Hello and dear All of You
As there seems to far to spring and the cyps coming up, maybe there is an interest in talking about favorit hybrids or hybrids that one think/ have heard is good.

May be I am not the right person to start this subject since my practical experience is limited to say the least.

The hybrids I have and also bought quite a few of is Ulla Silkens (Reginae X Flavum)that of pictures from the growers webpage
http://www.lidaforsgarden.com/Orchids/cypripedium_eng.htm
can vary a lot. It is not so predictble in colour and if it is not bought flowering noone knows the colour. It might also vary with the sping temperature. It is supposedly an easy growing hybrid but not unkillable. The plants I got was 2.5 years in soil, but still most had +2 shoots with a few with as many as +4.

The other I have is Gisela (ParviflorumXMacranthos). This is also very diverse in colour. But maybe not so unpredictable since some is governed by what colour the parent Macranthos have.
The colours can be seen on the web page of Werner Frosch
http://www.w-frosch.onlinehome.de/gisel.htm

These two hybrids seems to be common and also good since more than the inventor is making them.
Other hybrids that seems to have variation is Aki (MacranthosXPubecens)
http://www.w-frosch.onlinehome.de/aki.htm

How about other hybrids? The year they are made or become comercially avalable they are great but soon the true colours are seen. Not growing well boring colours not flowering etc.

If more than the inventor has them that is generally a good sign. If they have multiple colour forms that can be a good or bad sign depending on what the forms are.

It would be nice to hear peoples experience or thoughts on this subject.

If not for the purpose to buy more of these hybrids, then atleast as a nice distraction from the winter.

With hope on much response to this with ideas and opinions to the subject.

Looking forward to Your Comments

Joakim

Hi Joakim,
I've flowered a couple of hybrids so far, but most of my plants aren't quite big enough yet.
The best for me has got to be 'Phillip' - a lovely pink hybrid from macranthos.
Here is a photo of the flower from last May. I hope to have several more this coming spring - Michael, xAndrewsii, Sunny and possibly Sabine. I'll try to remeber to post when they flower.
Regards,
David

Hi Joakim,
sorry but I cannot post a photo - my computer skills don't allow me.
I've tried to browse and adda link to the image hosting below but its beyond me,
David

Hi David,
:welcome:
Here are some instructions on how to upload a photo. Hope it helps.
http://www.slipperorchidforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=397
Looking forward to seeing your photos.

Many hybrids do not do well, as Joakim notes. In my experience Gisela is outstanding - they tend to be fairly uniform in color, and a nice color at that - and they multiply rapidly. I have one that began as one stem three seasons ago and this spring in its fourth blooming season with me will have 15 stems. Philipp is another very robust hybrid - extremely large flowers, usually a pink color although I have one that is more of a cream in coloration. This hybrid also expands well. Inge has an extremely beautiful flower highly reminiscient of Cyp pubescens but somewhat less "lemony." Several of us have Michael - this plant is so hardy that I am not convinced it is actually alive at times. It does not seem to care if it is wet, dry, light or dark - the plant always looks good. Its drawback, however is its extremely variable color from plant to plant - I have not ever seen one as colorful as the commonly used photo, and some are rather hideous. Ulla Silkens is liked by many but I find it to look like a "second-rate reginae." It is held in very high esteem in very wet climates where reginae tends to rot, but in New England, it is not nearly so hardy as Cyp reginae. Some other very nice hybrids are x andrewsii and x favillianum. I have seen some truly spectacular specimens, and even "average" specimens are very nice - they like lots of sun and plenty of calcium.

Many hybrids tend to look like poor reginae or exactly like pubescens or like poor macranthos. Striking hybrids are the exception, at least in this very early stage of hybridization. I am sure that as more complex hybrids become available, some will be knockouts.

Ron Burch

Hey Ron! You'll have quite a nice collection of flowering hybrids in few years to share with us (pictures of course).

I've seen so few of them in person, but so far, from the pictures, I really like Sunny, Kristi Lyn, and x wenquingiae. But as Ron has noted, never trust a photo when it comes to hybrids. The variation is just too great. For those of you who wish to peruse the various registered hybrids around today, check out this link:


http://www.w-frosch.onlinehome.de/menu_eh1.htm

Tom

Yes, I would have mentioned Sunny as a particularly nice hybrid but I only have a year's experience with him. A very small but very nice flower - a bit larger than parviflorum but not much - this is one that looks exactly like a pubescens, you have to keep it well marked to be sure! The others you mention I have not see - certainly the natural hybrid x wenquingiae is very nice. With luck this year I can make that one artificially, it all depends upon how the new Cyp farreri do! I hope I do not lose things in my mid-winter move.

Ron Burch

Dear all
Thanks for the nice response. It is room for more opinins and ideas also of hybrids that one hope will be nice since it looks good on picture but that have not been tested You yet.

David I hope You are able to post Your pictures we need some extra exitements in our lifes :)
and very welcome here.

Lovely link Tom and it will be interesting to know how many on that list that is available out there. That is not an complete list even and still I think that it would be hard to find even every second or third comercially.

We are interested to see some of Your work with complex hybrids Ron.

Offcourse hybrids that I forgot to mension but came up in the responses are the natural hybrids.
They are often nice in both apperance and groth. These have proven that they are good growers and that they flower simply by surviving in nature. Examples are a mensioned are x andrewsii and the newly discovered x wengqui.
I am a little bit surprised that no one talk about x ventricosum that is a natural hybrid that is often back crossed with its parents so that there is a range of flower size and colour in its natural habitat in the Wladiwostok area in Russia. This really is nice. I am not sure that the success of making this artificially always is as good as with the natural ones. The natural ones sem to have both pollen and possibilty to produce seed If I have understood it correct. That is not always the case when it is man made.
Maybe the hybrids can be improved by using better materials and also having more people making them to then get better outcome to match the natural ones.

An advantage with some of the hybrids is that they are more vigorus and more adaptable to different climat and soils. Than some of their parents.

Regarding Ulla Silkens and reginae my comments are hithou having seen either in real life I must say that Ulla Silkens seems to have a wider colour spectrum than reginae so I am not sure I woud call it an inferior. I think the versin with white pouch and lemon yellow petals are nice. If it is nicer than flavum (the other parent) I can not see from pictures alone.

An advantage with the artificial hybrids is that one knowns that is not dugg up in the wil or an division of such a plant.

I think / belive / hope there will be nice hybrids fom the mix of the dark chinese and the dark Russian to make a lovely dark one.
I am also a bit curios in the attempts to Super size flowers with kent and fasciolatum like Sabine fasc x mac and Inge parviflorum x fasc. I have bought both as seedlings so I will see how they develop. Many with kent and fasc seem to be a bit a bit weeker in colour compared to the other parent. This might be a price for supersizing

It will be interesting what will be the future of hybriding making the ones made better making new ones or making more complex hybrides.

Thanks for the response so far

Joakim

Hi everyone,
thanks for the instructions on uploading photos. Here is last springs photo of Phillip - flowering for the first time. I was very pleased with it.
Its much nicer than the Ulla Silkens that flowered at the same time. Ulla flowered a dirty white colour with some pinkish smudges - not a patch on Phillip.
If this works I'll post Ulla and you can compare them yourself.
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/487/cypphillip5cp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

David

Hi Guys,
well it seems like I've managed to post Phillip so here is my Ulla Silkens from last spring.
Its not as pretty as Phillip but I'm not about to throw it out. Its managed to double its shoot number for this coming spring ( I had a peek when inspecting them before storing the pots in the coldframe for the winter ) and I've read several accounts about the variability of the flower colour from year to year. It appears to be very dependant on the temperature during the early season growth, like its parent reginae.
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/1100/ullasilkens3bi.jpg
Regards,
David

Hey David,

Thanks for posting these in the dead of winter! They both look great.

I wouldn't throw out the Ulla Silkens yet either-there can be incredible variation in color from year to year. One thing I don't like about this cross are the reflexed petals. I've seen both C. reginae and Ulla Silkens (only once), and I'd personally go with the C. reginae for overall beauty.

Your Phillip is nice. The flower seems a bit small for this hybrid, especially the petals, but I think as the plant grows in vigor they should become much larger. How does the new growth bud look for this season?

Tom

Hi Tom,
I have to agree about the reflexed petals of ulla - they are not he most attractive characteristic.
Phillip was flowering for the first time and the previous years' growth was affected by my growing media and the fact that it was a newly purchased seedling. I grow all my plants in an extremely open compost. The first component is 45% hydroleuca, these are expanded clay balls used for placing pots on to provide humidity.They are large - about 1/2 to 1 cm across. The rest consists of 45% fine perlite and 10% bark based orchid compost.First year plants tend to struggle and lose a bit of leaf area after the stem has extended, probably due to their inability to take up enough water - they don't have many roots. However they soon stabilize and subsequent years' growth is excellent. Root development is very good.
This years' shoot bud looks good and I'm hoping for an improvement. I'll post a photo when it opens,
Regards,
David

Hi David Nice pictures :)
The Ulla Silkens was not too bad, actually nice I think. I liked it :) Maybe the pink becomes clearer red and then it is even prettier.
From the pictures of the growers webpage it seems like all Ulla Silkens have reflexed petals. Maybe to be sure that there really was a hybrid so that the flower does not look to close to the reginae. The breader report regine as tricky and "hybrids" hybrids often become regine. That is with reginae as mother. The one that seem to have it less is actually the one that looks most like flavum. The yellow one with red dot a really nice one I must say :)
http://www.lidaforsgarden.com/Orchids/cypripedium_eng.htm
There seems to be a few flavum that does not have reflexed petals and if they are used as parents the result might be different?!
http://www.lidaforsgarden.com/Orchids/cypripedium_eng_art.htm
Here both a flavum with the petals reflexing forwards and reginae with a bit of reflexing.
Your Philip also had nice colours sometimes I have the feeling that it can be a bit "weak" in colour.
Thanks for Your cultivation info as well.

Joakim

Hi Ron I live in RI and two years ago I planted blooming Yellow's I believe they are Kentuchense pardon my spelling they came up last year but didn't bloom or multiplybut the plant looked healthy and made it through the season I covered them with piles of leaves and clippings for winter and remove as soon in spring as I feel we won't get any more freezing weather do you have any suggestions to what I should be adding to soil or anything elsr that will promote flowering I have other wild flowers naturally blooming around my property. Also who do you recomend to buy flowering plants from . is it possible to get them in the ground this spring and have then flower or just enjoy them in a pot then plant? Any help you have to offer will be a great aid to me as I would like to get a spot established. I don't think enough is done for these types of orchids we can have right in our own yards . Thanks Ray

Reginae, flavum and hybrids, and Hi, Fred!

In regard to the reflexed petals of Ula Silkens, that is certainly a hallmark of flavum, which usually do have such petals. Sometimes reginae do as well. The reginae I have in the sun tend to have more flowers with reflexed petals - I dont know whether it is due to the light or simply a small sample.

Fred, if you have a kentuckiense that has not flowered, it may be a bit too young or it may need additional sun. kentuckiense is often noted to like more shade than some Cyp's but I think that really is true only in its native environment where it grows in very hot conditions. Here in New England I would make sure that your plant gets 3 hours of direct sun in the morning. Afternoon is OK but it may get a bit hot. I would try to keep it relatively shadeed during the main part of the day. As for soil, kentuckiense grows in sand along riversides. I have my newer plants in about 90% "sand" - actually the aquarium gravel that is about 2 mm in diameter - and about 10% coir (coconut fiber). I keep them mulched with a couple of inches of chopped leaves so over a period of a few years there is a fair amount of organics in the medium. The big thing is to make sure the medium is open enough that when you pour water on the plant, it immediately soaks through. Since our summers get dry, I usually have thick plastic lining the hole (which is 2 feet deep) with holes punched in the plastic about 8 inches below the soil line. This allows for wicking of water up through the medium during dry times. I fertilize with 1/4 strength Dynagro (Miracle Grow is fine) once every two weeks from the time the shoots are just coming up until late August or September.

If your plant is old enough to bloom and is not, it most likely needs more light. If it is waterlogged, then you would expect it to bloom once then die over the winter.

Ron

Hi, Fred,

About purchasing plants in the springtime - that works out fine, but they are more difficult to come by since most of the mail order companies only ship in the fall. Paul Christian Rare Plants in England does ship in the spring - he is fairly expensive since you have to purchase phytosanitary and CITES documents. The Wild Orchid Company in Pennsylvania plans to ship Cyps this spring. They are a newer nursery so their selection is fairly small but I have purchased plants from them and they are of nice quality. Closer to you, Garden in the Woods in Framingham (you can find them at www.newfs.org) sells several species and hybrids in the spring - beginning in April. A few years ago when Cyps were less popular you could go there and choose from dozens of flowering plants of each hybrid - a very nice sight but dangerous for the pocketbook! More recently, the plants are smaller since they move so quickly out of the nursery and those in bud get picked up very quickly. Good hunting!

Ron

I'll just add that in my recent time spent at their website, I noticed they've two PDF's on growing Cyps and also, Bill Cullina is doing a class on them on April 7, 2006.

Hi Ron Thanks for the informationI have it where it recieves dappled morning sun and in light shade in afternoon I think I could water more but I was afraid to I watered enough to keep it green and didn't use enough fert.Do you think it would be smart to add sand to the top of the soil it isn't sandy but drains well when I planted it two years ago I dug down a foot and mixed in buckets of material from my woodlands where I have trillum and a jack in the pulpit or two grow wild I would be afraid to dig it up after it;s been growing for two years to amend the soil unless you think that's a must. I plan to buy one or two more this year again Thanks for your help Ray

Hi, I would not dig up a happy plant! Just make sure it continues to drain well. If you do need to add additional medium over time, it might be good to make it sand. My older plants are in a much more organic medium, probably similar to yours. Most of them do very well. With newer plants, I use the more inorganic medium, which is the way folks are going, and find that I lose very few plants the first year or two compared to before.

Best,

Ron Burch