Like large, pink bubbles arising from a sea of deep green, Ctna. Haleahi Bubbles' blossoms, form at varying heights. Buoyant, pink blossoms are accented with white and varying shades of magenta. Number of blossoms range from one to five on initial flowering. The crossing of C. Moon Festival with Ctna. Maui Maid has produced a relatively uniform population with slight variation in shape, color intensity, and placement. Both parents were white and so how is it that colors were expressed?

C. Moon Festival (= C. Hawaiian Jewel x C. walkeriana) was selected from a sampling of over three hundred plants with focus on flower count, shape, substance, and the ability to bloom on each growth. We were able to select five stud plants. From the hundreds of sib plants generated, we have so far seen only pure white with a yellow lip, in both generations.

My first encounter with Ctna. Maui Maid was in Maui, where I saw many pink versions. The flowers were extremely flimsy and didn't draw my interest until I found a couple pure white Ctna. Maui Maids in bloom three years later with significantly more substance. These were also "sibbed", and they are continuing to produce flowers of all white, and not a single pink.

Ctna. Maui Maid

Thus both parents and all their progeny, when kept within their gene line has produced all white blossoms. Mendelson's theory of dominant and recessive doesn't seem to apply here or else the probability would account for some pink in each sib crossing. So how did the pink become expressed? Anyone have a theory that can explain all of this? The best theory I've heard is that alba blossoms may be a result of an incomplete genetic component sequence that is related to pigment production. Both parents and all their genetic line may lack a particular segment to produce the pigments, and so when they are matched to another set of different chromosomes lacking different components they can complete the link, and thus produce the pigments for the color pink.

But maybe we need to modify this theory to accommodate how we see color. Or if we consider pixels of color we complicate the model to an even greater extent. If we "sibbed" Ctna. Haleahi Bubbles would we get a percentage of whites?

In the meantime, Ctna. Haleahi Bubbles shows exceptional vigor and their foliage show genetic disease resistance. Flower substance is substantial, especially for a cattleytonia, and blooming is early and frequent for a fair number of the progeny. The plants are also neat and compact, the majority with upright and sturdy stems holding the blossoms in a showy presentation. The drawback is only pinks and magentas with no pure whites. The lips are frilly and the vast numbers are extra sweet with fragrance. The majority of the flowers are also held quite a few inches above the foliage, which makes for a wonderful display.
Flower size is larger than a golf ball, and nearer to a tennis ball as plants mature.

Will this be a prototype of plants to come? We particularly enjoy cultivating Cattleya Alliance that grow vigorously in a compact form, where spikes emerge followed by a bounty of blossoms. We like plants that are trouble free, with flowers that are fragrant and relatively long lasting. Ctna. Haleahi Bubbles is all of this.