introducing colmanara wildcat Bobcat

I just adored my colmanara space race Topaz Gold orchid that I bought at the Victorian Orchid Show last year.  As a reminder, this is what he looked like in late October last year.  He even put out two flower spikes, you can see the second one in this photo.

As I've mentioned he's still growing strongly, putting out lots of new pseudobulbs.  But he hasn't put out any flower spikes yet, and last week the orchid show was back.  So I decided to pay it a visit and get another colmanara hybrid since I was so happy with this one.  It was so great to speak to the grower again (Woolf Orchid Culture in Queensland, which I'm happy to promote).  I found out the reason my Topaz Gold was getting brown leaf tips was because I'm using normal tap water which builds up salts in their potting mix.  So far that's the only fussy thing I've found with these hybrids; I'll try leaving water in a bucket and dunking them in to water them weekly and see if that helps.

But in the meantime, here's my new addition to the colmanara hybrid clan.  Introducing colmanara wildcat Bobcat!

If she's anything like Topaz Gold, her spike won't fully open until October.  When it does the flowers will be larger than Space Race and almost entirely dark blood-red with yellow edging.  Hopefully by then my Space Race will put out some flower spikes too, and I'll have orchids in bloom most of the summer!