The grand Laelia! Laelia grandis var. labelo vinho 'Red Wine' native to Brazil. Medium to large-sized plants. Blooms in the spring and summer with large, faintly fragrant flowers that last about 2 weeks.
Cattleya (Laelia) grandis does not have many different color forms, with varying degrees of pink on the lip, and a subtle range of light to dark golden brown for the petals and sepals. Flowering occurs in early to mid summer, with new growth initiated in the late summer.
Cattleya (Laelia) grandis appreciates high light (we grow it outdoors with Laelia anceps in summer), reflective of its native growing conditions of near full sun exposure at the top of tall trees. Well-drained media, with some drying between watering, is ideal.
This Cattleya (Laelia) species is native to coastal areas of Brazil, and as such, most cultural recommendations are to grow it warm — ideally needing 65F (18C) nights. It seems that the orchids and/or orchid growers in central and Northern California have not received this geographical memo!
Cattleya (Laelia) grandis — and many other Brazilian Laelia reputed to need warm conditions — are regularly grown in our area with nights to 50F (10C) (and sometimes lower in unheated greenhouses or outdoors on the coast). They bloom and thrive. Our cultivar came from the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate where it is grown outdoors year-round, with winter lows even dipping below freezing. We are not that bold in our growing of this species, and bring Cattleya (Laelia) grandis into the cool room (50F/10C nights) for the winter.
Cattleya species which it somewhat resembles, L. grandis flowers have no noticeable fragrance. The plant has a single leaf at the top of the pseudobulb and the flowers have 8 pollinia instead of the usual 4 in Cattleya which is why Lindley put the plant in the genus Laelia originally. L. grandis has very few color forms and most flowers have petals with varying shades of yellow and bronze and a lip with various amounts of purple lines. There is at least one variety that has greenish-yellow petals with no bronze color and a lip with almost no purple lines.
Laelia grandis var. labelo vinho 'Red Wine' has a dark wine colored lip, making a nice contrast with the lighter brownish bronze petals and sepals.
This is a blooming size in a 4" clay pot, newly repotted, not established, not in bloom, about 1 to 2 years to bloom,grown from seed, limited!
Laelia grandis is perhaps the rarest Laelias from Brazil and it has never been available in large quantities during its entire history.
Laelia grandis, is believed to be the scarcest of its kind and has never been widely available. It was first introduced to the horticultural community in Morel's greenhouse in 1849. However, The Gardeners' Chronicle reported in 1864 that they had not seen a single plant for many years, but were happy to hear that Hugh Low & Co. had managed to import a few more specimens. Despite its introduction, L. grandis remained relatively unknown and exceedingly rare, as noted by Warner and Williams in their magnificent Orchid Album in the late 1800s. Today, the species remains the rarest laelia in any orchid collections throughout the United States.
