I have only 3 cattleya alliance plants, and the same problem with all of them: they have nice new growths, but most of them bearing empty flower sheaths. any idea why it happens and how to prevent this? :(
thanks,
amber

I don't know about Catts but with slippers, I think it is usually caused by cultural and environmental conditions. Hope you get some answers to your Catt question!

Cattleya with empty flower sheath do happen because they may decide to rest or the condition such as daylength may not be right so they don't flower. For example Cattleya mossiae require short days to induce flowering. It depends on the species involved in the Cattleya alliance.

Paphman

There was a pretty long and controversial thread on this one on the OSF site not that long ago.

Day length was mentioned as well as total light levels, and winter low temps.

Allot of folks felt that most catts needed a period of time with extended dark cycles to get past the empty sheaths. Kinda like what it takes to get pointsetias to turn their red leaf thing.