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#1: the charm of species orchids

Posted on 2006-06-07 21:39:31 by OrchidKitty

This morning, I proudly held up my Phrag. ecudorenses for DH to admire.
It is blooming for the first time, and in S/H. Spouse glanced at it and
said, "Homely little thing, isn't it?" Then he looked at me as if he
wondered why I had it.

Hum. Well, it's true that there are splashier plants out there, but
ecudorenses has a modest, sincere charm that its dazzling hybird
cousins lack. Also, there is something special about having an orchid
that a person could find in the wild.

Most of my orchids are hybrids, but some growers are drawn nearly
exclusively to species orchids. Why? Is it because species can be more
difficult to grow? Or because species do have a pure, modest beauty? Or
is the grower hoping to conserve them? If you grow mostly species
orchids, do you know why you prefer them?

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#2: Re: the charm of species orchids

Posted on 2006-06-07 22:42:58 by jtill

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#3: Re: the charm of species orchids

Posted on 2006-06-07 23:54:30 by Diana Kulaga

O.K., I think it has something to do with purity and the idea that here is
something that has not been adulterated by us. Of course, many hybrids are
bred to be hardier than species plants, but I think that people like Mick
Fournier are making attempts at breeding hardier species by crossing strong
examples. (Slap me if I'm wrong, Mick!)

I have plenty of species, plenty of hybrids, and plenty of primary hybrids.
This I can tell you: now that I've been growing orchids for a while, I do
gravitate to a species plant or a primary grex providing that I can see the
flower prior to purchasing the plant. After all, they vary so much. My
husband wondered why I was purchasing *another C. mossiae* until he saw the
flowers. Now he's in love with the wageneri but still loves the straight
mossiae. He's hooked, LOL!

Diana

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#4: Re: the charm of species orchids

Posted on 2006-06-08 02:49:49 by Susan Erickson

On Wed, 7 Jun 2006 17:54:30 -0400, "Diana Kulaga"
<diandfrankcat@bellsouth.net> wrote:

>O.K., I think it has something to do with purity and the idea that here is
>something that has not been adulterated by us. Of course, many hybrids are
>bred to be hardier than species plants, but I think that people like Mick
>Fournier are making attempts at breeding hardier species by crossing strong
>examples. (Slap me if I'm wrong, Mick!)
>
>I have plenty of species, plenty of hybrids, and plenty of primary hybrids.
>This I can tell you: now that I've been growing orchids for a while, I do
>gravitate to a species plant or a primary grex providing that I can see the
>flower prior to purchasing the plant. After all, they vary so much. My
>husband wondered why I was purchasing *another C. mossiae* until he saw the
>flowers. Now he's in love with the wageneri but still loves the straight
>mossiae. He's hooked, LOL!
>
>Diana
>

I grow hybrids - After all Ascda are by definition hybrids. But we
grow any Phrag we can get our hands on. And my favorite Bulbo are all
species. I think If you come into orchids from the BIG splashy
Cabbage catts it takes you a while to mature into the smaller more
delicate species. <don't blast JOE T. I started with 50 Hausermann's
best - don't get any Bigger - Floofier than that>

On the other hand Many of today's species are so line breed and
in-breed that Grandpa would not recognize it as a pure species. They
are no more capable of existing in the wild than some of the hybrids.

I have found very few Orchids I would not like to own... a few I
refuse to try to grow. But if someone good would grow it - few I
would not like to call my own.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/main.php

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#5: Re: the charm of species orchids

Posted on 2006-06-08 03:16:41 by Andrew

OrchidKitty wrote:
> This morning, I proudly held up my Phrag. ecudorenses for DH to admire.
> It is blooming for the first time, and in S/H. Spouse glanced at it and
> said, "Homely little thing, isn't it?" Then he looked at me as if he
> wondered why I had it.
>
> Hum. Well, it's true that there are splashier plants out there, but
> ecudorenses has a modest, sincere charm that its dazzling hybird
> cousins lack. Also, there is something special about having an orchid
> that a person could find in the wild.
>
> Most of my orchids are hybrids, but some growers are drawn nearly
> exclusively to species orchids. Why? Is it because species can be more
> difficult to grow? Or because species do have a pure, modest beauty? Or
> is the grower hoping to conserve them? If you grow mostly species
> orchids, do you know why you prefer them?

I grow a lot of species but I'm not at all averse to hybrids.
Admittedly a lot of the genera I grow have not been extensively
hybridised so for those orchids, species are generally what's
available. As for the other, more readily hybridised orchids in my
collection, I probably choose species because I want a collection of
different plants. In theory hybrids are supposed to extend the colour
and morphology beyond what is available in species alone. In reality,
there are base species used in the hybridisation of a lot of genera
which limits the variability somewhat. The trends in judging tastes
also impose a fairly restricted view of what makes and outstanding
orchid. The end result seems to be pink Phal, white Phal, any colour
Catt so long as it's floofy, "I can't decide between this pink
Cymbidium and this not-as-pink Cymbidium... Wow, look at that
a-bit-more pink Cymbidium with darker spots on the labellum" etc.
Species might not be competitive with hybrids in terms of awards but
they have far more individuality.

Of course, I also have different forms/varieties/line bred species in
my collection, which goes against wanting destinctly different plants,
so maybe I'm just a closet species snob :-)

Andrew

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#6: Re: the charm of species orchids

Posted on 2006-06-08 05:12:34 by bobc

I like growing different kinds of plants, more than whether it's a
species or hybrid. I like the form as well as flower. One of my
favorite plants has flowers too small for me to easily see. It is a
species (Pths. 'grobyii'). Christieara - a ladder with flowers. Den.
biggibum - a forest with flowers. Leptotes bicolor - a hedgehog with
flowers. Soph. cernua - a rug with flowers. I like the forms of the
plants too.
Bob

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#7: Re: the charm of species orchids

Posted on 2006-06-09 16:18:55 by myrmecodia

OrchidKitty wrote:
> Most of my orchids are hybrids, but some growers are drawn nearly
> exclusively to species orchids. Why? Is it because species can be more
> difficult to grow? Or because species do have a pure, modest beauty? Or
> is the grower hoping to conserve them? If you grow mostly species
> orchids, do you know why you prefer them?

As you said, "there's something special about having an orchid that a
person could find in the wild." For me, half the fun of growing an
orchid is learning about its natural history: where it grows, what
pollinates it and how, what other plants grow in the same habitat, what
its evolutionary relationship is with similar species. For that
reason, given a choice between an award quality line bred plant and a
wild-type plant with some locality data and a flower that an insect
might actually like, I'd probably choose the latter.

After species, old hybrids with lots of history would be my choice over
the newest flashy thing.

I do have a few big flashy hybrids, but they are mainly kept because
they please my wife and look nice on display. The bulk of my
collection, both orchids and non-orchids is little species orchids
backed up by a bulging folder of xeroxed botany papers.

Nick

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