This weekend we participated in our town’s Green Home & Garden Tour by opening up our yards to our neighbors. Each participating home highlights one or more features, e.g improved home heating/cooling efficiency, decreased wasted electricity consumption, solar power, tankless water heater, wood pellet stoves, sustainable gardening techniques, water conservation efforts, stormwater runoff management, etc…
Roughly 30 families toured our yard, which kept our dog, Sebastian, busy greeting and socializing while we led overlapping tours. Many visitors are new homeowners out to meet their new neighbors in the community and get ideas of what problems commonly exist in our town's homes, how people solve such problems, and what types of plants work in our climate.
Shortly after moving into our home, we had a home energy audit performed to prioritize the upgrades and alert us to other potential problems. We've improved door and window weatherization, installed energy efficient windows, increased attic insulation (from R-9 to R-49), installed an attic tent to keep heat and conditioned air escaping into the attic, and installed attic ventilation along the eaves and roof ridge.
In the front and back yards, we’ve practiced turf reduction. My partner’s assertion is that turf grass does relatively little to slow stormwater or support wildlife. My reason is that I don’t like to mow the lawn. But, when mowing is necessary, we use a push reel mower rather than a gas or electric mower.
To help manage stormwater, from our house and run-off from our neighbors’ yards, we’ve installed rain barrels, which are especially useful to get us through the late Summer drought, moved the clay around to create berms slowing erosion, installed a sun and water-tolerant terrestrial orchid bed on the sunnier side of the property where stormwater flows, and a bog (partially based on plants which would be found in a Prince George's county, MD Magnolia bog such as cinnamon fern, royal fern, and Pennsylvania sedge) on the shadier side of the property where stormwater flows.
Here's a pic of Bletilla striata, now in bloom in the sunny orchid bed.
In addition to turf reduction, we’ve practiced edible and native landscaping. The edible landscaping comprises a fig tree, paw paw trees, American hazelnut trees, dwarf apple trees, dwarf cherry trees, east coast native Prunus maritima (beach plum), raspberries, blackberries, blueberries (high- and low-bush), cranberries, elderberry bushes, kiwi vines, grape vine, Jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke), rhubarb, strawberry (ground cover), creeping thyme (ground cover), asparagus beds, and multiple herb and vegetable garden beds.
Here's a pic from Saturday morning's harvest...
The native landscaping comprises plants that provide nectar for pollinators, berries for birds and mammals, and butterfly larval host plants, such as buttonbush, Ilex verticillata (winterberry trees), various ferns, milkweeds, native grasses, asters, goldenrods, violets, helianthus (sunflowers), Virginia creeper, Mayapples, Liatris, Callicarpa, Rhus aromatica (sumac bush) and Rhus copalinum (sumac tree).
Okay, so what does the Green Tour have to do with Cymbidiums? Well, my shadeframe is an obvious structure in the back yard, and it did not go unnoticed because Cym. Kusuda Shining 'Bold One' was in full bloom with four spikes of colorful and fragrant flowers.
Last weekend was spent up in State College, PA to attend the Central Penn. Orchid Show. This is a relatively small show (three society exhibits, eight vendor exhibits and two educational exhibits) and is housed in the Agricultural arena, so the overall lighting is shifted towards the orange/yellow. I still need to learn how to correct for white balance on my camera, so you may notice the color shifts in the pictures below. Regardless of the lighting issue, the overall quality of the plants exhibited was top notch.
In keeping with my last post, I'll start out with Cym. tigrinum and a few hybrids thereof. The remainder represent some of the orchids that caught my eye.
Cymbidium tigrinum. I forgot to record the vendor's name of this exhibit. This small plant had four spikes, each with four flowers.
Cym. Tiger Moth (Cym. pumilum x Cym. tigrinum), exhibited by CPOS
Cymbidium Chocolate Chip Mint (Cym. Tiger Moth x Cym. sinense), exhibited by CPOS
Cymbidium Sola 'Cinnamon' (Cym. Jean Brummitt x Cym. Cota), exhibited by CPOS
Cymbidium Devon Railway 'New Horizon' (Cym. Kuranda x Cym. devonianum), exhibited by Arbec Orchids. I think this is the 2N form.
Cymbidiella pardalina, exhibited by CPOS
Brassia Eternal Wind 'Sato' (Brs. Bracdiana x Brs. Rex), exhibited by CPOS. A small fraction of a larger specimen.
Bulbophyllum falcatum, exhibited by Windswept in Time Orchids
Grammatophyllum stapeliflorum
Mexipedium xerophyticum. Is this little thing cute, or what?
Paphiopedilum Krull's Magical Rose (Paph. Psyche x Paph. Macabre), exhibited by Orchid Enterprise. Unfortunately, my camera flash has washed out the rose tones.
Phragmipedium Demetria (Phrag. caudatum x Phrag. sargentianum)
Schomburkia rosea, exhibited by Susquehannah Orchid Society
Cym. tigrinum is attractive for having compact habit and flowering in late Spring. Most of my Cyms have finished blooming for the season, so the present flowers are from Cym. Eastern Bunny ‘Oborozuki’ and the tigrinum hybrids.
However, Cym. tigrinum can be a bit tricky to grow because it does not like the warm temps we get in the Summer. I almost killed it during my first Summer in this climate. Thankfully, I was able to nurse the pseudobulbs along to produce new growths, and the plant ultimately recovered. Now when the temps get above the 80’s (°F), I move it indoors to stay cooler.
During the Winter season, I do not water tigrinum and first generation tigrinum hybrids as often as the other Cyms because Andy Easton once stated in an online Cymbidium forum that tigrinum is prone to losing its roots at this time. Similarly, Marni Turkel wrote a nice description of tigrinum culture (“Orchids: The Bulletin of the American Orchid Society” December, 78(12):698-699, 2009) in which she mentions that in its native habitat, tigrinum receives less than ½ inch rain per month between December to March. Rather, the peak of the rainy season for tigrinum is between July and August. Kobsukh Kaenratana published a couple of nice pictures of Cym. tigrinum in situ in his book, “Heat Tolerant Cymbidiums for Tropical Climates” (pgs 190-193).
Cym. Hold That Tiger (Dag x tigrinum)
According to OrchidWiz, Cym. tigrinum yields about 4 flowers per inflorescence ("4 on 1") and Cym. Dag achieves about 19 on 1. One would then expect Hold That Tiger to yield about 9 on 1, the calculation being based upon the geometric mean (4 x 19=76; square root of 76=9). So, I was pleased to find that this clone yielded 15 on 1.
What also surprises me with this clone is that the lowianum lip margin (coming from Cym. Esmeralda in the Dag pedigree) is yellow rather than red, because you can see that anthocyanin is produced along the column and at the base of the tepals. And of course, tigrinum expresses spots all about the lip. Perhaps there are other Hold That Tiger clones that do, in fact, have red lip margins.
Cym. Sandy Tiger (sanderae x tigrinum)
I can’t admit that the flower shape and color of Sandy Tiger is especially attractive. Rather, I hope this will be a good parent for future hybrids, e.g. conferring warmth tolerance onto the cool-growing tigrinum background (Heat Tolerant Cymbidiums, pgs 242-243). I would like to see enhancement in the greening or yellowing of the tepals because I'm not a fan of the yellow-green tone seen in each of these flowers. Cym. tigrinum has a light, sweet fragrance, also present in Cym. Sandy Tiger, and I think it would be nice to include this floral trait in the hybridization program.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Orchid Show held at Longwood Gardens took place this last weekend. Our orchid society's exhibit (National Capitol) received third place ribbon amongst the orchid societies.
This was my first time attending the show, and it lived up to its reputation for being a beautiful location for hosting orchid exhibits. Below are pics of individual orchids that caught my eye.
Cymbidium Little Beauty 'Black Shower' (Cricket x canaliculatum), exhibited by Fishing Creek Orchids. Several exhibits had Cym. Little Black Sambo mericlones, which quickly became boring. I had never seen Cym. Little Beauty before, and the form and color is much better than the Cym. Little Black Sambo mericlones.
Cym. King Agate (Mad Magic x Miss Muffet), exhibited by Duffin's Orchids
Cymbidium Jim Duffin (madidum x bicolor), Longwood Garden collection. I know it's not a good picture, but Longwood had this hanging high in their Orchid room, so I did the best I could with my camera.
Cymbidium madidum, Longwood Garden collection
Cattleya schilleriana, exhibited by Pinelands Orchid Society
Cattleya intermedia var. Tipo, exhibited by Plantio La Orquidea
Cattleya Mildred Rives 'Orchidglade', FCC/AOS (Cattleya Rita Renee x Cattleya Bou Philippo), exhibited by National Capitol Orchid Society, grower Jeff Johnson
Rlc. Arabesque 'Golden Zebra', AM/AOS (Rlc. Golden Slippers x Rlc. Mamie's Treasures), exhibited by Waldor Orchids
(Lc. Trick or Treat x Schomburkia undulata), exhibited by Plantio La Orquidea. One fraction of a beautiful specimen plant.
Schombocattleya Dulatiaca (Laelia undulata x Guarianthe aurantiaca), exhibited by Plantio La Orquidea. One fraction of a beautiful specimen plant.
Cattleya Koolau Seagulls 'Volcano Queen', AM/AOS (Cattleya Wilbur Chang x Cattleya Seagulls Milarina), exhibited by Waldor Orchids
Maxillaria picta 'Estrella de Esperanza' AM/AOS, exhibited by Southeastern Pennsylvania Orchid Society and Create A Scene. This is but a small fraction of a wonderful specimen plant fully loaded with flowers. An excellent example of what I might one day achieve with my little Max. picta seedling.
Paraphalaenopsis (Pps.) Eileen (Pph. labukensis x Pph. Boediardjo), exhibited by Fishing Creek Orchids. I had never seen a Pph. before, so both the flowers and the leaf habit caught my attention.
Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens (Large Yellow Lady's Slipper), exhibited by Mt. Cuba Center. This is my first season trying to grow two Cypripediums, so this exhibit provided examples of what to expect.
Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum (Lesser Yellow Lady's Slipper), exhibited by Mt. Cuba Center
Cypripedium kentuckiense (Southern Lady's Slipper), exhibited by Mt. Cuba Center
Renanthera (un-named hybrid), Longwood Garden collection. I find Renantheras captivating, for both their color and flower form. But, they are too big for my growing space.
It’s been a busy week now that I’m back home, but I wanted to follow up on last week’s pictures from the Santa Barbara Orchid Show. Concurrent with show was the Cymbidium Society of America Congress. It was the 35th annual Congress, and everyone celebrated Ernest Hetherington’s 93rd birthday. My only regret was that I hadn’t attended the CSA Congress in previous years.
The day-long symposium included programs by Bob Harris, Bert Klein, Dr. Masahiro Saitoh, Mohan Pradhan, and Chuckie, a banquet, and an auction.
Bob Harris described the challenges of growing warmth- and cool-tolerant Cymbidiums on Hawaii, which he’s solved in part by utilizing two, separate growing facilities with distinctly different microclimates. Bob emphasizes warmth tolerant Cymbidium species, e.g. ensifolium, sinense, madidum, devonianum, and parishii because there is no strong season in Hawaii and the warmth-tolerant backgrounds yield multiple, often overlapping, flowerings throughout the year. Given the quantities of rainfall, Bob has learned to change the media formulations to respond to the difficulties in supply availability on the island and increased water acidity not normally experienced by others using ground, treated or tap water. Another consequence of the profuse rainfall is the development of huge pseudobulbs.
Bert Klein provided a humorous presentation on cultural practices for growing Cymbidium in large-scale for the cut flower market in the Netherlands.
Dr. Saitoh gave a nice program for successfully improving color saturation, color patterning, flower shape and/or size in Paphiopedilum godefroyae by interspecific line breeding. This was a rare opportunity to see how one can achieve desired results over a course of successive generations. I am unaware of any Cymbidium growers who are engaged in a similar strategy for any particular Cymbidium species. Rather, one is more likely to find an “improved” species achieved through genome duplication—from diploid to tetraploid. Dr. Saitoh did not reveal how many [denominator] seedlings he had to evaluate at each generation before he found the most desirable plant(s) to become the parent(s) for the next generation, so the efficiency of this selection scheme is unclear. However, the pictures of his results were impressive. Dr. Saitoh intimated that the Japanese have a flasking formulation/method that increases the growth rate of seedlings that decreases the time to flower. Combined with the optimized out-of-flask culture conditions, the overall generation time is reduced, and he can select for desirable cultivars relatively quickly.
Chuckie performed double-duty! One of the speakers experienced technical difficulties, so Chuckie was asked to lead a discussion on short notice (coffee break) to fill in the time. His programs emphasized the use of species in historical and modern Cymbidium hybridization.
Chuckie discussed the practice of remaking historical grexes using new cultivars of a species, e.g. Cym. Little Black Sambo remade with different color forms of canaliculatum. I don’t recall if he mentioned whether the LBS remakes are from “improved”, line-bred canliculatum cultivars, as per Dr. Saitoh’s demonstration. Cym. canaliculatum has a reputation here in the U.S. for being a large plant and difficult to bloom because of its sensitivity to water during the Winter. Are the Aussies line breeding canaliculatum to select for smaller habit plants that are easier to flower? Or is that a non-issue for them?
Chuckie also proposed that the color range, e.g. oranges, in Cymbidium hybrids we presently enjoy were available back in the early 1900’s. The comparison between historical hybridization and modern day hybridization sequed onto whether conversion from diploid to tetraploid is really the direction Cymbidium hybridization should go. Tetraploidy is useful to overcome sterility issues with certain species, e.g. primary ensifolium and floribundum hybrids, and thereby expanding the range of potential hybrids, as well as increase flower size. However, diploids provide a greater base of genetic diversity in that there are simply more diploids extant in the world, and the tetraploid forms represent only a select few genomes. It was further asserted that diploids also yield an increased flower count, provide a wider color range and greater vigor than tetraploids.
Lastly, Chuckie was instructional for demonstrating appreciation for flower details, and how this contributes to a hybrid’s desirability. For almost every hybrid photo he displayed, he pointed out small color patterns, intensities, art-shades, etc… that could easily be overlooked or brushed aside if one’s attention was directed solely to first impressions to overall form, color and flower count.
Chuckie: “I’ve never been bored in front of this flower.” (Unfortunately, I did not note the flower to which his comment refers. Perhaps that is unimportant…)
Mohan discussed habitat and orchid conservation efforts in Sikkim, as it appears that Sikkim is experiencing pressure to develop land to accommodate immigration from India. Some of the conservation efforts include working with schoolchildren to teach them how to grow orchids in vitro and potentially re-introduce endangered orchid species, e.g. Cym. whiteae, into their natural range. Mohan discussed that Sikkim is trying to develop orchid industries for cut flower to accommodate the huge demand for orchids for Indian weddings, which is presently being met via importation of cut flowers from Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. And lastly, Mohan advocated for eco-tourism, encouraging us to come visit so that we could tour the nature preserves and see blooming [Cymbidium] orchids in situ. I have a passport itching to be used…
During the speaker panel/question and answer session, someone from the audience asked if fragrance was a trait that was intentionally bred and selected for in modern hybridization programs. The reply was generally “No” because fragrance is subjective (pleasant/unpleasant/no fragrance perceived) and the genetics behind fragrance appears to be poorly understood. In a conversation with Chuckie afterwards, he mentioned to me that the Indian eburneum subspecies is more fragrant than the Burmese subspecies (now in bloom for me, below).
So, depending upon the parents, a given hybrid may be more or less fragrant. I also noticed that Cym. White Rabbit (below 1) in George Hatfield’s greenhouse, and Cym. (lowio-mastersii x Summer Sands), an Andy Easton cross (below 2), are strongly fragrant.
However, the Cym. mastersii that I have is not nearly as fragrant as these mastersii hybrids. Perhaps this difference is also attributable to variants within the species.
In addition to the CSA Congress, the Santa Barbara Show provided a multitude of socializing opportunities. It was a real pleasure to meet Chuckie in person! While at George Hatfield’s greenhouse, I asked Chuckie a question about flower colors and pigmentation. Chuckie then proceeded to give me a condensed lecture on the basic colors (green, white, yellow and red), on leaf and flower structure (palisade, mesophyll and epidermal layers) and where pigments are located (cytoplasmic vs organelle/granule). Best of all, he retrieved his hand lens from the car and then showed me how to look for pigment cells on the flowers to distinguish how the overall flower color we see is actually obtained from different, overlapping pigmentation patterns across the flower tissue.
The combination of renewing friendships, sharing breakfasts and/or dinners with Torrance CSA members Everett, Stan, Richard and Dave, visiting with Alice and Wayne at Santa Barbara Orchid Estate, clerking for show ribbon and AOS judging, and spending time in George’s greenhouse, in addition to the events discussed above, made for a great vacation!
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