Prosthechea hybrid

[Orchidflowerchild]

that lip patterning is lovely, but sometimes with these speculative hybrids, I wonder "what was improved here, over the species?"

Not that I fault anyone, just speaking with an eye to breeding on, where do you go from here? And to me, though opening up the lip of schilleriana was probably a primary (and successful) goal, I think the flower shape detracts from the charm of both parents, in that you lose the waxy ruffles of the schilleriana and you lose the free-form curliness of the prosthechea.

Maybe if this was done with fragrans, then it would tend toward waxier texture and fuller segments. Not that round and full should be the only goals in hybridisation, but, just I miss the nautiloid look of the prosthecea and the carved-from-polished-mahoganhy look that schilleriana can have.


-Ceci