Rhy gigantea 'Peach Kisses' HCC/AOS

[Fairorchids]

I have some 20-25 Rhy giganteas. One plant, which was purchased as an alba' bloomed for the first time two years ago, and turned out to have some color (despite plant being pale and without pigment).

I repotted it in the summer of 2014, so it did not bloom last winter (giganteas hate having their roots disturbed). It is now in bloom with 3 spikes on a relatively small plant (at least in comparison with some of my other mature plants).

Last Saturday I took it in for AOS judging. The judges liked it, so it received a 79.44 pt HCC (79.50 would have been an AM). The interesting thing was listening to the judges trying to decide how to describe the color, which is unusual.

In the past, awards have been granted to:

• Alba (pure white)
• Spotted, both lightly (standard) and heavily (new color form).
• Peach
• Orange
• Red

Eventually the judges settled on this description:
‘Sepals and petals ivory, dappled very light rose; lip ivory, more heavily overlaid rose’

I have another 10-15 seedlings of different colors coming along, so hopefully I will have more to share in the years to come.