Cym name - Orchid Board

james mickelso · #1 07-05-2013, 09:44 PM

Anyone want to take a wild guess at a name for this. Close will get you a ceegar. I've had this for years and just wondered what the parentage might be. Thanks.

SJF · #2 07-05-2013, 11:25 PM

Different colors, same open shape:
Cymbidium Chen's Ruby Orchid Hybrid

stumac · #3 07-06-2013, 06:04 AM

Not got a name but would say it has Lowianum in its back ground

james mickelso · #4 07-06-2013, 08:29 PM

Thanks.

Cym Ladye · #5 07-07-2013, 05:43 PM

Knowing how long you have been involved with Cymbididums, I suspect you have had this plant longer than 2002 and that was when Chen's Ruby was registered. I furthermore see no influence of ensifolium in either the spike habit, flower or the plant growth.

My best guess is an average Pauwelsii (insigne x lowianum) a REAL old timer registered in 1906. The spike habit and flower including the lip, show all the signs of those two species. If you could remember where you got it, that might also confirm its parentage. This was easily available at SBOE years ago and they may still have one or two cultivars available.

I remade the cross about 20 years ago and came out with some interesting results, but most seedlings were similar to your plant.

Cym Ladye

james mickelso · #6 07-08-2013, 01:39 AM

Thank you M'Lady. I was hoping you'ld come forth with some of your knowledge. I don't remember where or even when I got it to tell the truth. I have had so many of them through the years. This is just one that I really like. It is very easy to flower and grows despite my best efforts to kill it. And this flowering was at the end of another cycle of abuse. So it is now repotted perfectly and it will again flower as always next season (only one pbulb will though). It's already put out two growth spikes. I think there may be a third one in there somewhere too. Thanks for the info. Sometime I will come up and see you. There a good coffee shop near you? I kinda like Denny's myself.

james mickelso · #7 07-08-2013, 01:50 AM

Ok!!!! Now I remember (wait till you get to be my age. Then you'll know how easy things are to forget). Anyway, I got this as a gift along with about 20 or so others all in very bad shape. I helped an older lady friend of mine who's hubby passed. He had been with the San Diego Club for years and loved cyms. I rebuilt a fence for her and she gave all of them to me because she knew I liked cyms and she could no longer care for them. I still have some of them. 1976 or so I think. I still had a bamboo stake in it from then. Or a stub anyway. Found it in the oldest pbulb mass when I repotted it. (sheesh now I gave away my age). Here's some of them. I have a lot more out back getting abused and neglected somewhat.

Cym Ladye · #8 07-08-2013, 11:19 AM

I really do not like to put ids on unknown orchids as so many new hybrids and remakes are out on the scene today, but when you say 'Old', and the species' traits are quite obvious, it is far easier to hazard a more educated guess.

Your enjoyment with this old timer is one of the reasons many of the hybridizers today are "recreating" the wheel by using more colorful complex Cymbidiums bred back to some of the species and actually breeding more primaries using species that had not been combined before. Sometimes the result is a hit and sometimes a miss but they are getting away from the round dinner plates to please the public.

CL