In another thread, I mentioned that I wanted to create some crosses that would incorporate Tolumnia and Oncidium—after some digging, I found out that my efforts may be in vain! In my other post, I included a quote that I’d like to share again:
“Tolumnia intergeneric breeding was best summed up by W. W. G. Moir:
“But nowhere in orchid breeding is there as much wasted effort as in trying to cross the species and hybrids of the Variegata[Tolumnia] into other Oncidium or intergenerics of the Oncidiinae. If they do cross, they lose their Variegata identity entirely since they are completely dominated by the characteristics of the other plant.“
One might say that Rodrumnia is the exception, but I would counter that it took 35 years and four generations of breeding with Tolumnia to obtain a hybrid that was widely used. With Rodriguezia five to six generations removed, it is almost safe to say that these are Tolumnia hybrids.”
That was an excerpt from a document amongst others dated 2022 created by Karl Varian that were made available through the Greater North Texas Orchid Society.
Despite taking their wisdom into account, I made the crosses anyway and wanted to share some of my preliminary results…
Pollen parent—Tol. Jairak Firm ‘Pink Lady’
Seed parent—Onc. Sharry Baby ‘Red Fantasy’
I had attempted this cross both ways—Tolumnia pollinia onto the Oncidium and Oncidium pollinia onto the Tolumnia. That was on 1/22/25 and the next day on the Oncidium, I had noticed the stigmatic surface I pollinated(inside the dancing lady’s ‘head’), which was cupped in shape, had begun to almost swell outwards! As of today, the pollinated Tolumnia flowers have yet to show any discernible differences like the pollinated Oncidium flowers initially had, but the Oncidium flowers had another surprise—the tiny petal-like flares/structures that border on the left and right of the column had folded themselves over, covering up that stigmatic surface completely!
The dancing lady has veiled her face—compare this to the unpollinated flower above
I know these signs aren’t indicative of success—I don’t know if the capsules will develop, and even if they do make it to harvest, the resulting seed might not be any good. At the end of the day, I’m just trying to have fun and I’ve succeeded in that so far!
I’ll post updates of the progress, both positive and negative, as they come up—stay tuned!
Oncidium x Tolumnia breeding adventures
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