Potinara Hoku Gem "freckles"

[james mickelso]

When I rescued this a few years ago at the SDCOS Spring Show from the spieces sale table the tag said potinara Hoku Gem "freckles". A thread down the page from here has a very close copy ut that one is blc Copper Queen. Can someone look up these on orchidwhiz and see what it says. I always want to have the correct tag on my plants if possible. Usually my orchid has some spotting on the petals and more splash too. Thanks. Here's a picture along with another one which shows one of it's siblings. The one in flower is a division of the unflowered plant. The division was from three years ago.

[silken]

I looked in OrchidWiz and to me it looks very much like Copper Queen 'Best'. I'm wouldn't call it that for sure since it didn't say that on the tag. But the Hoku Gem photos shown in OrchidWiz were more yellow and just had a different lip.

Yours is gorgeous and has more splash on the petals than most of the Copper Queen photos and none of the Hoku Gem ones had that. It may be a different cross with one of them as a parent. I have a young Copper Queen and sure hope it looks similar to yours when it blooms. I have my first sheath on it so hope it produces something!

[tucker85]

Both Hoku Gem and Copper Queen can vary a great deal in color. Two plants of either cross can look quite different from one another. Looking at the images in Orchid Wiz, I would agree with Silken, the shape of the lip and the coloring looks a lot more like Copper Queen.

[quiltergal]

Hoku Gem 'Freckles' starts out kind of red/burnt orange with lots of spots. As the flower ages it turns a bright canary yellow, and the spots become even more prominent. I think you have Copper Queen.

[james mickelso]

Thanks kids. I always want to make sure what I have. One question though. Is it a laeliocattleay or a potinara? I looked on the net and saw blc copper queen and it looks a lot like mine but then down farther on the page was potinara freckles and it too looked a lot like mine. Now I'm really cornfuzed. Let me know what you think. I'll go with the consensus. Thanks again. Oh and this orchid whatever it is is so easy to grow. And very floriferous(?).

[catwalker808]

Your photo is definitely not Pot Hoku Gem 'Freckles'. Attached is photo of our original 'Freckles' that we cloned. Attached is also a photo of a typical Blc Copper Queen. Hoku Gem can have multiple spikes blooming at the same time. As mentioned by quiltergirl, the flowers start off reddish orange. Then the flowers mature to yellow with small red spots (freckles). My photo was taken before the flowers turned more yellow.

Hoku Gem flowers are also only about 2-1/2" to 3" at most. Blc Copper Queen flowers can get to about 4-1/2" to 5". With Bl Richard Mueller as a parent, Blc Copper Queen can also experience a similar red-orange to yellow or orange blooming sequence.

Can't be certain, but if I were to guess, I would say your flower is Blc Copper Queen. I would also guess that your flower was fairly newly bloomed & has since turned orange or yellow as it matured. The darker red-orange patterns on the petals were where the sepals overlapped them, so they were not exposed to the light until the flowers unfolded.

Good growing

[james mickelso]

Thankyou all. I would definately say it is a blc Copper Queen. I will change the tag to show that.