Worlds most pointless cross B. little stars

[signin1234]

Just looking at pictures online can be very deceiving, and frankly, isn't always a good way to compare different species and hybrids. For one, many people just flat out do not care about correct ID anymore. Next issue is that different digital cameras can have vastly different outcomes in terms of color and lighting and photo quality. Plus, lots of people digitally enhance their photos, brightening & modifying colors to suit their eyes, removing blemishes, etc. Plus, there's often very little reference in the photos to provide sizing references.

Personally, I have B. Little Stars and B. nodosa (at least according to their labels, as others have pointed out, it's all *$%@ up from a taxonomic standpoint). These two plants would never be mistaken for one another by anybody that's paying attention and knows a little bit about orchids. To say that B. Little Stars is pointless is certainly an opinion that folks are entitled to. Personally, I really like B. Little Stars. It's much more vigorous and easy to grow and bloom. Plus it blooms more frequently than any of my other Brassavolas. There are more flowers per spike than B. nodosa, though they are smaller. Plus, it's a slightly more pleasant fragrance to me, and a much stronger fragrance. Now, I acknowledge that it could just be the difference in the clones I'm growing and not representative of the species & hybrid as a whole.

[estación seca]

I'm among the considerable number who are far more interested in fragrance than perfect round flower form. I keep plants like Bc. Binosa that an award hound would throw out last year. I also really like species and I enjoy comparing relatives. It's like a horizontal wine tasting.

[WaterWitchin]

I was gifted a Brassavola nodosa (or was it cordata?) then I got the other. Then received a B. Little Stars, and a digbyana. None have been in my care for a year yet. The cordata, I've bloomed. The rest, not yet. (big shift factor into SH). Surely the digbyana will look different. Now I'm just wondering why I'm giving so much real estate up to these guys... Oh, because I haven't owned and grown them. I'll try to remember this thread as each blooms. Stick around for a couple of years folks!

PS Nice additions to the thought process Kim.

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

I was gifted a Brassavola nodosa (or was it cordata?) then I got the other. Then received a B. Little Stars, and a digbyana. None have been in my care for a year yet. The cordata, I've bloomed. The rest, not yet. (big shift factor into SH). Surely the digbyana will look different. Now I'm just wondering why I'm giving so much real estate up to these guys... Oh, because I haven't owned and grown them. I'll try to remember this thread as each blooms. Stick around for a couple of years folks!

Four years on, how are they doing now?

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by Dusty Ol' Man

Four years on, how are they doing now?

Ha! Testing my memory, huh Dusty?

The nodosa continues to struggle. Not sure why, but it has to live with all the other Brassavola and get the same care. Has only bloomed once... no noticeable fragrance, at least to me.

cordata... has pretty much climbed out of the glass pot it' in, mostly growing down the side, blooms regularly and in my eye, not all that spectacular for the amount of real estate it takes up.

Little Stars... meh, I grew it for a couple of years. It bloomed and I gifted it elsewhere. Between the four, too much Brassavola species and crosses on the bench and not impressive or interesting enough to keep.

The digbyana... was gifted to me extremely small. I do mean extremely small. Like one pbulb and another just starting to come up. When they say it's a slow grower, that means sloooooow. I think it has maybe four or five pbulbs now. Will try to remember to look. Maybe in another couple years it may be big enough to bloom. The foliage is really interesting... kind of a waxy/silvery strange cuticle so it stays here. Really want to bloom it myself. It took me about a year to figure out it didn't have a problem and that's just the way it looks, by seeing one up close and in person.

Of all the crosses, Yellow Bird and Pvc. Golden Peacock put the others to shame.

[Dusty Ol' Man]

[QUOTE=WaterWitchin;1022194
The digbyana... was gifted to me extremely small. I do mean extremely small. Like one pbulb and another just starting to come up. When they say it's a slow grower, that means sloooooow. I think it has maybe four or five pbulbs now. Will try to remember to look. Maybe in another couple years it may be big enough to bloom. The foliage is really interesting... kind of a waxy/silvery strange cuticle so it stays here. Really want to bloom it myself. It took me about a year to figure out it didn't have a problem and that's just the way it looks, by seeing one up close and in person.
[/QUOTE]

Is the digbyana of the green or blue variety, if you know? I have a few Cattleya hybrids of the blue varieties and all their leaves have that silvery look to the cuticle. The other colors don't.

[Keysguy]

WW- I'm surprised they haven't bloomed for you. I have both nodosa and Little Stars. Not only are they vigorous but they have flowers on them at least 80% of the year.

ID---- Mine are both pretty nice specimen plants but I'm with you. So much so that I'm seriously thinking about getting rid of one of them to make room for something different and more interesting.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by Keysguy

WW- I'm surprised they haven't bloomed for you. I have both nodosa and Little Stars. Not only are they vigorous but they have flowers on them at least 80% of the year.

ID---- Mine are both pretty nice specimen plants but I'm with you. So much so that I'm seriously thinking about getting rid of one of them to make room for something different and more interesting.

They were in bark and I moved to SH, around six to eight months ago if memory serves. Recovery takes time. And I didn't have the best of summers here for good recovery. If I start getting them blooming 80% of the time, I'll keep them regardless. Or maybe it's that Florida thang.

[SouthPark]

Some people are reporting on a generally higher flower count than say a comparable size nodosa under the same sorts of growing conditions.

So - at first it may seem that there's not much difference in terms of flower appearance ------ but there can be features that people may discover ---- differences .... later, after growing them for long enough times, and noticing those differences. This requires time and watching, and sharing of information.

[DirtyCoconuts]

(Looks away)

I am sorry you don’t like this cross, I do

I have two and they are nice. They are pretty much always in flower and they smell like lemons.

The most pointless hybrid is one that cannot flower. In my opinion.

I’ll never turn my nose up at a flower.