If anyone is gaga over art shade cattleyas, check out Slc. Final Touch 'Mendenhall', AM/AOS (California Apricot x Lc. Drumbeat). Carter & Holmes may still have it for sale. When you cross a yellow cattleya with a lavender one, you usually get yellow or a reddish purple. Starting with C. Barbara Kirch (Gur. aurantiaca x bowringiana), sometimes you get lucky and the colors combine the way you want. Sometimes it takes two generations. I believe you only get a few art shade plants in a litter. There are some yellow Final Touch clones in the trade. My 'Lemon Chiffon hasn't bloomed yet.
'Mendenhall' is not a mini-catt. It is what they call compact. Plant habit and flower size & form are very much like its half-sibling Hazel Boyd. The three awarded Final Touch are all what the judges called peach. I suspect color varies with light, temperature, and the age of the flower. Mine is a tawny apricot-peach, with some other fruits thrown in. Basically, the sepals & petals are solid yellow, completely overlaid with solid light lavender. The lip is orange-yellow and ruffled. The bottom half is very dark red. Deep in the throat are the red lines which tell you there is C. dowiana in the background.
I'm really enjoying it.
Iris
A tree never hits an automobile except in self defense. - Woody Allen
_______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
