Why are so many Paphs named with Fred?

[lotis146]

I'm going to look into this further, because I'm curious and a brief internet search wasn't immediately forthcoming, so I thought I'd stop here and see what you all know (since you know so much).

SO, why are so many Paphiopedilum hybrids given names using Fred in one way or another? I've got 'Pink Fred' & 'President Fred' right now and have seen countless others. What's the deal? Are they named after the Orchidologist Frederick Sanders?


Thanks!

[orchidsarefun]

Its probably Lehua Orchids- as originator- in Hawaii that you are mostly seeing. They have registered 189 orchids, mainly paphs. They have a couple of "Fred's". There are about 20-30 "Fred's" registered, spread over many different registrants and being their first name, different last name/surname.
There is/was someone in Hawaii called W W G Moir who registered his first cross in 1948 ( a catt ) and his last in 2004 ( a phal ) !!!! The names of his crosses all were different, with no common name. He registered 1202 crosses in this period of 56 years !!!!!!

[tucker85]

Orchidsarefun is correct, both the paphs you mentioned were registered by Lehua Orchids. I also noticed that both those orchids have Paph. Friedrich von Hayek in their ancestry. I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Some breeders have a word or a name that they use over and over again when naming new hybrids.

[PaphMadMan]

Paph. Friedrich von Hayek has been an influential plant in breeding Paph Maudiae-types in recent years, and of 14 registered hybrids 13 have Fred in the name. There are some Freds in the next generation of hybrids from them as well. I think it probably accounts for most of the Paph Freds you see.

[Fairorchids]

Whoever registers a new name has freedom to generate the new name. However, they must submit an alternate choice, and the RHS Registrar selects which one to accept (usually first choice).

In Paphs there is a tradition of using some sort of contraction of the parents names, if not creating something entirely new. In some cases this carries part of the name through several generations.

Then there are a few cases of tongue in cheek names:

Thunder Bay x Burpham = Thunderous Burp
Winston Churchill x Thunderous Burp = Winnie's Thunder

[PaphMadMan]

Originally Posted by PaphMadMan

Paph. Friedrich von Hayek has been an influential plant in breeding Paph Maudiae-types in recent years, and of 14 registered hybrids 13 have Fred in the name. There are some Freds in the next generation of hybrids from them as well. I think it probably accounts for most of the Paph Freds you see.

Looking at it another way... 16 Freds registered since 2007, all descended from FvH, all bred and registered by Lehua. That's about the same as all Paph Freds registered by anyone before 2007.

[lotis146]

Thank you! I figured that in registering a new hybrid Orchid you could name it as you please, as long as the name hadn't already been taken, but I kept see Fred this and Fred that. Assumed there had to be something behind it. So I thank you all for your information. Now I'm curious to look up this Friedrich character!

orchidsarefun that's a interesting factoid and a ton of Orchids. That's got to be a trip to know that your own legacy is carried on in history through the roots of plants, and Orchids at that!

[nowd]

The owner of Lehua Orchids (Graham Wood) spoke at our monthly Michigan Orchid Society meeting last weekend and this question was actually asked. He confessed that "Fred" is his pseudonym! Apparently because with his accent (hardly noticed it), every time he tells his name to people (for hotel reservations was his example), they tend to incorrectly spell "Graham" so he's been using "Fred". "Friedrich von Hayek" is apparently the long form of the name.

More interesting naming convention he mentioned: His dark/black Paph hybrids are named "Odette" from The Black Swan. And his alba hybrids are named "Egret" for the bird.

So any "Fred", "Odette" and "Egret" Paph hybrids we come across is by him.

[My Green Pets]

Very interesting! I just happened to get a paph odettes vision and cym beauty fred from theorchidgallery. Great to know more about them.

[nowd]

I don't think the Cymbidium is his but the Paph Odette's Vision is definitely his. And such a beautiful flower too! Congrats of getting it.