Why is it so hard to find orchid bloom pictures?

[Bulbofett]

Does anyone else have this problem? I just can't justify spending that much money on OrchidWiz, but the sheer fact that I can't find any pictures on most of my orchids is frustrating.

I know that it wouldn't really help with seedlings so much because there can be so much variation. Especially with new crosses, but sometimes I'll be looking for a really old cross and come up empty handed.

Before my pictures, there were no bloom pics of C. Caguas Ruby. Now, if you type that name into Google you'll see a bunch of my pictures from when mine bloomed.

What gives?

[Cym Ladye]

Ah, the wonders of Google. The problem is that more often than not, most of the pictures are simply not the plant you are looking for. If you have a vague idea of the color of your plant and see photos so far removed from that, let your good sense focus you on the right one. You will also learn that some sites are far more reliable than others for the correct name on the correct photo.

Another tip is to start taking your own photos, which you have started doing, and whenever you can at shows, club meetings and sales. And if you cannot get photos of the plant you want, look for photos of the parents.

[Bulbofett]

Originally Posted by Cym Ladye

Ah, the wonders of Google. The problem is that more often than not, most of the pictures are simply not the plant you are looking for. If you have a vague idea of the color of your plant and see photos so far removed from that, let your good sense focus you on the right one. You will also learn that some sites are far more reliable than others for the correct name on the correct photo.

Another tip is to start taking your own photos, which you have started doing, and whenever you can at shows, club meetings and sales. And if you cannot get photos of the plant you want, look for photos of the parents.

I guess I was just wondering what everyone else does. Sure, I don't mind surprises but every now and again it'd be nice to look up the plant and get a decent photo attached to it.

I Google the crap out of some orchid names, and wade through blog post after blog post. Then I find out it isn't the right plant. I just wondered if it was as hard for me as it is for others.

Sure, I could go to the shows, and society meetings, but sometimes you just want an answer right then and there. The shows aren't for another 2 months, and by that point I might as well wait until the thing blooms.

[My Green Pets]

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Take lots of pics and upload them to sites like OrchidBoard with the names of the plants. Your pics will be the first! Isn't that cool?

Whenever I google my plants now, my own images come up in the image search and I think it's awesome. My own small contribution to the world

[Bulbofett]

Originally Posted by CambriaWhat

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Take lots of pics and upload them to sites like OrchidBoard with the names of the plants. Your pics will be the first! Isn't that cool?

Whenever I google my plants now, my own images come up in the image search and I think it's awesome. My own small contribution to the world

Oh for sure! I always upload my bloom pictures here on OB. I guess no one else finds an issue with the lack of photos and wonders why.

[sweetjblue]

These are the tips and tricks I often use.

Sometimes a plant isn't listed under the registered name (at least just yet) so what I try is breaking it down into the two parents used in the hybrid and try a search using that.

Example: C Caguas Ruby is C. Landate x Gur. aurantiaca and this is what you might look for.

In addition with all the names changes and species going from one group to another, think Cattleya to Guarianthe for aurantiaca, sometimes you have to look under the older name for a species. Sometimes you have to do the opposite and look for the newer name.

Then there's the case of mis-spelling. If the name is mis-spelled on your label and that is what you use you may or may not get a hit. If I don't find it using the spelling I've been given, I always check to see if it's right.

Sometimes there just aren't any pictures to be found on-line for whatever the reason, could be due to privacy settings.


Judi


PS. When I do a google search for C. Caguas Ruby I don't get any pics of orchids, just pics of people. !?!

And Orchid Wiz doesn't have a pic of your Hybrid either!

[Subrosa]

Easiest way I've found is to keep true species. IOSPE has a pic of just about every orchid I've ever searched there for.

[orchidsarefun]

Originally Posted by Bulbofett

Does anyone else have this problem? I just can't justify spending that much money on OrchidWiz, but the sheer fact that I can't find any pictures on most of my orchids is frustrating.

Even OrchidWiz doesn't have all that many photos. They appear to rely on donated/submitted photos for non-award-winning plants. They do have photos of all awarded plants though.
I recently asked a judge whose dad was a world-famous cattleya grower. Photos of older hybrids are rarer than hen's teeth. I was told that in the 'old days' it just cost too much money to take and develop your own photos, when an orchid cost 5c ! I have also asked RHS to open up a library of registered hybrid photos - even a pay-per-view is better than nothing. They said it was a good idea, but needed $ and manpower.
I have a hybrid that looks totally different to the 1 photo on OrchidWiz. There is absolutely no way of checking which photo is more 'correct' as its not anywhere else on the internet.

[MrHappyRotter]

I say this with all sincerity, but a person could literally write a dissertation on the underlying reasons and contributing factors as to why image searches for specific plants is difficult.

Some reasons?

Taxonomic naming is unstable. Names change all the time, even in well-known and relatively common genera & species. When a genus or species name changes, so often do the names of the hybrids. There' a lot of naming turmoil, and overall, it makes searching and compiling those results in some generic format (i.e. the way a general purpose search engine works) unfeasible. You could fine-tune a search engine like Google to provide better results for certain knowledge-domains, but it's simply not financially feasible or worthwhile.

Variations in how the plants are listed are another issue. Is it Paph. LynnLeigh Koopowitz, Paphiopedilum LynnLeigh Koopwitz, Paph. Lynn Leigh Koopowitz, Paph. malipoense x delenatii, Paph. delenatii x malipoense? There are countless iterations on that, and that's not even counting spelling mistakes, clonal names, abbreviations, etc. These tend to dilute the effectiveness of any unified result set.

Another problem is that many, many people simply fail to even mention the name of their plants, even when they have access to that information (via labels, sales receipts, etc). There are so many threads where the title is "My phal", "orchid in bloom", "A few catts". When search engines review pages, they rank certain elements on that page as being most important, most relevant. And guess what? The title of a post is really high up there, so even if you mention the name of your orchid several posts down, it's hard for search engines to associate that text with any given photo on the page.

And on that note, the search engines are automated and use a variety of algorithms to figure out what pages match your query, but also, what text might be most relevant to a given photo on the page. The average person online isn't writing his/her posts with any consideration to the limitations of how search engines work, in fact, search engine optimization of threads is not even remotely familiar or important to the person who just wants to share a picture of his or her latest blooms.

This list could go on and on, but those are a few that come immediately to mind. If you want better results, though, you either have to find an appropriate, relevant source dedicated to your purposes (like OrchidWiz) or spend your time educating people on the importance of nomenclature and hope that if enough people are doing it, eventually the search results will improve.

[LovePhals]

Bulbofett I have the same isssue with some new vandas I purchased and wonder if it isnt a popular hybrid, it doesnt have a registered name, or i just cant find the pics. Whatever the reason I wish I knew what it will look like.