Oncidium sharry baby bloom variation

[Gthumbz89]

Hello,

I recently bought what i think is a sharry baby red fantasy from Trader Joe's. It has mostly solid red flowers but a few have white splotches on the lip that remind me of the sweet fragrance clone. However these lip splotches are not symmetrical, one side of the lip will not have the white colors and so on.

Is this color break from a virus or just natural bloom behavior?

Thanks orchid people!

[WhiteRabbit]

Can you post a pic?
I had a 'Sweet Fragrance' that had lip color variations from differences in temps and/or amount of light received while the buds were developing.

[Gthumbz89]

Forgive the photos. It is late and my phone is having a hard time focusing

[Gthumbz89]

I hope that the asymmetrical lip splotches are visible. If not let me know and I'll spend more effort getting pictures.

[WhiteRabbit]

Hmmm ... I'm so not an expert on viruses, so can't say, sorry. Hopefully some other members can be of help.

[meraki]

I'm definitely not an expert on viruses or oncidiums but I was talking to a grower a few weeks ago when I was orchid shopping and asked if they sell any Sharry Baby and he told me that they no longer do because there's been a virus or some disease that's infected a large number of Sharry Baby's that isn't noticeable until it's too late. He didn't elaborate what it was though.

I would quarantine your orchid just to be sure or ask some of the vendors that sells orchids to TJs if they can help ID it, if it's not a Sharry Baby, then you're in the clear I think.

Two vendors that I know of are Chisan and Matsui. Good luck!