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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[SouthPark]

True ! From a logic (logical) point of view ..... there generally is a 'point' or aim when a commercial hybridiser makes a cross and then spends time propagating the various members of a cross.

If it just turns out that the results are not what were hoped for, then doing the cross in the first place wasn't pointless.

It's just a case of the existing outcomes were not what the hybridiser was looking for. But then again, the generally higher flower count, or even flower sizes ------ may have been what the hybridiser was actually looking for, which is nice.

It also doesn't mean that the hybridiser covered all bases - because members of a cross can be thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or even millions or something. So it was pretty much impossible to cover all bases.

But there was a point in making the cross. To see what could be achieved. Some things were learned from it, and some more things in the future could also be learned from it ----- which could be considered as an exercise that was not pointless.

[Keysguy]

I didn't say I didn't like them. My issue is they are too much alike. If they're not side by side it's very difficult to tell them apart.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Originally Posted by Keysguy

I didn't say I didn't like them. My issue is they are too much alike. If they're not side by side it's very difficult to tell them apart.

I notice the same thing is true with white men