catasetum Gerhard Leiste (ctsm jumbo pearl x pileatum)

Grown this particular one from seedlings and finally flowered after 2 years. this is the first spike with three flowers. registered by Mr Tan Ching Heong, 8/7/2006. flower is about 3 inches across and with mild fragrance as most catasetums do. the coloration of the sepals are not as dark as depicted in the picture, mostly due to lighting effect. just slightly lighter.

However this particular hybrid had a labellum which its color is well contrast against the color of the petal. i got another compot of this Catasetum Gerhard Leiste, and i do hope they produce different variety of blooms. from what i observed in the nueery, some have a yellow back base flower with red freckles but nothing is close to this particular one. this would still be my favorite Gerhard Leiste!

catasetum cristatum

catasetum cristatum,belongs to the barbatum complexes of the catasetums.
the catasetum cristatum has also bearded structure like its brother, eg. the barbatum, gladiatorium, lanciferum and etc..
the distinction for the cristatum is that it has a rounded apex on the bearded structure.

just got this plant about three weeks ago. this one comes in quite a poor root condition, and i had removed it from the media immediately after the full bloom. as i removed the sphagnum moss and trimmed it till bare bulb. though the bulb are shrivel but still green and solid. i guess it will be sitting in the empty pots for several weeks before it send out a new keiki again.

just got this plant several days ago with the flower buds, not a very healthy plant and it's quite "shaky" (i guess the roots haven't really sets in or poor rotting system). and out of the four flower buds, two had died off, two more started to open up slightly yesterday.

usually when i purchased a pot of catasetums planted in sphagnum moss, i would pull them out of the pot and transfer to charcoal media (with or without removing all the moss) and they do pretty well with this method.

i got this denticulatum soaked in mix charcoal and moss, after three days of hesitation, finally i decided to do the same, and YES i was right, just recently re-potted with poor rooting system. transfer it to charcoal media in the same time keeping my finger cross as so far all the comments i got from several catasetums denticulatums' owners are "it's a difficult one" or "i had killed one of those before". well frankly speaking all these are giving me cold feet. Though i would proudly say that my mortality rate of catasetum had been very low so far, but my confidence for this one so far is pretty "shaky" as the plant.

the first picture is to show the comparative size of the denticulatum flower to other ctsm counterpart like the ctsm chong keng yong in the first pic (flower about 3inches across)

catasetum incurvum

Finally, i manage to obtain two catasetums from my primary wishlist namely catasetum incurvum and catasetum denticulatum. I would say that it is quite a fruitful day for as i had total of four catasetum species from the haul. Another two new members to the family are catasetum purum and catasetum barbatum.

originally this plant was classified together with Catasetum saccatum but was then later recognized as a species of its own. the name incurvium is derived from the word "incurvus" which is referring to the lip that curls inwards as the bloom matures.

other synonym for this plant would be Ctsm. saccatum var. incurvium, Ctsm. stupendum and Ctsm. trautmannii

the pics here are catasetum incurvum, in bloom when i purchased but i am determined to own my own bloom in the later days. It has been a long day, now i guess it's time to sit down with a cup of coffee and enjoy the bloom. here are the pics for the catasteum incurvum