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If we were to think back to our days in elementary school (or pretty much any school), there was always the odd kid who no one hung around with. Usually, it was fairly obvious why that was the case.

Then there were some kids I recall who seemed like they ought to be in the popular crowd, but weren’t. They weren’t unattractive, or dirty, nor were there things personality-wise that caused them to be shunned. Maybe it was just that they were new, or had a tough time with the already-established cliques, or some chance event or accusation branded them as outcasts, although they were “normal” in every way. Some kids might have been cast as undesirables because they had different names, or had the wrong color lunch box, or maybe too much hair on their forearms.

I know a Paph species that seems like it ought to be in the popular crowd, but isn’t for some reason. As a species, it has a lot going for it:

• a bold, brightly colored flower
• distinctive flower form
• easy to grow, can reach specimen size in reasonable time frame
• not gargantuan, nor minuscule

What paph lover couldn’t at least be casual friends with this flower?

If you don’t know this species, please meet P. hirsutissimum. So why isn’t P. hirsutissimum more popular?

Is it the short stem?

The flower odor? (Well, here’s the news — there isn’t any).

The hair? Aha — maybe that’s it! Well, that’s what “hirsute” means: hairy! (Click hirsutissiumum-close-up.JPG to see the high-resolution picture where you can zoom in to see the fine detail)

But why let a little hair keep you from a love affair with this beautiful orchid? I mean, look closely at the popular kids in slipper orchid school — rothschildianum or sanderianum — and you’ll notice that they’re covered in warts!

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Here’s another mutant, which (for obvious reasons) I’m calling ‘Triple Pouch’.

Lovely!

I hope it continues to flower this way…

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A great way to lose money on orchids is buying plants that are too small.

Take P. sanderianum: spectacular, highly desirable, envy-inducing. And slow-growing.

Every now and then I meet people who want to save money on a sanderianum by getting a small seedling. While seedlings a year or two out of flask may run $30 these days, what these folks don’t realize is the hidden cost in small seedlings. These hidden costs fall into several areas:

1) There is a huge risk in losing your seedling during the, oh, five to seven years it will take to get to maturity. Five to seven years is a long time to wait, and a lot can happen to a plant. Like infections. Pests. Power outages. Vacations where someone who was supposed to water your plants forgets to show up. While you may save some money upfront, you pay for it in the risk you absorb in attempting to grow a small seedling.

2) Your time, effort, and growing space have a cost. “Non-performing” plants (i.e., ones that take too long to bloom or don’t grow) should be candidates for replacement by ones that do “perform”: they bloom, or at least grow fast enough to keep you excited about it, or produce a division that can be traded or sold. Plants that sit, take up space, water, and care generally turn out to be a waste of time. (The same is true of stock market investments.)

3) Buyers don’t always have the opportunity to see ALL the sibs from a cross together to pick the strongest. In any flask, there will be more vigorous individuals and less vigorous individuals (which holds true in the classroom, gym class, standardized tests, etc.). So the seedling you get might be the best, or might be the runt.

A bigger plant will cost more, but it will be established. Its very size tells you something — it is a survivor. It was robust enough to handle whatever was thrown at it for the time it took to get to its size, whether that was bad weather, bad bacteria, or bad care, and it will be robust enough to have a chance at handling whatever you might throw at it!

The other benefit of larger size is its growth will accelerate once the plant reaches a certain size. The more leaf area, the more photosynthesis, the more growth, and hopefully, more energy to put into a bloom, one which you’ll be enjoying much sooner than with a seedling.

Believe me, this is not a ploy to get people to buy bigger plants from Paphiness Orchids. I’m very happy to sell seedlings of nearly any size, and do so reasonably well (usually to growers who are very patient, committed, and know from experience that some are not going to make it). And there’s nothing like growing a seedling to bloom, especially if it takes seven years.

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The ‘Charles E.’ clone of P. rothschildianum is certainly a very influential plant in paph circles, and the ‘Borneo’ clone equally so. Both received FCCs and produced many progeny which themselves won numerous AOS awards. All well and good.

Every year, though, I get inquiries about these plants from excited collectors new to slipper orchids. New “pouch people” getting into roths are often dazzled by the awards given to ‘Charles E.’ and ‘Borneo’. What they don’t realize is how outdated those awards are, having been given thirty years ago. Now, I am not knocking the plants themselves — they are fine rothschildianums (and I’m proud to own both). But it’s sort of like flipping through old Playboy magazines from the 60’s — if you grew up in a era of silicone “perfection,” you’re astonished at how times and tastes have changed.

So where is a collector (of rothschildianums, not Playboys) to start?

I believe the current standard in roths is still ‘Rex’ FCC/AOS x ‘Mont Millais’ FCC/AOS produced by the Orchid Zone. One can easily and fairly argue, however, that the ‘Val’ FCC/AOS x ‘Mont Millais’ FCC/AOS cross from the Tokyo Orchid Nursery is the best. Well, as always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and when it comes to orchids, in the hands of the grower.

Progeny from both of these crosses has been the foundation of much of the current breeding in roths. The Orchid Zone has been continuing to push roth breeding by selecting the best of their ‘Rex’ x ‘MM’ plants, and crossing with progeny from ‘Nan Chou’ (a very dark roth) x ‘MM’ and other crosses. I have been fortunate to acquire a number of seedlings of this cutting edge breeding; if you are interested, please email me.

Many of the crosses coming from Asia these days actually bring both (Rex x MM) and (Val x MM) progeny together. (Actually, ‘Val’ FCC/AOS was one of the progeny of the ‘Charles E.’ x ‘Borneo’ cross.) In other cases, select plants have been outcrossed to plants originally wild-collected.

All of this genetic mixing and matching should produce some really spectacular stuff. So the future looks very exciting for roth nuts.

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