Catasandra hybrid (Gal. greenwoodiana 'SVO Purple Lip' x Ctsm. denticulatum 'Orange Lip')

[mrhappyrotter]

Catasandra hybrid (Gal. greenwoodiana 'SVO Purple Lip' x Ctsm. denticulatum 'Orange Lip')

Friday the 13th! In some ways, the flower fits.

I'm not sure I trust OrchidRoots at this time. It's only showing me 2 Galeandra greenwoodiana hybrids. Could that be true? Based on that, it seems like this is an unregistered hybrid.

Based on the clonal names and overall hybridization approach, you may have already guessed that this came from Sunset Valley Orchids.

At the time when I purchased this, I don't believe I really knew how the flower would turn out. The only thing I was hoping for is that it would be fragrant, since both parent species are. I also I thought it might have some novel coloration like certain other Catasetum intergeneric hybrids have to offer.

Truthfully this plant fails to meet my expectations (whether warranted or not).

My biggest gripe is that the flowers are basically non-fragrant at this point. The other day I did sort of think I might've caught a whiff of something, but otherwise, it's not fragrant. Maybe in a few more days something will develop, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Overall the smallish flowers don't grab my attention. The flowers are small, proportionally small and overall just small. They don't have much in the way of bright or unusual color or shape. In some ways, they almost look like any other random Catasetum hybrid that lacks in charm.

I can say some nice things about the plant. So far it's fairly small/compact growing. It's definitely the most vigorous of my Catasetum alliance plants. It did also inherit the apical blooming habit of the Galeandra parent, which at least makes it interesting in the context of the Catasetum alliance.

 

[CharlesD]

I think that is a very honest assessment. At least from a hybridizing perspective I would say this one falls within the 'worth a shot' category. I have a handful of catasetinae from SVO, I've tried to stick with stuff that has a really strong hybridizing direction.

 

[mrhappyrotter]

I think that is a very honest assessment. At least from a hybridizing perspective I would say this one falls within the 'worth a shot' category. I have a handful of catasetinae from SVO, I've tried to stick with stuff that has a really strong hybridizing direction.

I'm a big fan of novelty and oddball stuff. I'm an even bigger fan of intergeneric hybrids as well as primary hybrids, and most of all, I adore fragrant flowers. On paper, this was a perfect match for my tastes.

 

[Ozpaph]

thats very different, and attractive

 

[tim]

Wow it's been a long time since I wrote a post, but since this is my cross, I thought I'd chime in about the goals of breeding with Galeandra greenwoodiana. I made this cross in 2022, so the first impressive part of this cross is that it is already blooming, with lots of flowers. My front-runners of this grex bloomed with 2-3 flowers last year, and this year have up to 12 per inflorescence. Secondly, Gal. greenwoodiana was chosen specifically for flower regularity, and this cross seems to be producing flowers with pretty normal shapes, without excessive recurving of the segments. It's important to note the flower color here, as the bright red in the lip is not something typically found in Catasetums; it might be that in second generation hybrids we can take advantage of that for new colors in this alliance. Lastly, and this is a big one, is that we hope as the plants mature, they will display some of the ever-blooming habit of Gal. greenwoodiana, which is typically one of the first Catasetinae in the greenhouse to start blooming in late May, and blooms more or less right until the plants go to sleep in January. That's an impressive flowering season, and something we hope to transmit to Catasandras.

This type of breeding is really still in its infancy. I've made a couple other crosses with Gal. greenwoodiana: with Ctsm. ivaneae, with Ctsm. Mem. Dorothy Wells, and with Ctsm. Chuck Taylor. I think the ivaneae cross is in the plugs to be released next year. Fred is very reluctant to experiment, which makes sense as a commercial breeder, but I like the idea of using Gal. greenwoodiana in more instances; for example, I think Galeandras would be pretty crossed with Mormodes, but we haven't done that yet. You mention that there aren't many registered crosses with Gal. greenwoodiana, but we're working on that.

Hope that helps. It's fun to experiment...

Lastly, if any of you want one of these, I kept about 20 of them, and I've bloomed the one I really want to keep. If you want one, please email: [email protected]

 

[mrhappyrotter]

Wow it's been a long time since I wrote a post, but since this is my cross, I thought I'd chime in about the goals of breeding with Galeandra greenwoodiana. I made this cross in 2022, so the first impressive part of this cross is that it is already blooming, with lots of flowers. My front-runners of this grex bloomed with 2-3 flowers last year, and this year have up to 12 per inflorescence. Secondly, Gal. greenwoodiana was chosen specifically for flower regularity, and this cross seems to be producing flowers with pretty normal shapes, without excessive recurving of the segments. It's important to note the flower color here, as the bright red in the lip is not something typically found in Catasetums; it might be that in second generation hybrids we can take advantage of that for new colors in this alliance. Lastly, and this is a big one, is that we hope as the plants mature, they will display some of the ever-blooming habit of Gal. greenwoodiana, which is typically one of the first Catasetinae in the greenhouse to start blooming in late May, and blooms more or less right until the plants go to sleep in January. That's an impressive flowering season, and something we hope to transmit to Catasandras.

This type of breeding is really still in its infancy. I've made a couple other crosses with Gal. greenwoodiana: with Ctsm. ivaneae, with Ctsm. Mem. Dorothy Wells, and with Ctsm. Chuck Taylor. I think the ivaneae cross is in the plugs to be released next year. Fred is very reluctant to experiment, which makes sense as a commercial breeder, but I like the idea of using Gal. greenwoodiana in more instances; for example, I think Galeandras would be pretty crossed with Mormodes, but we haven't done that yet. You mention that there aren't many registered crosses with Gal. greenwoodiana, but we're working on that.

Hope that helps. It's fun to experiment...

Lastly, if any of you want one of these, I kept about 20 of them, and I've bloomed the one I really want to keep. If you want one, please email: [email protected]

Thanks for chiming in! I appreciate it! If you have the time and inclination to post further, I'd love to see the flowers on the one you really want to keep. Any plans of registering the hybrid?

Do you know if any of the other hybrids or any individuals from this grex are fragrant? As I mentioned, I think that's really my biggest personal disappointment in this plant. Obviously they weren't advertised as fragrant, but I had hopes given the parentage.

And sorry if it sounds like I am disparaging your hybridization efforts with my comments on this specific plant, I agree that this could lead to some interesting outcomes. But I was being honest that this specific plant doesn't really match my hopes.

 

[CharlesD]

That is pretty crazy how fast that cross flowered from pollination!

I guess the question is what would be the next step with hybridizing this plant? Maybe using one of darker colored Cstm. Diana's Dots to accent the lip and fill out the flower? Or going further in a less conventional direction?

 

[tim]

It's fine - you're certainly entitled to your opinion about it. I would say it's pretty close to what I expected, but the red lip is a surprise. The one I kept looks similar in terms of color but has fuller flowers and better count. I think the next step would be back to a Catasetum, probably Mem. Dorothy Wells or similar. I'd be shy of Diana's Dots because it has pileatum in it, and I'm not a fan of the irregularity of Catasandra flowers with pileatum influence. Probably a long conversation with Fred! Neither parent here is very fragrant in my experience, so I'm not surprised at the lack of fragrance.