June 2016 - Southern Ontario Orchid Society

SOUTHERN ONTARIO ORCHID SOCIETY NEWS
June 2016, Volume 51, Issue 6 Meeting since 1965
Next Meeting Sunday, June 5, Floral Hall of the Toronto Botanical Garden,
Plant Sales 12 noon,
Cultural snapshots by Alexsi Antanaitis 12:15 on the stage, topic: Summering your
plants out of doors.
Program at 1 pm , Claudio Rossi will speak to us about Easy Oddballs.
Claudio is the founder and proprietor of Cloud’s Orchids. He is a former member of SOOS, an
American Orchid Society judge and orchid hybridizer. His company sells many interesting
orchid plants.
Members Show table: bring your flowering orchids, we can all learn from each-other and you
can win points toward our annual plant table awards.
Raffle.
Rhyncholaelia Love Passion’ Orange Bird’ ( Rhynchlaeliocattleya William Farrel Cattlianthe Trick or Treat) CCM 88 points,
Wilson Ng photo pp
1
President’s Remarks
Welcome Orchid Lovers.
What is the weatherperson doing to us? Here it is well
into May and one day it is hot, the next day we have
snow. Will it ever be warm enough for us to put our
plants outside? Even though our spring shows are over,
I must make an adjustment to our ribbon standings for
the TAOA show. Our apologies go out to Christine
Williams for giving recognition to someone else for her
first place ribbon. Please note that Christine's Paph.
henryanum received a first place ribbon. She is a first
time contributor to the SOOS display. Congratulations
Christine on your fine growing and we are sorry for the
mix-up.
Plant of the month: Paphiopedilum [Paph.]
Lebaudyanum
(haynaldianum
x
philippinense) grown by An- Li Sheng.
th
The treats for the June 5 meeting falls to the members
with the last names letter beginning with M. Thank you
members with last names beginning with L, who
supplied the delicious treats this past meeting.
The cultural snapshots will take place on the stage at
12:15 pm, before the meeting. Alexsi Antanaitis will be
running these. All are welcome to participate in the
sessions. The next session will be: Summering out of
doors. Remember, if there is a topic you would like us to
cover, please let me know.
We are beginning to put together our fall growing tour.
th
th
Please keep September 10 and 11 open. John
Vermeer has been gathering members who enjoy
sharing their optimum growing ideas. If you are willing to
show the membership your growing techniques, we
would appreciate you letting us know so we can include
you. At this time, we have two of our vendors willing to
share ideas. This will be a great opportunity for you to
see all the different orchids they have and perhaps
purchase ones that catch your eye.
Three other
members have offered their growing areas as well.
Again, please let us know if you would like to participate.
Our future speakers are as follows:
th
June 5 Claudio Rossi Topic: Easy Oddballs
th
August 7 Orchidfest with Holger Penner
th
September 4 Alan Koch – to be announced
nd
October 2 Graham Wood Topic: Maudiae. Why has it
changed so much
th
June 5 will be our final meeting before we begin again
in August with Orchidfest and our presenter Holger
Penner. So after this meeting, take a nice break, enjoy
your summer, work joyously in your gardens, party hard,
take the break you need and enjoy your flowers.
Remember they will love you for the attention.
Happy Orchiding,
Laura Liebgott Questions or comments: Please contact
me at: lliebgott@rogers.com or 905 883 5290
What a well-flowered, beautifully clean plant An-Li
brought for all of us to enjoy! It had two inflorescences of
5 and 6 flowers and buds respectively and two
developing inflorescences coming along to extend the
flowering period. An-Li has had the plant for about 15
years and lately has been growing it in ”Chinese stone” a
pumice-like expanded clay product. She admitted freely
that she does not always remember to water the plant
when needed, but it seems to be very forgiving. She
grows it with a night temperature of 10 to 15C. She uses
a solution of 20-20-20 at almost all times for watering it
since the pumice does not supply any nutrients.
Congratulations on a job well done!
Coming Events 2016
May
Toronto Native Plant Sale
Sunday
May
29,
2016,
12
to
4
pm
Christie Pits, 750 Bloor St. W. South end of Park, Toronto
(Christie subway
station)
All plants come from NANPS-approved ethical growers and
are
grown
without
neonicotinoids.
The North American Native Plant Society is a volunteerbased non-profit registered charitable organization
dedicated to the study, conservation, cultivation and
restoration of native plants.
June
4, TJC Monthly AOS Judging at TBG
5, SOOS meeting, Toronto Botanical Garden, sales 12
noon, program 1 pm. Claudio Rossi.
18, Montreal judging, Jardin botanique de Montreal
July
2, TJC Monthly AOS Judging at TBG
16, Montreal judging, Jardin botanique de Montreal
The inside
of the pouch
is
really
pretty since
the
white
surface
is
spotted with
red
polka
dots!
Jason
Fischer
Orchids have
come a long
way
in
improving
the species by line-breeding. They have earned AM’s for
their clones ‘Moyabamba’, ‘Purple Cow’ and a lovely
deep magenta clone ‘Tesoro Marado’ with rounded
petals that were held flat by a strong flat ventral sepal.
Not to be outdone they can also count some FCC’s
among their Phrag. kovachii awards. The clone ‘Ray
Raab’ with a FCC of 90 points had only slightly turned
under lower petal edges.
August
7, SOOS Orchid fest at TBG. TJC monthly AOS
judging 10 am, potluck lunch noon, after lunch Holger
Penner from China
20, Montreal judging, Jardin botanique de Montreal
September
3, , TJC Monthly AOS Judging at TBG
4, SOOS meeting, Toronto Botanical Garden, sales
12 noon, program 1 pm, Alan Koch.
10, 11. Fall growers tour.
24,25, Central Ontario Orchid Society Show,
Cambridge, Ontario.
AOS Judging Results
Please note, all of these awards are provisional until
published by the American Orchid Society. .
Toronto Judging Centre, May 7, 2016:
Encyclia cordigera ‘Chrystal Star’ CCM-AOS 82 points
Crystal Star Orchids
Ryyncholaelia Love Passion ’Orange Bird’ ( Rhynco
laeliocattleya William Farrel x Cattlianthe Trick or Treat)
CCM-AOS 88 points, Wilson Ng.
Paphiniopea (Stanhopea embreii x Paphinia herrerae)
AM-AOS 80 points Doug & Terry Kennedy
Guaricattphila Red Star (Cattlianthe Rojo x
Myrmeccophila wendiandii)
HCC-AOS 78 points,
Jeanne Keading
Note! The next judging will be held at the Toronto
Botanical Gardens, Saturday June 4, judges education
at 10 am, judging at 1 pm. AOS Judging is a service of
the American Orchid Society and is open to all!
Phragmipediums and Their Culture, by Jason
Fischer, transcribed and adapted for an article by Inge
Poot continued from the previous newsletter
Jason Fischer’s generous permission to use his photos
to illustrate this transcription is very gratefully
acknowledged.
The widest petals were achieved by a clone called
‘Terminator’ , the result of sibbing the clones ‘Maximus’
and ‘Goliath’
:
What
a
parent
the
clone
‘Terminator’
will make!
One of the
problems of
the species
Phrag.
kovachii is
that as a
seedling the
plants grow
Part 2: Phragmipedium kovachii Breeding:
This species will self-pollinate. The huge flowers keep
growing while open, but are best on day three since after
that the bottom edges of the petals start to curl under
and the petal edges start to undulate creating a messy
looking, somewhat floppy flower. Flowers that do not curl
under at the lower petal edges have a large ventral sepal
that stops the curling. The dorsal sepal usually has a
strong cup in it near the tip, but Jerry Fischer’s clone ‘Big
Island Dreams’ AM-AOS seems to be only slightly
cupped and may be a step in the right direction for
eliminating this defect.
3
very slowly until they are 20 cm (8”) across and think
nothing of dying suddenly! Luckily after reaching that
size, the survivors grow much faster. This is probably as
a result of the species’ propensity for self-pollinating. It
would have produced a rather inbred population and
only the plants lucky enough to have some genetic
diversity survive. So it is no wonder that any hybrid with
this species would miraculously grow rather well!
However since all other Phrag species are much smaller
flowered and usually have narrow petals it is a long road
back to large round hybrids!
The hybrid of the small but full-flowered white and pink
schlimii with kovachii, Eumelia Arias produced
disappointing progeny of surprisingly narrow-petalled
dull purple flowered progeny with a natural spread of up
to 10cm.
The cross of the red besseae with kovachii, Fritz
Schomburg again had a lot of progeny similar to the
above, but there were some red progeny and they were
of course bigger. Using a 4n besseae improved the
colour dramatically!
The cross of the orange delassandroi and kovachii,
Peruflora’s Cirila Alca had more brightly coloured
offspring.
Phrag. Andean Tears (wallisii /warscewiczianum
/humboldtii X kovachii) is not a willing bloomer and
according to a quip by our speaker only blooms in
Montreal! However the large pink flowers with long,
wide, down-curving petals are hard to overlook!
Another interesting point was made by our speaker. To
overcome the kovachii petal problems, the other parent
in a cross should be 4n. Even a 3n other parent is better
than a 2n. Also, 3n may even be bigger than the 4n
version of the grex.
Phragmipedium Suzanne Decker (Phrag. kovachii x
Phrag. Cape Sunset), where Cape Sunset contains
schlimii, longifolium and besseae, is a nice example of
the merit of a polyploid crossed onto kovachii. The
flowers tend to be light pink with a white halo near the
base of the segments and the whole given oomph by the
dark pink pouch. The odd plant will even produce tall,
branched inflorescences!
Phrag. Graeme Jones (kovachii X Barbara LeAnn)
where Barbara LeAnn is besseae X fischeri, was
illustrated with a lovely candy pink bloom with wide flat
petals. Barbara LeAnn is a cross similar to Hanne
Popow but using fischeri instead of schlimii as one of the
parents. It illustrates that fischeri gives much more
deeply pink progeny than schlimii. And it shows that in
the next generation too.
The cross Phrag Allison Strohm (Living Fire 4n X
kovachii) produces some really gracefully ruffled flowers
in pink or light orange.
Phrag Haley Decker (Saint Ouen x kovachii), where the
Saint Ouen looks like an improved dalessandroi, was
illustrated with a candy pink flower that had fairly wide
oval petals. The white pouch veined and flushed deep
pink provided a nice contrast. This cross is prone to
colour break.
It is hard to get a feel for the size of kovachii crosses
without seeing them in the flesh. But one of the schlimii
or fischeri crosses with besseae fits easily onto a single
petal of a kovachii hybrid with besseae!
Phrag
Peruflora`s
Saltimbanco
(kovachii
X
czerwiakowianum /boissierianum) can be very charming.
The stance of the petals varies quite a lot, but they all
have the attractive twisting and are quite wide compared
to the boissierianum parent. The soft pink colour is
attractive. Our own Heinz Ernstberger received an AM
on his well-grown clone of this cross.
4
Phrag. andreettae is a small pale pink species looking
like a schlimii with folded petals. Its F1 hybrid with
kovachii (unnamed) is not great, but has the merit of
being compact like the andreettae.
nd
2 Generation Hybrids
Phrag. Emma Lomen (Fritz Schomburg x fischeri) has
nicely shaped pink or orange flowers but unfortunately
the big size got lost in the shuffle of genes!
Phrag. La Vingtaine (kovachii x Memoria Dick Clements)
looks like a besseae on steroids! One of the clones
shown had the infolded part of the pouch a bright clear
creamy white, contrasting well with the dark red of the
rest of the flower. The other clone was a pink with peach
overtones.
Phrag. Alfredo Manrique (kovachii x Walter Schomburg),
where Walter Schomburg is Eric Young X Andean Fire,
is a similar looking cross, but the flowers are 25% larger.
The clone shown was light red and had the infolded part
of the pouch dotted and veined red. Some clones may
branch, probably because delassandroi was used
instead of straight besseae.
Phrag Fritz Schomburg X Waunakee Sunset 4n
produced offspring similar in colour to the Emma Lomen,
but the shape was less full and less flat.
Phrag. Black Cherry (Haley Decker x Mem. Dick
Clements) was illustrated with a deep red clone, but
apparently the size was not even as big as Phrag Jason
Fischer!
Phrag. Bubbleberry (Fritz Schomburg x fischeri) had
well-proportioned pink and white flowers.
The Phrag. Glen Decker (Jason Fischer x kovachii)
shown had soft red flowers with very wide petals. White
steaks on the proximal third of the mid-veins of the
petals and around the base of the pouch high-lighted the
peach and yellow staminodal shield of the flower.
Phrag. Mephisto (Raymonde Faust x kovachii) had
excellent large size and great rose-red colour, with a
central white halo and was white on the infolded part of
the pouch, but the petals were fairly narrow and a bit infolded and undulating.
Phrag. Peruflora`s Spirit (Phrag. kovachii x Phrag. Eric
Young) tends to produce huge plants. The flowers are
fairly full and in the clone shown a medium pink with a
darker pouch exterior.
In Phrag. Frank Smith (kovachii x Grande) the Grande
won the battle for dominance of shape and the kovachii
made the flower light pink. The petals are held vertically
and in the clone shown resulted in a 21cm vertical
natural spread!
Phrag. Joséphine Bonaparte (Cardinale 3n x kovachii)
was not a success, because the 3n Cardinale made the
genetics unstable and that resulted in an irregularly
streaked dorsal.
5
Phrag. Apollo (Haley Decker x kovachii) was illustrated
with three very different clones. One had wide-petalled
flowers in a glowing rosy red and a central whitening, but
the lower petal edges did the kovachii undulating and the
tips had notches. The second one had besseae shape
and petals and pouch a wonderful black-red, while the
dorsal was a coppery light red –unfortunately marred by
a big colour-break streak (a propensity that was probably
inherited from the Phrag. Haley Decker parent). The
third one `Perfection` had great shape and rosy red
petals and pouch, while the dorsal was light copper.
Phrag. Papa Frankie Quintal (Haley Decker x kovachii)
was illustrated with a lovely clone in dark pink with the
petals and dorsal heavily overlaid deep red. The flowers
were large but nowhere near as large as kovachii. The
Fischers will have to continue to search for that magic
combination that results in a progeny that is larger than
either parent, as happened with their Phrag Jason
Fischer!
the clone shown, undoubtedly due to the fischeri parent
used.
The quest for white Phragmipediums!
Phrag.
Robert-Jan
Quené
flavum
(besseae flavum x Fritz Schomburg flavum) used the
besseae flavum 4n in both parents. The Phrag. besseae
flavum clone has a gene in it that suppresses expression
of the anthocyanin based purple colour. As a result only
the yellow present in besseae is left. Phrag kovachii has
very little yellow in it, so some clones should come out
as near white –and they did.
Phrag. Hanne Popow flavum x Fritz Schomburg flavum
was hoped to have even whiter clones among its
offspring, since pink species are on both sides of the
family tree, but instead the almost white clone shown
had a pink tinge to the pouch. Possibly the pink
suppressor gene does not separate from the yellow in
besseae flavum.
Phragmipedium fischeri crosses:
Phragmipedium fischeri is a species from Ecuador and
as mentioned before, it has more colour than the very
similar Phrag. schlimii. It has an added magenta overlay
on the dorsal sepal and varying amounts of magenta on
the petal tips with one line-bred clone showing a
magenta overlay on the entire petals. Some clones of
this species do not have a staminodal shield. The two
eyespots found on the schlimii staminodal shield tend to
coalesce into a single more or less heart-shaped spot on
the fischeri shield. Also the fischeri flowers are hairier
than schlimii.
One problem with trying to increase the size of progeny
flowers is that the more kovachii a cross contains the
slower it will grow.
Phrag. Kyle Quintal (Haley Decker x besseae) was
illustrated with two clones. One was a soft orange whose
flowers were flat and quite full and held on a wellproportioned stem. The other had a taller stem, fuller,
darker orange flowers, but not as flat. The cross is
smaller than Fritz Schomburg, but better shaped. There
does seem to be a bit of a problem with colour break on
the petal tips in one of the clones shown.
Phrag. Laurei-Lei Quintal (Haley Decker x dalessandroi)
had a besseae-shaped orange flower, a deep red
staminode with a thin yellow picotee and a cream pouch
flushed and veined soft orange. Striking!
Phrag. Robert-Jan Quene (Fritz Schomburg x besseae
4N) was like an obese besseae! Wonderfully wide
petals!
Phrag. Q.F. Agnes Atkinson (Haley Decker x fischeri)
had rosy purple flowers but with a white ventral sepal in
Using Phrag fischeri with Eumelia Arias (kovachii X
schlimii) produced some clones that combined the
improved size of kovachii with the good shape and pretty
colour of fischeri.
6
Crosses with longer petals:
A potting medium of pure diatomaceous earth chunks
is best, but hard to get.
Another option is to use Miracle-Grow Mix (mostly peatmoss and slow release fertilizer) and add bark or other
chunky material
Or use a bark mix and add peat moss
Or coconut husks and peat moss –which is the mix the
Fischers are trying out right now.
Phrag. Incan Treasure x Jason Fischer had a Phrag.
Don Wimber shape and colour, but bigger!
Phrag. QF Naukana Kealoha (Incan Treasure x
longifolium) was illustrated with three flowers, one a
flower with long pendant incurved petals, with a white
base overlaid rose-pink along the margins and all over
the exterior of the pouch. The second flower lacked the
incurving of the petals and the third clone had light
orange flowers with more horizontally held petals, but a
lot of in-rolling of the margins.
For Phrag besseae and its hybrids try a mix of
50% peat moss,
20% pine bark,
20% sponge rock and
10% grit-sized diatomaceous earth.
Grodan Grow Cubes (about 1-cm cubes of Rockwool
used like a bark mix) works for some people. Never
handle Rockwool unless it is very wet –the dust it
releases when handled dry can give you a nasty
pneumonia.
New Zealand sphagnum should only be used for the
caudatum complex species because they need to be
grown drier and the greater dryness prevents the mix
from getting too acid. They can be potted in it straight
and kept just moist, but not sopping wet.
Pots: Ray Rand’s “Aircone” pots work really well, even
without peat moss. (At SOOS, Jay Norris and Peter
Decyk and possibly Eric Lee sell them). You can
approximate the merits of these pots by using clear
drinking plastic glasses and melting holes into them.
They are too brittle for drilling or cutting holes.
In the reservoir the pots stand in, use a Hydrotone air/
grow –stone (aquarium stoes have them) and a bit of
diatomaceous earth to keep the liquid fresh and
oxygenated.
Ebb and Flow benches (eg “Heaven Flow”) where the
fertilizer water is pumped into the trays for one hour per
day work best for Phrag. kovachii. But an air-stone
bubbler has to be put into the water to keep it high in
oxygen.
The breeding portion of the presentation was finished off
with a lovely cross named in honour of Jason’s father.
Phrag. Jerry Lee Fischer (Incan Treasure X besseae 4n)
turned out to look like a Don Wimber on steroids! Much
larger and much wider petals, but the same bright
orange-red colour! A fitting tribute, rivaling the cross
named after Jason Fischer!
Now some of Jason’s tips about the culture of
Phragmiped
iums:
Seedlings
need to have
grown roots
first before
they are put
into trays of
fertilizer
water. Drill
holes
into
the sides of
pots to allow
in more air.
7
You can set up a mini Ebb and Flow system using a 5
gallon bucket for the nutrient solution, aquarium hoses,
pump, aquarium bubbler, timer and a basin to stand your
Phrag pots in. The plants will grow twice as fast as with
conventional culture. Change the nutrient solution at
least once a month. Keep bucket covered to cut down on
algae growth.
Diseases: Erwinia rot is the most common problem.
Keep the crowns of the plants dry to avoid it.
Discovering
new
species
and
exploiting
their
potential in hybrids:
Line-breeding the
new species so
they become far
superior
to
anything found in
the jungle! (Maybe
it will eventually
stop the stripping
out of species in
their
native
habitat!)
Welcome New Members
Future
Breeding
Goals:
To end on a
positive note
our speaker
enumerated
all
the
improvement
s that still lie
in the future
of
Phrag
breeding:
Remake old
hybrids,
using
modern linebred
species.
Breed with
different
levels
of
ploidy:
John Cotsomitis
Maria Bedolla
Joe Siklosi
8
.Crystal
Star Orchids
broker service with over 15 top orchid
nurseries
Summer Open House
From June to August weekends only
From 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. By appointment only
Tel: 905-478-8398 or
email : crystalstarorchids@gmail.com
20815 2nd Concession Road
East Gwillimbury Ontario L9N 0G9
Ching Hua Orchids, In Charm, Krull Smith, and
Sunset Valley.
.
May 8th, 2016 show Table Ribbons
Class
First
Second
Class 1
Cattleya Alliance
Guarianthe (Cattleya )
skinneri 'Casa Luna'
AM/AOS
Leslie Ee
Cattleya Culminant 'La
Tuillerie AM/AOS X Cat.
Aloha Case 'Ching Hua'
AM/AOS
John Vermeer
Class 2
Paphiopedilum
Paphiopedilum [Paph.]
Lebaudyanum, Plant of
the month An-Li Sheng
Paph. fairrieanum ‘Pacific Paph. chamberlanianium
Shamrock’
Anne Antanaitis
Rosanna Li
Paph. dayanum
Stan Luk
9
Third
Class 3
Phalaenopsis &
Vanda Alliance
Phal. Princess Kaiulani
Alla Linetsky
Phal. Hybrid
Brenda Davis
Phal. Baldan’s
Kalaidoscope 'Golden
Treasure' AM/AOS
Henry Glowka
Class 6
Dendrobium
Dendrobium Gatton
Sunray (chrysotoxum X
Illuste)
Rosanna Li
Dendrobium Santana
'Canary' (moniliforme X
friedericksianum)
Sue Loftus
Dendrobium Yamamoto
Marion Curry
Class 7
All Others
Angraecum germinyanum
Stan Luk
Lepanthes ophioglossa
Saleem Baksh
Maxillaria variabilis
An- Li Sheng
Lepanthes gargoyla
Saleem Baksh
Class 9
Baskets or
Displays
Psychopsis papilio var
aurea
Phalaeonopsis equestris
peloric
Phalaeonopsis Mini Mark
‘Hock’
Paphiopedilum
micranthum
Henry Glowka
About SOOS: Web site: www.soos.ca ; Member of the Canadian Orchid Congress; Affiliated with the American
Orchid Society, the Orchid Digest and the International Phalaenopsis Alliance.
Membership: Annual Dues $30 per calendar year (January 1 to December 31 ). Surcharge $15 for newsletter by
postal service.
Membership secretary: Liz Mc Alpine, 189 Soudan Avenue, Toronto, ON M4S 1V5, phone 416-487-
7832, renew or join on line at soos.ca/members
Executive: President, Laura Liebgott, 905-883-5290; Vice-President and Treasurer, John Vermeer, 905-8232516, ; Secretary, Sue Loftus 905-839-8281;
Other Positions of Responsibility: Program, Mario Ferrusi; Plant Doctor, Doug Kennedy; Meeting Set up, Yvonne
Schreiber; Vendor and Sales table coordinator, Diane Ryley; Library Liz Fodi; Web Master, Max Wilson;
Newsletter, Peter and Inge Poot; Annual Show, Peter Poot; Refreshments, Joe O’Regan. Conservation
Committee, Susan Shaw; Show table, Synea Tan, Cultural snapshots, Alexi Antanaitis, Directors at large Marion
Curry, Lynda Satchwell and Kevin Hushagen .
Honorary Life Members: Terry Kennedy, Doug Kennedy, Inge Poot, Peter Poot, Joe O’Regan, Diane Ryley, Wayne
Hingston, Mario Ferrusi.
Annual Show: February 11-12, 2017
10