Running down a new hybrid name
 

Some 12-18 months ago, I bought a group of seedlings, which showed this on the label:

C. Fire Fantasy x Sl. Polestar

It is a true miniature, and I have just bloomed the first one. So, I wanted to check whether it has been registered.

The genus ID for the pollen parent is clearly wrong, since:

• all Sophronitis species have been transferred to Cattleya.
• the Brazilean Laelias (but NOT the Mexican Laelias) have been transferred to Cattleya.

First step: Go to The RHS database, and do a Grex Name Search, using % in the genus field, and Polestar in the grex field. Only one hit: Rlc. Hamana Polestar. Looked at the parents (just in case), they are not right for a miniature.

Second step: Try again, this time entering Pole Star (not first time a name has been mis-spelled). This time there are NO hits.

Third step: Do an internet search for photos. 3 or 4 screens deep, I come across Sl. Pole-Star!

Go back to The RHS database, and find out that C. Pole-Star is the valid name.

Next, in the parent search, I tried C. Fire Fantasy x C. Pole-Star. NO hits.

Finally, when I reversed the parents (C. Pole-Star x C. Fire Fantasy), did I get a hit. This hybrid was registered back in 2014 by Gold Country Orchids as C. Sunrise Fantasy.

I detest The RHS database!

Anyway, attached are a couple of photos of this little cutie in a 3" pot. For the record, it is 1/2 C. coccinea, 1/4 C. briegeri & 1/4 complex white hybrid. The picotee is genetically a form for splash petal; that trait comes out of the C. Wayndora grandparent on the complex hybrid side.

Nice, great picotee! Looking forward to seeing siblings.

Super-cute flower! But maybe worth investing in Orchidwiz. I got it in the first pass... indexing of the genus-du-jour is spot-on. Basically, just enter grex names in any order and let the software figure out the genus.

Beautiful, I love picotee blooms.

hahaha. That database probably still uses the same code from the 1980's?

I seriously would have thought the RHS would have a modern and very good and powerful database by now.

Anyway - the red/violet lining around the petals is really great. Really nice feature.

Maybe somebody can ask RHS if they are going to update the database ------ and everybody can chip in and donate money towards an upgrade. I would definitely donate. I like the RHS.

And the worst part of this is that the AOS developed a new program (primarily for their judges), and in their infinite stupidity based it on the RHS database.

There is a reason that all of the judges that I know (which is quite a few people) use the AOS program where they have to (such as award photos), but use Orchidwiz to get other information that they need. I will never understand the politics that led AOS to treat Alex Maximiano, the author of Orchidwiz, absolutely horribly, and passed up more than one opportunity to work with him to link the two programs. For awhile it looked like it was going to happen, but it never did.

Oh geez ...... I didn't know about that Kim. Not good at all.

I think that for the current RHS database ------ there's probably a fair bit of hoop jumping needed in order to get somewhere with it ------ sometimes, or even a lot of times. If a user types in some information that would normally be considered to be adequate or satisfactory from our own standpoint, then I think there's a lot of times when the RHS database can just come up with no hits, or information not found and things like that.

This is when we just want a button like 'just give me something!!!!!!'

For those that DON'T have Orchidwiz or have a very out of date copy (like myself), OrchidRoots is an excellent first place to search! Search for a plant, click on 'immediate offspring' and it will give you the list of crosses, both as seed and pollen parent. Then I usually go to the clunky RHS site to double check the info.

Yeah, I have/had OrchidWiz Express, but it sorta died on me. May have to spring for the current version.