Beautiful!
Olya

Be still my heart! Hope my hurries up and blooms.
Marci

Bayard, where did you purchase that beauty? Short search on Google didn't unearth a listing.

Very pretty.

I want one! That's gorgeous. shirley

Wow! A beauty!!!

Sheila :)

Beautiful!!!

Jane

stunning.

Thanks for the comments!

john3 - Got this from Waldor Orchids, but it originally came from a member of our orchid society. It was labeled as a coerulea or coerulense, but it is actually a pale lavender. This plant has been around for years, but may not have been cloned. Anyone out there know more?

Bayard

Absolutely exquisite!~Charm

Gorgeous- I had a pink form that bloomed beautifully, but is no more.

Carol

Very beautiful Bayard! I like the blooms the way it presented itself.

Not to steal your thunder but somehow looking at your picture convinced me that the C.Leuddemanniana post I made earlier is actually similar to your plant. I had this nagging thought all the time that it might be a Mossiae because of the oval shape opening of the lip with a distinctive vertical stripe at the middle. The lip coloration/pattern is different from a typical C. Leuddemanniana I've seen. By the way, how big is your plant?

If you won't mind, can you post a close-up photo of the throat/labellum area? I would like to see the shape of the labellum to confirm my assumptions.

Thanks for sharing!!!

-Harvey

Just reading in a recent edition of AOS Orchids, Chadwick comments that one big difference in the two is the larger number of flowers per spike (4-5 normally) for mossiae, as opposed to two flowers for lueddemanniana. He also remarks on the more "conventional upright" shape of lueddemanniana flowers [as opposed to the more lax attitude of mossiae].

All in all, it looks like yours is indeed lueddemanniana.

John

GORGEOUS!!! and great photo quality!!

Harvey - I actually think your plant is C. mossiae. If you saw typical C. mossiae and lueddemanniana
flowers side by side, you could tell the difference immediately. My plant is about 15 inches tall. C. lueddemanniana plants tend to be smaller than C. mossiaes. Here is a detail of the lip:

Bayard - Thank you so much for the close-up picture. I totally agree with your opinion that it is a C. Mossiae. The overall flower shape/presentation and color scheme are the same although the lavender area on the lip is slightly darker in my plant.

By the way, this is my first C. Mossiae and is around 11" tall from the rhizome. I notice that this particular species tend to produce bloom sheaths even on small pseudobulbs. Not to generalize but this characteristic is evident on my other plant that I am awaiting to produce blooms --- C. Mossiae coerulea X self that I acquired recently.

Something for me to share:
My quest for C. Mossiae and C. Leuddemanniana pictures in the web to answer my question led me to a
website that have LOTS of species cattleya pictures.
Note that this is non-English website but the pictures are magnificent! I observed that there are other grexes that are new to me that are not being sold here in the US --- old crosses perhaps? (FYI Links to the various catt album is at the left navigation pane of the website).

Thank you!

-Harvey