1980s-1990s cattleya mail order catalogs

[Roberta]

Thanks for looking at those AOS magazines! If you see it, would be great. Not something that I would show or breed with, so ID isn't vital, but if it turned up, how much fun!

Here are the flowers... if you spot something that looks like these, would be interesting!

[piping plover]

I'm posting here and on the PalmTalk Forum (orchid thread) since members on both forums have been providing me with ideas for this quest.

The purple cattleya that I purchased from the Rod McLellan Co’s 1988/1989 era catalogs has been identified as Lc. MOONWIND 'MT. MADONNA' (Lc. Eva Shill x Lc. Elizabeth Off).

I finally wrote a letter to the successor company to Rod McLellans after not hearing back by email months ago. I think my email bounced. Within weeks, the Vice President/General Manager and staff grower contacted me with specific scanned pages of their archived catalogs for those years. Extraordinary customer service from McLellan Botanicals / Taisuco America! A Big applause for them. The grower believes it is Lc. MOONWIND 'MT. MADONNA' and after reviewing and researching I completely agree. Both the description and photo were an identical match to my orchid plant. None of the other purple cattleyas listed in the catalogs matched so closely in photos and description of bloom period. Additionally, I searched online for this identification and the few returns of images and descriptions were identical to mine.

After 3 decades this mystery has been solved. With the abundance of time spent indoors this year with the covid lockdown, I really concentrated on this search more than ever The most difficult thing was remembering the name of the company I purchased it from, but as I immersed myself into older AOS publications of that era, the trade advertisements, graphics, and the address of the Rod McLellan Co just stood out to me. Other orchid enthusiasts, across the country, as well as the San Francisco Orchid Society members and former employees of the Rod McLellan Co have kindly responded to my emails and have offered suggestions and leads. Never give up on your NOID quest!

Many thanks to you all who have helped me out with your posts in this thread.

[smweaver]

Good luck with your search, Piping Plover. Reading everyone's replies, this is actually quite a depressing topic. I too remember receiving those fantastic catalogs from Stewart Orchids and Jones & Scully--and then tossing them away after placing an order. It was heartbreaking to hear Bob Scully's comment after Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida in 1992 that they would not be coming back. Hopefully someone will be able to help you with your cattleya identification.

[Ray]

J&S' downfall was a fungicide that was contaminated with a herbicide, wasn't it?

[smweaver]

Yes, you're correct, Ray. It was the combination of Andrew and Benlate.

This February 1992 NYT article references Jones & Scully's troubles with Benlate. Andrew's arrival in the late summer of that year was, according to Bob Scully's comments at the time, the coup de grace for his business.

Farmers Worried as a Chemical Friend Turns Foe - The New York Times

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Ray

J&S' downfall was a fungicide that was contaminated with a herbicide, wasn't it?

That was certainly a major case involving Du Pont. LINK

[smweaver]

Congratulations on identifying your Lc Moonwind. It's quite a good-looking bloom, and I will bet that it has an equally attractive scent. All of the leg work you put into finding out what you purchased long ago has paid off.

[Keysguy]

Plover- I agreed with you when you said it looked like it had a fair amount of trianae in it. I just looked up the parents in OrchidWiz and interestingly, there's not that much but those genes must be strong.

Shill is heavily dowiana, mossiae and warscewiczii while Off is a real Heinz 57 but the biggest chunk is roughly 20% trianae. If you go through all that gene dilution your plant ends up being maybe 5% trianae. Amazing how strongly it came through. Beautiful plant you have there.

Edit- I actually just did some better research:
Your plant is....
31% dowiana
17% warscewiczii
17% mossiae
13% trianae
8% warneri
6% labiata
5% tenebrosa
3% other


Much more trianae than my first guesstimate.

[piping plover]

Originally Posted by smweaver

Congratulations on identifying your Lc Moonwind. It's quite a good-looking bloom, and I will bet that it has an equally attractive scent. All of the leg work you put into finding out what you purchased long ago has paid off.

Thank you for the kind words. Yes, you are correct - it has a wonderful and haunting scent. Regarding this cultivar, I copied the following text from a website (originally in Japanese?) so the translation may not be seemless: "won the highest prize of fragrance and shiseido prize at the Western orchid exhibition sponsored by JOGA. "

---------- Post added at 08:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:28 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Keysguy

Plover- I agreed with you when you said it looked like it had a fair amount of trianae in it. I just looked up the parents in OrchidWiz and interestingly, there's not that much but those genes must be strong.

Shill is heavily dowiana, mossiae and warscewiczii while Off is a real Heinz 57 but the biggest chunk is roughly 20% trianae. If you go through all that gene dilution your plant ends up being maybe 5% trianae. Amazing how strongly it came through. Beautiful plant you have there.

Edit- I actually just did some better research:
Your plant is....
31% dowiana
17% warscewiczii
17% mossiae
13% trianae
8% warneri
6% labiata
5% tenebrosa
3% other


Much more trianae than my first guesstimate.

I'm speechless with all that information you just provided! HOW did you find all that? I thought my next questions for this community would be how do I now research my cultivar with AOS or other societies to learn about the the history, any awards etc and then learn about the contributing species to the parentage and culltivar.

You have provided me with such useful information on the parentage (and contributing species) to research now. Many Thanks!!!

And yes, I recall the Trianae discussion awhile back. I always thought this had Labiata as well.

[Leafmite]

Congratulations on solving the puzzle!