Hybrid Possible?
 

Hi Everyone:waving
Hoping that some of the experts on the board can help me out here. I currently have a Prosthechea Elfin in bloom, and a Cattleya intermedia var coerulea which is due to open any day now. I was thinking about whether I might be able to cross the two? Would it work? I see some other Catt x Prosthechea crosses listed on the RHS site, but am unsure if this one would work. Can anybody advise? I have heard some info about the pollinia count in some Catt's but I am a newbie to this so any info provided would be greatly appreciated!!

Possible, yes. Predictable, no. You're just going to have to give it a try and hope for the best. ;)

Pollinia arrangement doesn't matter too much for our purposes. Chromosome count is more relevant, but I can't speak with great confidence on that subject. Just know that many modern breeding lines may have irregular numbers of chromosomes, and this can lead to sterility in it's offspring or even an inability to breed itself. You just never know for sure. If both are in the same alliance, it is possible for a cross to take. Give it a shot.

Thanks for the help Royal!

Some people told me that rose with different chromosome count can not be cross. But in the market there are cross btw different chromosomes count. Just try to see how is turn out.

I've been told that many Prosthechea are reluctant breeders, which may explain why there are so few hybrids registered with this genus. The two are related and those hybrids made of which I've seen flowers have been fabulous, so it's possible. Try it!

I happen to have two capsules of a cross between Prosthechea cochleata alba and Encyclia tampensis alba growing right now, m'self. I hope they're fertile.

Thanks for the reply calonyction! Guess all I can do is give it a shot! If anything comes of it, I will post an update here.

Ok, so two weeks since I have attempted the pollination and I have a small update. I tried the cross both ways, using the C intermedia pollen on the Prosthechea and vice versa. The seed pod failed on the C intermedia, but it looks like the Prosthechea is actually making a pod. Has swollen quite a bit in the last two weeks. Never thought the cross would work this way, figured the larger flower (intermedia) would have a better chance at producing a seed pod when pollinated by the smaller as I had read something along these lines before but she seems to be progressing. I will keep updating this thread as the weeks go by!

You might want to leave the anther caps on the flowers you pollinate. It could help.

Will do, thanks for the tip Ted!!

Sometimes when flower size is very different the pollen tubes from the smaller flower simply can't grow long enough to get where they need to be in the larger flower.