Pendulous Cymbidium season - Orchid Board

Fairorchids · #1 03-09-2021, 10:08 AM

My two favorite pendulous Cymbidiums are in bloom (and full of weeds). Both are due for re-potting & dividing this year, but for a change it looks like they are both producing pods from some of the crosses I attempted, so I may have to wait till the fall.

#1 Cym. Fashion Runway 'Maplewood'
This plant produces inflorescences up to 48" long, with 40-45 flowers, which are exactly 3" NS. It has one minor flaw, in that the 2-3 buds at the tip of the inflorescence tend to 'merge', so it will probably never pass the criteria of the AOS judges. It has 7 or 8 spikes this season.

#2 Cym. Drew's Delight 'Fair Orchids'
Here the flower is a little cuppy, and the color is not 'clean' (in AOS language), but the spike presentation is great (dense, without being crowded). Using it for breeding, I have pollinated with darker flowers to get away from 'green with overlay'. It has 11 or 12 spikes this season.

Dollythehun · #2 03-09-2021, 10:32 AM

Beautiful! Provoking envy again, are we Kim?

Fairorchids · #3 03-09-2021, 10:55 AM

Pendulous Cymbidiums were all the rage some 10+ years ago, but they have been very hard to find recently. When I exhibit these plants at shows, there are always a lot of people asking for for them.

I started breeding Cyms 2 seasons ago (I have about 400 small seedlings from 3 crosses). Last season, due to the uncertainty under Covid-19 lock-down, I did not breed anything.

Now, that I have some hopes that we will have shows in the 2021/22 season, I have started again.

On a different note, Fashion Runway is a somewhat slow grower (I have had it about 8 years, but never divided it). Drew's Delight is very vigorous; I made 4-5 divisions 2 or 3 years ago (all sold by now). There will be divisions available of that plant by next winter.

Roberta · #4 03-09-2021, 12:13 PM

I also wonder why pendulous Cyms aren't being bred much lately. Most of them stay smaller, making them desirable for those who don't have infinite space. (Does anybody??) When they were abundant, I noticed that essentially none got awards... Flowers tending to be a bit cuppy and smaller (but that's their ancestry...) but no credit for spectacular displays just dripping with spikes and gazillions of flowers. I think it's a problem of criteria, not the plants. I love 'em.

Fairorchids · #5 03-10-2021, 07:25 AM

Actually, from 2014-2018, 9-15 pendulous Cymbidiums were awarded every year.

However, I spoke with one grower/breeder/AOS judge from CA, who told me that the Cym. devonianum traits are so dominant, that 2nd generation hybrids are rarely an improvement over the 1st generation. That is probably why there is little activity in this direction now.

Having said that, I believe that there is still a market demand for these types, so I have a couple of crosses that are about 4 months out of flasks, and several seed pods maturing out of this years blooming.