Cattleya Flower Manipulation
 

This Blc. Sanyung Ruby 'Kuang Lung' in training. I learned this technique from a Taiwanese website. You use heavyweight sheet protectors (like for photos) and soft wire (used to hang drop-ceiling frames). Cut a "keyhole" for the lip and make clips out of the wire to hold the petals flat. I've tried this before with varying degrees of success. I think the trick is to catch the flowers as they open, so that they can grow into position and "set" within the framework you've created.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...d/IMG_3426.jpg

And the final product...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...d/IMG_3431.jpg

Mabuhay!

thanks Bayard for the tip. i'll try it.

Looks interesting, but to be honest with you, I prefer the flowers as they come. Windblown, open, cupped, closed...I think each form is beautiful in its own unique way. :)

How long do you have to keep them like that? It looks like a really nice cross - can't wait to see the final product.


Kinda reminds me of the plastic wrappings on a lampshade! :coverlaugh:

Cool, I heard but never seen a photo of it. they also do something like this on brachypetalum paphiopedilums.

However this is cheating, especially if you are bringing them to judging.

Not only are you cheating the judges and others you are cheating yourself, if the flower isn't good enough to show to other people then BIN IT. This sort of thing isn't good, in my area of Australia if you get caught by the Judges, ie. marks on the flower or stem then your out, this should be the case worldwide. Sorry...just one of my pet hates.

Warren

Interesting. I've seen this discussed before. Seems they do it a lot in Taiwan. I'm with the others, though, I like the flowers just fine without all the fussing around. Yours looks really nice without any 'help'.

Kim

The beautiful orchid hybrids that we see today represent the efforts of many hybridizers over many years. Hybridizers spend years accumulating experience and knowledge in an attempt to breed improved versions of orchid flowers. This knowledge also often represents a composite of the prior efforts of many other hybridizers, distilled by a hybridizer’s own experience.
Orchid judges also spend years accumulating the in-depth knowledge required for their craft.

The practice of manipulating a flower bloom to the extent demonstrated by the photos above represents fraud and deliberate misrepresentation of the blooming traits of the flower.

Staking the canes of a plant to assure that it grows in an organized manner is good culture. Staking a flower spike early so that it stands upright instead of drooping and blooming crooked flowers is good grooming. Flattening and mis-shaping flowers as depicted in the photo is deception.

While some people might consider the practice in the photo as merely improving the flower shape, this is not the case. Consider this, if an orchid seller manipulates a photo image so that a lavender cattleya becomes bright red, then that is obvious deception and fraud. The buyer’s flower will never bloom that color. Dying a white flower red (on a growing plant) is also misrepresentation. If the owner of a flower manipulates the shape to the extent depicted and wins an award or sells plants based on that flower, that is also fraud and deception. The buyer will also never be able to bloom his flower like the seller’s … unless he also deforms his flower’s shape.

Other posts to this thread have called this practice cheating. That is certainly what it is. But this is not just the case of a high school cheerleader stuffing Kleenex tissues to enhance her attributes. This is much more serious.

Such an extreme manipulation also does not fool anyone except the “innocents”, who may unwittingly buy a plant because of the sample. Orchid judges (and anyone even somewhat knowledgeable about the blooming habits of various types of orchids) will not be fooled. The practice is not only deceptive and fraudulent, it is also very insulting that the perpetuators believe they can fool anyone (much less trained orchid judges). The practice is also a slap in the face to hybridizers who work so diligently for so many years to develop flowers with the color, sizes and shapes, which we have come to admire

just some words here... indeed I accept this is cheating and a practice which should not be accepted anywhere when the plants are intended for judgement or breeding... no doubts about this, and if I were a judge, or a breeder, or just a client buying a plant cheated, then I would in extrem case even sue that person...

HOWEVER!!! and a big HOWEVER here... I understand from bayard's post that he is doing for his own joy (maybe I am a bit too naïve, but I still cannot see anywhere in that post any hints the plant will be judged or sold or used for breeding!). If an amateur just want to enjoy that flower himself, and after paying certain amount of money for a plant (even an excellent clon) it does not bloom perfect, but he/she wants to trick the flower for himself... what's the problem with taht!? I would do the same (the point is: you need to be responsible with yourself, and know you cannot bring this plant to be judge or breed or sell as if, or whatever...)


I think bayard has been very honest here: he learned a technique and showed here how to use it and which results he has achieved (even mentioning that it is not always the best results!)...

Final note: (and I know it is in some extent a different issue) many "purist" would also consider stalking as cheating! Pruning a Bonsai as cheating... adding some wire to Ikebana, as cheating... having a beauty surgery, as cheating.. and still that's done very often... and many of these cheating practices are accepted!

just my :twocents:

Thank you, Ramón !

I participate as a clerk in AOS Judged events for two different Societies each year. Over the past several years, I have never heard of any "cheating" by manipulation of the flowers at these events .

On which page of my 108 page Handbook on Judging and Exhibition will I find these rules defined, please?

I recognize that this is an international group. My handbook relates only to the AOS events.

--Stitz--