# Phrag. Suzanne Decker and Allison Strohm



## Jason Fischer (Feb 26, 2009)

Pictures don't do these flowers justice in one respect; you can't really see how humongous these are! We are all used to what phrags and their hybrids do, so we generally see a pic and figure the flower is between 6 and 10 CM large. I have to hand it to Glen Decker, he really had the right idea in helping with the breeding of kovachii in Peru to get a head start on what has changed the world of phrags.

I've taken some pics with a ruler to help. The first is Suzanne Decker at 14.5 CM wide. That's nearly 6 inches. The flower is also very full and displays nicely. 












This is Allison Strohm. It is definitely the most variable kovachii hybrid to date with a range of colors (salmon pink to red tones) and shape to the flowers. They also have the widest natural spread, with the one pictured at 18 CM across (just peaked a couple days ago), which is just slightly above 7 inches.











I've been breeding besseae 'Rob's Choice' onto almost every kovachii hybrid that we've flowered in an attempt to create more saturated color. The disadvantages are a smaller flower and sterility as the hybrids will turn out triploids. I have made a large assortment of crosses onto diploid phrags as well.

For the next round of kovachii hybrids that flower, I plan on doing breeding between the hybrids so that kovachii remains 50% giving the large flower potential. 

Hope you enjoy this post as I rarely get to posting anymore nowdays!

My best,

Jason


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## Hera (Feb 26, 2009)

What conditions do the hybrids favor?


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## JeanLux (Feb 26, 2009)

omg: what a phrag!! kovachii and schlimii!!!! do you have (bs) plants to ship to Europe?? Jean


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## goldenrose (Feb 26, 2009)

:clap: The color is really intense on Suzanne!
It will be interesting to see how Allison changes with the next couple of bloomings.


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## John M (Feb 26, 2009)

Both are VERY nice, Jason. Thanks for posting!


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## NYEric (Feb 26, 2009)

It's good to hear a bit of what's going on from the hybridizers' end. All the Pk hybrids I've ever seen have large blooms and good color. [The x longifolium will get better w/ time.] I'm hoping someone has better luck than in the past w/ the x Hanne Popow; and I eagerly await more crosses as they become available. Thanx for the info and photos.


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## slippertalker (Feb 26, 2009)

The crossing of Suzanne Decker and besseae should produce better shaped flowers than the above flower with more color and decent size (11-12 cm) or so. A backcross onto kovachii will be very exciting!


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## Berrak (Feb 26, 2009)

Wow - fabuolous flowers


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## Linh (Feb 26, 2009)

Yay! So glad I get to see these. Thanks for taking the time to post them, Jason.


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## Jason Fischer (Feb 26, 2009)

JeanLux,

we do have the Allison Strohm flowering size that my father could bring to Europe this spring. That cross is Living Fire x kovachii. 

On another note, the kovachii hybrids all open up nice and flat, then start to reflex in the petals and dorsal within 4 to 7 days. The Suzanne Decker seems to have the least reflexing of all the crosses I have seen so far.

As far as growing the hybrids go, they seem to grow slightly slower than your average phrag hybrid, but much faster than the species. They love it wet, therefore we grow them standing in a 1/4" of water which gets flushed out every 3 days. I have found that the kovachii species itself simply won't grow well unless it is soaking wet 24/7. A great potting material you can use to avoid standing in water is rockwool. I've had just as much success with rockwool as it stays saturated for a long time.

I do agree that kovachii back-crossing will be amazing. We've got the first kovachii in low spike now, which will probably flower in June (they take 4 months according to Chuck Acker who recently flowered his first one). Unfortunately, the more kovachii that gets mixed in the slower they will grow. I have to give a big congrats to Chuck as he has flowered the first legal kovachii in the US! That was from the same flasks that he got in Peru with my father from the cross 'Maximus' x 'Goliath'. 

Just to give you an idea of what I've been breeding with [so far I have primarily bred with Fritz Schomburg (besseae x kovachii) and Haley Decker (St. Ouen x kovachii)]: x Hanne Popow flavum, x besseae, x besseae flavum, x schlimii, x Pink Panther, x Mem. Dick Clements and x fischeri. I'm guessing we won't be seeing these seedlings for sale until late 2010 to early 2011. 

Jason


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## Gilda (Feb 26, 2009)

I love the one with the white tones !! Bravo !:clap::drool:


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## jblanford (Feb 26, 2009)

Well I was lucky enough to see Chuck's kovachii at the Madison Wi. show, and one of our members had a Haley Decker at the BOS show, here's some pics. Jim

Chuck Ackers...kovachii





Haley Decker.


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## CodPaph (Feb 26, 2009)

I would like to see some work of this kind in Brazil and not only too expensive imports that the final price of these genera of orchids
Because the vast majority of orchidarium here in Brazil and not only sell produce Paph. and Phrag ..


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## SlipperFan (Feb 26, 2009)

Thanks for the update, Jason. I wish I could jump about 10 years into the future just to see what will happen with Phrag hybrids.


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## Ron-NY (Feb 26, 2009)

nice breeding program Jason! Can't wait to see the results!


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## rdlsreno (Feb 27, 2009)

Excellent breeding Jason!!!!

Ramon


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## Phrag-Plus (Feb 28, 2009)

Nice size flowers! And nice project... I can't stand to see backcross too...


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