Due to an imminent communist coup, the SE and I have decided to pack up and move back to the heartland. Specifically Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: a hot barren ordhid desert. Why? The housing market is good and we have family there .

I am going through the collection to determine what is coming with us. Any plant that isn't thriving will probably be left behind or go into the waste can.

Perhaps one of the finest of the Mexican Encyclias, large well shaped blooms blessed with a pleasant fragrance in the mornining hours. Enc. cordigera has been the bedrock pollen parent of many succesfull and attractive clones. For example, it has been crossed with Lc. Rojo to produce Eplc. Charlie Brown and with Lc. Trick or Treat to produce Eplc. Orange Crush. Another example offered by Marble Branch Farms.

It also has a very pleasant growth habit with large apple sized green pseudobulbs tightly clustered together and topped with stiff leaves. The floral habit seems to be dominant even as the pollen parent; all of the offspring have that Encyclia 'look' about them. I'm pretty excited about this plant and its genetic potential...so far there are no registered crosses with other plants like Broughtonia. Crosses with Sophrolaeliocattleya are rare so there is potential for more interesting crosses. I have attempted a cross with the collected pollen of Slc. [Lc. Trick or Treat 'Spring Beauty' x Fire Lighter].

Newly in bloom, and none too soon, is Iwanagaara Appleblossom. This grex is a cross between Caulaelia Snowflake and Blc. Orange Nugget first registered in 1992. It is a great cross, lots of well-shaped blooms, vigor, fragrance, and thermotolerance; it can even live outdoors here in San Francisco through the winter.

The color blocking genes from the Caularthron grandparent cause the blossoms to fade as they age. Since the blooms open sequentially on the spike, there is a range of colors on the same spike.

There are 14 registered crosses using this plant as seed parent and eight as the pollen parent. Most are not well known with the exception of the Clarkeara line. This plant is of suffecient size that I am considering using it as a seed parent with either l. gouldiana, Encyclia cordigera f. rosea or Broughtonia sanguinea f. aurea.

Like nearly all horticulture there is a rhythm to cultivating orchids; the days shorten and lengthen and as the seasons pass and turn, plants initiate growth, flowering and set seed. In the artificial confines of our homes and greenhouses the grower attempts to manage the rhythm by withholding or supplying light, water, nutrients, etc. to trick the plant into behaving naturally mainly for the purpose of encoraging blooms.

In our setup we have prioritized plant functions as follows:

1. Root growth, development, and survival;
2. Foliage growth, development and survival; and
3. Floral display.

That being said, I have experimented with hand pollination of flowering orchids. So far my results have been mixed, out of the six or so attempted crosses only three have set pod. My first cross was attempted in November of 2005 as Brassavola nodosa x Laelia anceps 'Los Osos' which is a remake of Bl. Aurora which was registered a little over 10 years agon in 1995. This is a reciprocal cross as the registered grex has L. anceps as the pollen parent. This pod has begun to turn yellow and will be ready for harvest this week.

I'm expecting quite a bit of diversity for this cross, spotted flowers and improved thermotolerance. We'll see in a few years.

My next cross occured in February of this year between Anacheilium Green Hornet and Lc. Trick or Treat. I don't know what to expect from this cross, perhaps clusters of non resupinate orange flowers?

My final cross that has set pod is between Caulaelia Mizoguchi 'Cloud Cover' HCC/AOS and Slc. Tsiku Paradis. Tsiku Paradis is a miniature with Sophronitis cernua as a parent; it is truly tiny. I'm expecting the progeny to be much more compact than the Mizoguchi parent with light pink, yellow, or orange flowers held on a spike and good cool tolerance.

I'm nervous about these crosses as there are so many opportunities for things to go wrong. The pods may not have any viable seeds, the progeny may be weak growers, or have ugly flowers. I am expecting to have some of these negative results but am also holding out the hope that one of these crosses results in something new and innovative.

I'm a compulsive C. walkeriana purchaser. I can't resist the well shaped blooms and delightful fragrance. I also relish the thought that I am a skilled enough grower to coax these notoriously finicky plants to bloom.

In late February I had my first success, a single bloom from a plant gave me endless pleasure for the few short weeks it was blooming. This performance was augmented when another clone pushed out the leafless pseudobulb that signals flowering. When the flower opened, there was a rude surprise.
The petals, sepals and lip are all poorly shaped. The tumor of the right petal looks like a cold sore. I consulted with some peers on the net and the consensus is that this is not uncommon on small specimens of C. walkeriana. I am undecided as whether it will stay in the collection.

Many, many months ago in early September 2005, we took a day trip out to Livermore California to visit the cattleya nursery run by Frank Fordyce. While not as overwhelming as Gold Country Orchids, Fordyce had an interesting mix of cattleya hybrids, mostly Frank's own creations. Being a bit of a species snob, I took little interest in most of the offerings. We did come across a Laelia anceps hybrid that Frank claimed was a superior seed cross...the only problem was he couldn't remember quite what the flowers looked like. The plant had a small spike and I thought it would only be a matter of weeks until it bloomed. Well it turned out to be quite a few weeks now that nearly six months have passed since we purchased the plant.

The flowers have been well worth the wait, three diamond dusted beauties held proudly on a five foot spike. Like C. walkeriana, Laelia anceps exhibits quite a bit of phenotypic variation. This clone has large imposing pseudobulbs and a very tall spike, the other cloned that bloomed out in November, has small bulbs and a short spike. The spike was barely six inches long, but it only had one flower. The vendor, I believe Orchids of Los Osos, said that this was a superior clone; in comparison with other L. anceps that have bloomed for me thus far, it certainly has proved to have a lovely color and habit. I hope this trait is carried through into the attempted Bl. Aurora cross made in November.

The decision to purchase a new orchid is rarely a rational one; growers are often siezed with the thought of bringing something new into their collection or attempting a species with specific cultural requirements. Such was the case with the purchase of Rhyncholaelia [Brassavola] glauca v. alba during a recent orchid show. This is a large specimen sized plant, one of the largest in my entire collection. It was not in bloom, but I had a hunch that the developing sheaths would ripen with the promise of flowers. I was right. Three pseudobulbs delivered these oddly shaped flowers with an exagerrated lip. This clone lacks the red spot that is typically found in the throat of most B. glauca types.

And then there is the fragrance. When the lights dim at night, the air filled with a heady scent akin to lemon vanilla with a hint of jasmine. Very exotic. An attempt to pollinate these flowers with the L. anceps and C. walkeriana pollen failed. These plants may make better pollen parents since the 'neck' that gives these laelia relatives their taxonomic name may make pollination difficult.

After weeks of waiting and anticipating my first Cattleya walkeriana has bloomed. This cultivar is a coerulea type crossed with an alba variety; C. walkeriana v coerulea 'Monte Azul' x v. alba 'Mountain View Orchids'. This is the first blooming from this division and the flowers, while nice, are not quite what they should be...the petal margins are crisped and the dorsal sepal is much too reflexed. Nonetheless I consider this to be quite the accomplishment as I have been growing this plant (and two other C. walkerianas that are near blooming) under lights. Of course the pollen will be collected and stored in the library.

Winter is one of my favorite times for Cattleya species and hybrids, the blooms come in a profusion of colors during some of the darkest months of the year. Some of the hybrids are positively electric. This first one is Slc. Numazu Star which is Lc. Mini Purple x S. coccinea.

This flower glows in both natural and artificial light. The white anther cap and yellow throat contrasts nicely with the ultra-bright coloration. The flower measures about 2.5 inches but the plant is only 3 inches high.

This hybrid was registered in 1990 and has yet to be used in any registered crosses. There is a strong possibility that this grex is triploid and therefore sterile if a tetraploid S. coccinea was crossed with a diploid Lc. Mini Purple. Nonetheless pollen has been stored and crosses will be attempted with it in the future.

Next up is Slc. Tsiku Paradis a cross between Slc. Bright Angel x Sophronitis cernua. This is a true miniature, the plant is only 1.5 inches high. Both Tsiku Paradis and Numazu Star have a lovely diamond dust texture that is not captured by my camera. Again another pollen capture was made for possibe use in a future hybridization program.

Despite the possibility that Slc. Numazu Star may be triplod, it is my hope that its pollen can induce at least a small amount of seed set. An initial attempt with Caulaelia Mizoguchi 'Coudcover' has caused the ovary to swell, however it will be many months until fertility can be determined.

Laeliocattleya Trick or Treat is one of those great hybrids that has been mericloned to death. These plants have chunky pseudobulbs of a manageable size that send out swarms of bright orange flowers. The blooms are very close to the color and texture of Prosthechea vitellina. The flowers are significantly larger on an individual basis though than its encyclic cousin, although they lack its flat profile: Trick or Treat flowers tends to be a bit cuppy in shape.

I've collected pollen from both and am interested in using them as pollen parents in crosses with Bl. Yellow Bird to tease out how color and flower shape traits are passed on. Brassavola nodosa passes on its characteristic star shaped profile with a heart shaped lip consistently to its hybrids. What characteristics would dominate in the resulting progeny? Would there be any benefit to a cross between the two?

The ancestry of Lc. Trick or Treat in comprised mainly of rupicolic laelias with either orange (L. cinnabarina and L. harpophylla) or yellow flowers (Laelia flava). The single cattleya parent, C. aurantiaca, is also orange and is fairly unique among cattleya species in having a pointy spade shaped lip (C. iricolor is the only other cattleya with a pointy lip). There is no fragrance from this hybrid which is a pity as nice fragrance would really round out the plant's generally good qualities.