Hybrid Wish List

[epiphyte78]

There are lots of hybrids that I'd love to have but many of them haven't been created yet or they aren't readily available. Anybody else in the same boat? If so, you might be interested in this...

HybridizeThis

That's a group I created on reddit so that people could submit and vote on hybrid requests. Hopefully, if a request receives enough votes then perhaps hybridizers might take notice.

What hybrids would you like to see more of? Personally I'd love to see more viviparous hybrids, cold tolerant hybrids, drought tolerant hybrids and hercuthermal hybrids.

You probably don't know what a hercuthermal hybrid is because I just made up the word "hercuthermal". It refers to plants that grow in a wide range of temperatures. My theory is that crossing a warm growing orchid with a cool growing orchid might produce an orchid that grows in a wider range of temperatures. Admittedly, my theory is based on a single example that isn't even an orchid...Aloe Hercules...who, as you might have guessed, inspired the word "hercuthermal".

For lots of backstory, diagrams and extrapolation...here's my latest blog entry...Hercules, Hercutherm, Hybridize This and Hercules.

[WhiteRabbit]

Interesting - I'm always interested in temperature tolerant orchids. I have quite a few - both species and hybrids. Some may not be known to be quite temperature tolerant, but have been for me

[Subrosa]

I'd like to see (and more importantly smell!) an orchid with the room filling fragrance of a Stanhopea nigroviolacea and the flower life of a Dendrobium cuthbertsonii. Is that asking too much?

[Vanda lover]

It seems people have been hybridizing for a long time for these traits.
I like something that is not only temperature tolerant but also blooms often or at least for a very long time.
I really love dendrobium cuthbertsonii.

[Leafmite]

I would like to see fragrance brought back! Many species orchids I buy should be wonderfully fragrant but, alas, they were bred for the flower size, color, longevity, more frequent blooming, etc. with no thought to fragrance. How disappointing to buy an orchid, expecting it to be fragrant and to discover that the clone you have is...not. I usually get rid of them and buy a different clone. Please, when hybridizing orchids, don't forget fragrance!

[lotis146]

Are you considering doing any hybridizing of your own? I would imagine doing so will help your project and your understanding of hybridizing as a whole. I've got my first pods developing so just beginning my hybridizing but I'm anxious to see how varied the seedlings are assuming they make it to that stage.

It seems that there are a lot of plants out there as well that are more temperature tolerant than we might think. I've been learning/discovering that quite a few Orchids are not nearly as fragile as I thought (had plants outside end of summer for several days below 50F; Paphs in light that keeps some Zygos & Oncids happy, etc).

Interesting project, best to ya! I'd like more short plants with big or lots of flowers. And yes fragrance would be nice.

[epiphyte78]

This last winter I tried to continue regularly watering a few of my orchids... Hercuthermal Experiment. If anybody is interested in some discussion on the topic... Prosthechea vitellina.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Hercutherm and hercuthermal are not valid terms.

The words that you are looking for are eurytherm (and eurythermal). These are existing, widely accepted terms that have been in use since roughly the 1960s. Creating your own terms instead of using adopted terms just adds to confusion.

It would be similar to me creating the term "ichthycapture" when what I really mean is fishing.

[epiphyte78]

Orchid Whisperer... over a year ago, in the other forum, I pointed out that there's a BIG difference between orchids that tolerate a wide range of temperatures (eurythermal) and orchids that grow in a wide range of temperatures (hercuthermal). Now I've shared at least some evidence that this is indeed the case. Of course you're certainly welcome to dispute the evidence! But please don't pretend that it doesn't exist!

[Orchid Whisperer]

No one is disputing anything regarding "evidence" or data.

I am merely suggesting that you not make up words to describe things that are already well-described by existing words. Eurythermal describes perfectly the temperature-tolerant plants that you are describing.

BTW, there are many species orchids that are well adapted to life across broad temperature ranges. Tipularia discolor comes to mind. Ranges from Michigan and New York to Texas and Florida, grows during the fall, winter and spring, blooms in summer. It's not Tipulithermal, it's just plain old Eurythermal.