Potinara Joy Sakabe “Shining” (Fusako Yamaoka x Lc. Irene Finney)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEN!!!

Water:  1-2x/wk (when media dry)

Humidity: 40-70%

Fertilizer:  20-20-20

Temp: Winter: day 60-70F, night no less than 55F; Summer: day 65-85F, night 60-65F

Light: 2,000 to 3,000 foot-candles (about 65-70% shade); Leaves should be a medium green color. Dark green foliage indicates too little light.

Air: do not allow breeze or draft over roots

Flowering: blooms last 3 weeks

Repotting: chopped bark, tree fern fiber, coconut husk chips, gravel or lava rock and even sphagnum moss; every 2-3 years in spring/summer; Place old growths near the edge of the pot and leading growths facing the center. Roots tend to grow upward, so the whole plant may need to be tilted with the leading growth tilted downward.

One whiff and the smell of the Shining haunted us for the rest of the day. Resistance was futile and we had to come home with this intoxicating scent. Perfumists were on hand at the SEPOS International Orchid Show capturing fragrances like this and hoping to reproduce them.

This is a Potinara which is (according to Wikipedia) a "nothogenus comprising those intergeneric hybrids of orchids which have Brassavola, Cattleya, Laelia and Sophronitis", AKA flower mutt.  Or alternatively bastard  which "Notho" in Greek. When a flower has so many parents, it is given a nothogenus name. Vocabulary, science, and orchids united in a learning adventure!

Plant from Waldor Orchids, Linwood,  NJ booth at the 2014 SEPOS International Orchid Show, Philadelphia, PA.

Information obtained from very detailed multipart series AOS Cattleya culture articles.