ugly orchids!
 

I am new to the forum and everytime someone posts a photo there is always these compliments and wows!!

anyway it would also be fun and interesting instead of knowing what you like and what is on your wish list what you dislike, find "ugly" or you would never get especially among the most popular species/hybrids...
and maybe explain why.

could be color/ alliance / etc etc...
come on, leave diplomacy and politeness out and speak the old persons' unfussy truth and you can be grumpy about it!

stefano

I know Brassavola nodosa is popular and easy to grow, but I don't like the shape of the flowers at all, so I would never buy one.

When I was pregnant, the smell of Cattleyas made me vomit so I had to hold my breath while I watered mine for 9 mos.

LOL, this thread is an amusing idea, there has been something similar to it posted:

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ly-orchid.html

In my honest opinion, I have almost never seen an Orchid i thought was ugly, I tend to gravitate to the weird ones :rofl:

There are some.....unique(?) Cattleya hybrids, people make so many there's bound to be black sheep I guess.

well there some that may be over rated and over priced...

Somehow i find Paphiopedilum looking a bit sad with that single [most of the time] rigid flower... I like the mottled leaves but there is something that dos not intrigue me enough.. also sick of those large white phal hybrids you see on the desk at art galleries and real estate offices...
Although I started to love phal species like equestris, bastianii etc...

and some hiperhybridized Cattleyas I am not crazy about - look like some generic experiment and I find species like Laelia tenebrosa or C guttata way more attractive than all those corsage type hybrids...
I like primary hybrids...

And some Oncidiums make me think of Irises - \
wouldnt just be easier to buy a bunch of Iris bulbs for 6 dollars and grow them in potting soil? Te leaves are almost similar. Covergent evolution?

I love my Vanilla planifolia variegata...And the canes of Dendrobiums..... i love plants that grow roots everywhere - thick turgid roots

And somehow Stanhopeas remind me of a failed omelette or soufflé - something that fell apart while turning it in the pan!

Some twisted minds in there somewhere. Get a life!

MaX,
What do you expect at this time of the morning, some of us haven't been to bed yet, and have to get up in a couple of hours to earn a living to pay for our twisted obsessions.

Those foul smelling stinkers, of any variety, that have the beautiful flowers that we all drool over until we get a whiff of whatever the offending odor is... rancid meat, sour milk, dirty gym clothes, you get the idea.

I really don't like those frilly floofy enormous blooms some Catts have. I like the small simple blooms, and the species Catts better! And those really shiny, waxy looking paphs aren't my thing either. I prefer the fuzzy looking ones that make several blooms.

I really dont like oncidiums...im not sure why?!?! But I love the oncidium intergenerics. If that makes any sense! lol :)

You're all monsters! those poor Orchids being slammed by you terrible people, the horroh of it all! **places hand to forehand dramatically**

Actually, I agree with Camille about the Cattleya hybrids, some are just wayyyyy too floofy for me. But it's hard to single out a 'Chid as ugly :coverlaugh:

I realize I do not like those big white pals with small pox marking - or like a splatter of red paint -
certain hybrids seem way overboard and tend to look like some Crate and Barrel catalog.

whatever looks like the jungle - whatever looks like species and primary hybrids i like a lot. Phal species are great...
Anyway saw some Oncidiums at TJ that I liked -
but after all i prefer orchids with thick fleshy crawling roots. I like roots out of the pot...

I'll admit that I don't really like paphiopedilums. They'd probably do great in my area, but I'm just not that interested in them. I've had growers recommend them, but I'm like, "NAH!" I'm also not really into miniature orchids. I like big, flashy, frilly, spectacular stuff, so the microscopic, almost translucent blooms of the miniatures don't really catch my eye. :biggrin:

There are also orchids that are ugly on the inside (I.E. the plants that purposefully commit suicide in your care but flourish in the care of others in your area). Vandas come to my mind when it comes to this category - they tempt you to buy them and end up putting you through heartache leaf by falling leaf. My new brunnea is proving me wrong, though. :)

well.. would say the ugliest orchids are those I cannot manage to bloom :)

there are many I am not a big fan of them (like Zygopetalum or Big Cattleya Hybrids) but I cannot tag them as ugly...

Well for me I don't seem to care for the big floofy , fancy orchids that there are . I really like the simple huge flowers of the phals. The big white ones are especially simple and easy to care for unlike the fancier ones which can be a little picky to care for . Some fancier orchids flowers don't last as long as the phal flower does either.

I find Phalenopsis a little boring, the uglier the orchid, the more I like it

it depends on the Phalaenopsis -
I ended up finding most of them boring after seeing so many dying ones with staked stems in store windows...
bt when i saw a Phal violacea or photos of other species - wow - loved them.

too much hybridization makes them quaint and boring sometimes. just too large, too white, too unnatural.
but I got a P manni, bastiani, equestris...

As is beauty, so is ugly, "in the eye of the beholder".

Al

Stefano, they only do that kind of thing in Brooklyn.

I'm right there with you :biggrin:. I wouldn't go so far as to say the mass produced hybrids are ugly, but after awhile they all start looking the same and don't instill desire in me to get them and grow them. I do have a few sentimental hybrids around, but really love the charm of the species ;).

Susan

I agree with Stepfix about Paphs. Most of then to me, look like they were designed by a committee.
Some of those tiny and weird 'other species' that appear in OB from time to time are OK in moderation but I wouldn't like to have a GH full of them.

Baz

I know I'll get some side ways comments, but I really don't care for those Phal NOIDS and Dendrobiun NOIDS. I mean, I have mostly species plants and I go to some of my customers homes and they have their whole patio covered with, get this, FLOWERS> ughh!?!?

Those Home Depot NOIDs that flower with virtually NO CARE> What was I thinking?!?!. LOL

Am I a snob?:rofl:

I got a Paph on sale that had motted leaves - $5... mmm addict.. should I try it in SH?

anyway ugly was maybe a bit extreme but i mean "not care at all" or "sick of", "tired of".

Cattleyas I love but usually almost monochromatic and lavender/ pink etc

PAPHS are UGLY!!! but it is the same reason that i like them so much, theyre so ugly and disgusting it amazes me that such things were created out in the wild. i thought it was funny whenever my mom sees my paph blooms. the first time she said "EW what is THAT?!?! it looks like a gynecologist's worst nightmare!!! 0.o" i laughed so hard. the rest of the people who see them the first time dont believe theyre real and usually say that theyre aliens or sumn. the ones i dont like much are the boring little bog orchids that dot the landscape lookng like loose clusters of snapdragons. also, anything OVERLY magenta/ bright purple are no-no's. although i did buy a mini magenta phal and it looks nice amongst other colors to mute down its overly powerful color.

i dont really find any ugly, but there are some that u wouldnt never buy ( when i began this hobby, i didnt like any phals that werent complex hybrids )

i dont really like brassovolas, or the floofy 7" inch HUGE phals, miltoniopsis some masdevallias and some bulbophyllums

Precisely. So there are no ugly orchids, just ugly beholders.

:Tup:
:bowing


:biggrin:

:rofl:

[QUOTE=kavanaru;258736]well.. would say the ugliest orchids are those I cannot manage to bloom :)

You took the words right out of my mouth!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

WARNING: this post contains slightly off-color descriptions of orchid flowers!!!
 

:rofl:

Can't say as how Paphs ever exactly reminded me of female anatomy...

When I was a kid (my dad started taking me to orchid society meetings when I was 8 or 9) I always giggled about all the adults fawning over Paphs and Phrags that often, to my childish eyes, looked like a bunch of scrotums (or is that scrota?) on flower spikes. :blushing: I still crack up a little (inside, at least) at OS meetings when someone brings out a Paph with a particularly veiny-looking pouch. :biggrin:

I sincerely hope I haven't offended anyone too much by recounting the above tale of a childhood observation...

--Nat

nice one.
 

Stefano. Is that enough for u? ..There are some flowers not in good looking .But those are very rare ones.
But "ugly" is not suitable for those poor once.
:goodluck: :bowing

For me, any orchid that is suffering is ugly. For instance, I have two Lepanthes that had the decency to die quickly and quietly. Their tiny skeletons take up almost no space, and they don't look bad enough to take the time to pull them out of the terrarium (and they could sprout again any time - right? Right?).
On the other hand, I have some minicats that I rotted the roots off of down at the greenhouse. They've been in the midst of a slow recovery or slow death for months now. They are truly ugly.
I love big floofy catts.
I love dramatic Paphs.
For me, the aesthetic ends up being all about the balance between foliage and flowers. If the foliage is awful, the flowers had better be fantastic (Onc. Sharry Baby). On the other hand, fabulous foliage can excuse an uninteresting bloom (some of the south american terrestrials, Jewel orchids, etc)
I really like the ones with sort of a "rock garden" appeal:
Den. cuthbertsonii
Sophronitis species
Lepanthes calodictyon
Trisetella species
Phal. Dawn Treader (Be Glad line breeding)
Paph. Faire-Maude types
Complex white paphs
Complex x species type Paphs - bred for floriferousness (gratrixianum, henryanum, fairrieanum, barbigerum or insigne crossed with complex types especially)
Kefersteinia species
Dryadella species
Cym. Golden Elf 'Sundust'
Pterostylis species
Corybas species
These can all be wonderful IF they are grown well. If they are grown poorly or if they are young plants, they can all be ugly...

LMFAO *KNEE SLAPPER* :rofl: she says its the inside part thats folded in right beneath the pollen. but yes your observation seems to fit the bill also. I personally dont find it offensive and im sorry if anyone does but it IS funny :lol: my mahja also says that the warts on the petals look like a google search of "syphilis"

I *STILL* think Paph venustum looks like a disease of the nethers. Still like it, though.