Here’s a couple white Cyps. The first is a natural hybrid, C. xventricosum (macranthos x calceolus). This plant is native to areas where the two species live together: northeastern China, southern Russia, and perhaps parts of Siberia and North Korea. The range of colors can be from bright shades of purple, to pastels, to bicolored flowers, and in some cases pure white. Mine is essentially white, but with a slight blush of purple in the dorsal sepal only:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/tvelardi/Cventricosum1.jpg

The next is the alba form of the species C. macranthos. Usually this species has strongly colored flowers in the pink to purple range with lots of veination. While alba forms no doubt exist thoughout its range, they seem most common in the northern China/southern Russia area. Alba forms have also been reported from Japan, and on Rebun Island (just off Hokkaido) the cream colored variety rebunense occurs. A lovely flower with a nice round, plump lip:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/tvelardi/Cmacplant.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/tvelardi/Cmacablaside.jpg

Enjoy the shots.

Tom Velardi

Great shots of beautiful Cyps, thanks for posting!

Wonderful, I would love to see a Cyp in real life

Great photography

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
Mang

Excellent!!!

Thanks for sharing

Cheers
Stephan

Really gorgeous!
I love the alba varieties!

I was thinking about this earlier. Why don't we see more (any?) Cyps in shows? Is it just timing? So many shows are in the fall/winter, and Cyps aren't blooming at that time of year. I know many are grown in the ground also, so that's another factor I suppose. I just got to wondering, I'd like to see more of these in person.

very nice!!
It is true I rarely see Cyps at shows.

Excellent pictures and excellent flowers, Wish I could grow them here

Beautiful plants, great photography and lighting. I, too, would like to see these in person.

Those really are lovely.

There were a few Cyps at the show for the Mid-America Orchid Conference last spring in Minneapolis. I think timing and maybe that so few people grow them in pots has a lot to do with it. I'd like to show some in our local show, but it takes place the first weekend in February!

Beautiful flower Tom :clap:

all i can do is stand by the side and wipe the drool from my face...

Hi, Tom,

I want seed from an alba ventricosum (hint, hint). Keep your magnificient photos coming along (folks, he has hundreds of them)!

Ron Burch

Beautiful. I wish I could grow cyps here!

Wonderful plants and lovely pics keep them coming :)
I get all exited when seeing them.
Joakim

Keep the cyp pictures coming! This is a great education....

We see cypripediums in some of our Canadian shows, especially in Vancouver. There have been several different species grown in pot that show up for a lovely display.

Tom
Any plans on making seedlings of a cross between these to whites? That would maybe be nice espesially if that would inprove the growth. Is Cyp Vent a faster grower than Cyp mac, since it is a hybrid or have the slower growth of Cyp cal. made it a slow grower, or did the two effects cancel each other?

As said before nice plants and maybe parents next year if You want and it works out :)

Joakim

Joakim,

I am planning to self the macranthos and x ventricosum next year, and also cross the x ventricosum with kentuckiense. A mutual friend of Ron and myself is currently trying to produce more white based crosses since most of the hybrids out there now are purple and veined. Some are attractive while others are not, but white flowers almost never dissatisfy. Honestly I think the most lovely purple/pink Cyps are not hybrids but rather straight forms of C. macranthos (often labeled "hoteiatsumorisou" in Japan). Ron's lovely plant from Irkutsk is a prime example.

The natural hybrid x ventricosum has produced some of the loveliest plants in my opinion of any of the hybrids out there. They also are fast clumpers, forming huge plants in relatively short times. Macranthos by comparison, while a strong grower, is much less vigorous. I don't see the advantage in crossing macranthos back onto x ventricosum since you would simply end up with plants looking more like macranthos and they probably wouldn't be any more vigorous than x ventricosum itself.

Tom

Thanks Tom
It was nice to hear about how the different Cyps grow, since I do not grow both I did not know how they grow. There is often a hope that a hybrid some how would have better quallity than the pure spieces and a (back) cross might improve it, but that might not work at all.

The aim of making hybrids would to get easier growing habits of the hybrid while maintaining the colour. Maybe this does not work between Cyp mac and Cyp x vent since Cyp mac is parent to Cyp x vent. But if they come from different places, they might have different growing recuirements and the combined hybrid might be more tolerant. This might the same thing if plants from one spieces growing (coming from naturally) different places, are combined so that their offspring would be more tolerant while having the same colour.

That was the thoughts of why hybrides would be a benifit. Maybe the idea was not as well planed as I first thought but :) that is why it is nice to hear from others about once ideas. To see if they are good or not. And also to see if others have had them before tested them and then disgarded them. :)

By the way do you think a cross of x vent and Cyp. kent would give white flowers? Or is the aim just to get whiter (but maybe not white) hybrids with big flowers? I did not really get why You planed to mixed the two.

Thanks for interesting explanaitions it is very educational :)

Joakim

Hi Joakim,

The point of mixing white flowers is to produce similar looking plants, hopefully with more vigor. Many Cyp hybrids are not only poor growers, but simply won't grow at all! So it's hit and miss. I think the x ventricosum and kentuckiense would render a white to cream colored flower with reasonably long petals that are greenish to white and flushed with purple/brown. It could produce nice flowers I think.

I see no advantage in crossing macranthos back onto x ventricosum simply because x ventricosum that originated in the wild is a very mixed group already with lots of introgression having occurred naturally. Hence we are left with a mixed group of plants showing a wide variety of traits. Plants called x manchuricum, x barbeyi, and x rubronerve all fall within this group, and most authorities refer to these as simply x ventricosum. No doubt a lovely group of plants!

Tom

Hi Tom
I agree that x vent is very nice and that they have a wide spread in how they look. So is mac and I presume that it is this one that gave the variation rather than the cal.
I presume that the nice natural hybrids x vent and x andrew have given the urge to improve the same way they have done. Maybe nature have tested and tested and tested and tested ..... before they got some good hybrids. The other all failed. Maybe we also need to try try and try again. The same persons does not need to do all testing but with more people involved the more likely it is that someone get a lucky shoot. It can off course be more than luck behind but luck is always helpful. :)

The x vent x kent sounds interesting especially if it has the colours You predicted.
I would like to see them now!
Patience is a virtue, but we can not all be angels :)

Much sucess in Your breeding

Joakim

Wow, that white flower is beautiful :clap: