Pot. Dick Smith 'Paradise'

Yellow Flowers with Electric Magenta Flaring That Light Up the Bench

A classic Hawaiian Cattleya-alliance hybrid that proves you do not need a sprawling greenhouse to enjoy massive, high-impact blooms. It grows with clean, compact vigor and throws huge flowers that hold their texture like heavy porcelain.

Each flower opens five to six inches across in a bright sunshine yellow, slashed across the petal tips with bold, feathering flaring in deep red-magenta. The frilled lip carries that same intense magenta clear to the edges, opening into a glowing golden throat. It looks less like a flower and more like a sunset pinned to a leaf.

You get all the show-bench drama of a full-sized Cattleya on a plant that stays neat, manageable, and easy to fit on a window ledge. The substance on these petals is thick enough to keep the display crisp for weeks, backed by a light, sweet scent when the morning sun hits the bench. It gives you maximum splash-petal color without asking for half your growing space to do it.

Quick Care Guide

• Light: High, filtered light. An east or west window with bright light where leaves stay a crisp apple-green.

• Water: Drench thoroughly, then allow the potting medium to dry almost completely before watering again.

• Temperature: Nights 58–65°F, days 70–86°F. Intermediate to warm conditions suit it best.

• Fertilizer: Balanced orchid fertilizer applied weakly every week during active root and pseudobulb growth.

• Mature size: Leaf span stays around ten to twelve inches; flower spikes reach ten to fourteen inches tall.