taking pictures of it in the greenhouse today, I spent a bit of time just looking at it from different angles, through the lens, but also directly. I’ve got to admit it’s really a charming little thing in it’s simplicity and with the bright, yellow colour that just makes you happy!

I like the fringed lip and I like that it does not have a lot of pattern. It’s tempting to put on a tag saying Brassolaeliocattleya Yellow Imp, because it’s really very, very close, but I’m going to stick with the No ID for now. It’s probably safe to say that this is at least a close relative.

This plant is the perfect candidate for re-potting.

Gosh, it really desperately needs one, but I find that I’m reluctant to take it our of its’ current pot. I actually don’t want to disturb it at all. It got loads of new growths developing and I’m hoping that this plant will be a reliable flowerer that will push out new buds every few months.  Funny thing about this one is…It was on its’ way out the pot, climbing over the side and hanging out in the air with a few growths and then changed its’ mind and turned around and crawled back into the pot so the newest growths are now actually in the center of the pot.  Not the worst spot to be since the old bulbs in the center have dried out and left an open spot for new growths there.

I don’t think there’s much growth medium left in this pot, it’s probably mainly old roots and some gravel. Maybe I should just leave it that way. Seems to be a safe way to limit the risk of over-watering.

Anyways, I’m not planning to do anything at all with it now. I’m just going to enjoy the flowers.