And you thought Reed Stem Epis were boring

[Fairorchids]

In recent years most Epi breeding has been an attempt to create 'tabletop' hybrids, with foliage max 12" and total plant height 16-18" or less. There has been some success, but in my opinion most of the results have been BOOOORING!

Two years ago I asked Jim Rose of Cal-Orchids to send me 10 of his state of the art seedlings, with emphasis on large flowers.

Here are some of them:

Group photo shows, L-to-R:
Epi Lovely Valley, 14" foliage and smallish cool pink flowers
Epi Lakeview 'Jumbo Red', with 28" foliage and 52 mm flowers on a 4' stem
Epi Pacific Firefighter, with 10" foliage and abt 42 mm flowers on a 16" stem
Epi Pacific Tomato 'I', with 18" foliageand 40-42 mm flowers on 28-36" stems

Later I noticed that Epi Pacific Tomato 'II' was in bloom too. It has 10-11" foliage, and 40 mm flowers on 16" stems.

Close-ups are:
Pacific Firefighter & Lovely Valley in same photo
Lakeview
Pacific Tomato 'I'
Pacific Tomato 'II'

My one regret is that Lakeview is not registered, so I do not know what it is made with. That makes it useless to breed on with.

[wintergirl]

Pretty group of Epis!

[Cntry]

They are very beautiful. They look to me like a bird getting ready to fly away.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Really nice ones, there gorgeous.

[brsucculents]

Excellent group of Epis. Thanks for posting and enlightening us.