My Three Queens

It’s that time of year again!! The Egyptian Queens are beginning their bloom cycle.  I am very, very excited.  My Inner Fire has already bloomed and this is the first year in the past three that it has opened without any flaws,

Potinara Egyptian Queen ‘Inner Fire’

I shot this pic today out in the potting shed.  As Inner Fire goes this one is almost as perffect as they get.  As I mentioned in a previous post, these plants are clones of clones, which have been cloned from clones.  Inner Fire is usually a weak growing, poor bloomer.  I have seen a few healthy examples in other collections.  Mine, well, I’ve got three, are of the poor type.  Though there is hope from looking at this bloom.

It’s flat with the petals and sepals shaped properly and in the correct position.  The lip is elongated and shapped perfectly.  The colomn is shapped correctly and is in the right position.  The bloom is 5 inches across and is waxy and of good substance.  The color for a mature bloom is right on!  I’m thrilled.

This is a typical Inner Fire bloom.  Note the flower shape and the petal growing out from the left of the colomn.  The lip is deformed and it developed extra petals and sepals.  The color is way too orange as well.  This is the result of damage from over cloning.

Since my last post on the Egyptian Queens, I’ve collected the parent plants and have already begun remaking this hybrid.  The seed pods are developing as they should. Once the pods are ripe I’ll send them off to a lab instead of doing the flasking myself.  I’ll have better success with a lab than doing the work in my kitchen.

My Egyptian Queen ‘Desert Eve’ has produced two shoots this year with seven flower heads.  It’s in what we call, “fat bud” meaning it will be open in less than a week.  I have an AOS judged show coming up at the end of the month and I will most definitely exhibit this plant.

Potinara Egyptian Queen ‘Desert Eve’

This is a  good example of a Desert Eve in bloom.  The flower shape is flat with the petals and sepals in the proper position and are of the correct color.  Note the pink color of the colomn.  On the Inner Fire, the colomn is always white. The lip resembles it’s Cattleya bicolor parent, is properly shapped with the ruffeling we would expect from this clone.  I can’t wait to photograph mine when it opens.

Potinara Egyptian Queen ‘Black Diamond’

This is a retouched pic of a Black Diamond.  They never open that red.  Don’t get me wrong, they are red. So red they’re almost black. Be that as it may, the flower is once again flat with the white tips on the sepals.  The petals are shaped properly for a Black Diamond.  One of these flowers is an amazing sight to see.  They are unbelieveable.  The flowers are 5 inches across, thick and waxy with good substance.  There is a sheen on them which makes the flower look as if it’s sparkling.  The colomn is aleays white like the Inner Fire.  The lip retains the shape of its Cattleya bicolor parent.

My Black Diamond produced one new shoot this year with a massive bud sheath.  The buds are just developing so it has a ways to go before blooming.  Last year it produced 3 wonderful flowers.  I’m hoping for at least 4 this year.  As is usual with the Black Diamond, only I know where it is in the stud house collection…..and I still visit it every day.

Potinara Egyptian Queen ‘Black Diamond’

This is a pic of an unhealthy Black Diamond.  I included it because the color is closer to how the flower is colored. It is unfortunate the flower opened so ugly as there are very few good photos of these plants available.

Potinara Esther Costa

Esther Costa is the seed parent of Egyptian Queen.  Note the shape of the petals and sepals.  She passed that shape on to her Egyptian Queen progeny. Cattleya bicolor is in her geneology as well.

Cattleya bicolor

Cattleya bicolor is the pollen parent of Egyptian Queen.  Note the shape of the lip.

Since Egyptian Queen is over 50% Cattleya bicolor, culturing these guys is a bit difficult.  They have to be grown like a bifoliate cattleya. That means they have to be potted in a very course medium so their roots dry out between waterings.  The bifoliate cattleya are very “twitchy” that way.  They’re prone to root rot and will sulk if the roots are disturbed at the wrong time of year.

Repotting has to be done only when new roots begin to develop. Bifoliate cattleys do not grow branching roots.  If they’re repotted at the wrong time, damaged roots will rot and the plant will sit and sulk untill it eventually expires.  I killed my first Eqyptian Queen that way.  Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to bifoliate orchid culture.

I look forward to the Egyptian Queen bloom festival every year.  They are special to my heart and make my passion for growing orchids ever stronger.