I heat at 40 anything...Here it will go down to 53. Bring them in and any vanda or cat needs protection too, blooming or not.

Mine can stay out even down into the 40's for days and still do very well as long as the roots are kept dry at that time...I have one sitting on a porch where temps get no higher than the fifties and it loves it there.

I do the same as Mike.

Jane

I have some catts in trees that are on there own when it comes to low temps. With cold winters the flowers are small. The catts that are heated at 50 and up are much more productive. There are some species that are more tolerant. But I have vandas also. I heat to protect the vandas and all the others get the benefit.

Cattelya bloomed in the house during recent cold snap in FL. Will try to post photo. Still having difficulty posting photos from iPhone.....

I heat at below 50, not in the 50's...The vanda's are the common denominator. all the rest come along for the ride. Do you allow your vanda's below 50?

Here is an old pic of my tree grown vandas . In the background on the palms

there is a group of mixed strap and teretes Only the palm mounted get winter protection and then only in the 30 's originally all were grown in a GH but were moved out in 98. I have better pix of the group if interested I got tired of fighting the wandering roots which is the reason I moved them out lol

One hybrid of a strap/terete has surpised me as it's over 9 feet tall !! Had no idea they got that big lol gary

Gary, I forgot about my teretes. I have them in trees, on my front mailbox and 2 unmoveable clusters on my pool deck. They never move and never protected. The toughest most tenacious orchid I have. In the twin hurricanes go 04 some got buried for months under debris. When found they were perfect. The one on the mailbox get direct west sun and takes it no problem. And a few are blooming just a little due to the very warm weather.

My teretes over the years have been exposed to temps in the high 20's and as hot as the high 90's. Never a sign of exposure.

I am very envious of this conversation as I sit here in Ohio with 14 degree weather.

I lived in Columbus before moving to FL 13 years ago. I feel your pain/cold/wind etc.!

It is 14 outside, Yesterday was 39.

Seriously, there is such variation in Cattleyas that sorting out is required. Some are very cold tolerant, others need warmth all year.

"Sorting out" begins with flowering season. I suspect that most of the spring flowering types need a bit of winter while the Autumn flowering types go to sleep in winter and are not a worry. That leaves the ones that flower in winter which may be the most difficult.

There is all this fuss about minimums which may not be much of a worry if the day

temps lift.

45F lifting to near 70F is much better than continuous temps in say the 50's F.

The good thing about growing indoors under lights might be the great control over the conditions.