Large-Flowered Cattleyas part 2a -- a new Cats and Catts Video

This is the latest effort from the Cats and Catts video production team.  We're walking through the large-flowered Cattleyas mentioned in Chadwick and Chadwick's The Classic Cattleyas (Timber Press, 2006).  Video 2a looks at the first six in order of their botanical description (labiata - trianaei).  Videos 2b and 2c will cover the remaining eleven species.


The video offers a few fun facts about each of the species.  It's only three minutes long so the presentation is, of necessity, superficial.  My ambitions are modest.  I like to start with basic facts and ideas and then build on them later.  


The Riley Method combines the Suzuki Method of music instruction with the memory techniques of Harry Loranye.  I experienced the Suzuki method for a brief couple of years as a youngster when I took violin lessons. What stands out for me in that experience was the mind-numbing repetition of listening to tape cassette recordings of someone else playing violin.  Eventually, I just "heard" this music like a ghost in my ears and I was supposed to reproduce that in the instrument.  Similarly, there's tremendous value in seeing specific species of orchids over and over.  Part 1 of this video series is the "Suzuki" moment where you kick back, listen to the Grateful Dead, watch the pretty flowers, and passively absorb the information.  


Part 2 engages the memory.  The Harry Lorayne memory technique uses exaggerated images to create chains of images that are essentially a "story."  Crazy stories are easier to learn than Latin words and abstract facts.  That's (kind of) the idea.  If you don't like it, blame the kitties.

The Riley Method -- Large Flowered Cattleyas part 1

Riley and Sabine have been furiously working on a new orchid education project.  "The Riley Method," as they describe it, combines the immersion/internalization dimension of the Suzuki Method with the memory techniques of Harry Loranye.  

Bean turned her researcher's eye to Chadwick and Chadwick's The Classic Cattleyas (Timber Press, 2006) and identified the seventeen large-flowered species as a good place to start.  This video, the kitties assure me, is only an opening stage of the Riley Method, and only an initial step in learning about the large-flowered cattleyas.  According to Selena Sabine, this video represents the first level of "Bean's Taxonomy," whatever that means.  I'm sure she will follow up with a post about it soon enough.  Until then, enjoy Cats and Catts' inaugural youtube video: