Here is a picture of the first flowering of my Agdia-strip-negative mericlone of Cattleya Horace ‘Maxima’. I don’t know who did the cloning. This first bloom is a single flower about 15 cm in horizontal spread, but the conformation is excellent. I don’t know what caused the color deformity on the left petal, but I need to watch carefully next flowering. It could be a genetic defect in the mericlone. The leaf of the currently blooming growth tested negative by Agdia strip again today.
Cattleya Horace (trianae x Woltersiana) was RHS registered in 1938 by Flandria Orchids in Belgium. WW2 came soon after and as Ozpaph emphasized recently in a Slippertalk post, the war caused the loss of many British and European plants, breeding records, and probably award records. Jerry Fischer noted on the Orchids Limited website that the first award for Horace was in 1949, which must have been RHS because the first AOS award was not until 1963. He also indicated that the 1949 award was for the cultivar ‘Maxima’.
The 1963 AOS award to ‘Maxima’ in Orchids Pro was a 78-point HCC given to an unknown exhibitor. Two years later ‘Maxima’ received an 81-point AM, again to an unknown exhibitor. Forty-two years later (2008), Ron Midgett of New Earth Orchids in Santa Fe received an 82-point AM. The judge’s comments noted:
“…though an older hybrid, flatness and proportional conformation make this plant worthy of an AM.” Ron’s plant had an impressive 4 flowers on the inflorescence, the largest flower being 19.1 cm wide.
Ron published a short online article about what makes Cattleya Horace ‘Maxima’ not just a great flower but also a great breeder:
Cattleya Horace 'Maxima' AM/AOS...A Great Parent
His main points about Horace ‘Maxima’:
-it does not breed like a typical lavender, but like a semi-alba; when bred to strong yellows it produces progeny in a wide range of colors
-it has a strong stem that can carry as many as 4 flowers (most flowerings have 2 blooms or occasionally 3 but you can get 4 if well grown)
-it passes its great form on to almost anything
-it has excellent substance
-it has large flower size
Some of this suggests polyploidy to me and I have seen it noted that Horace ‘Maxima’ is 4N, but I don’t know if this was reliably proven with chromosome counts. If the 1949 RHS award was for ‘Maxima’ it was only 11 years after Horace was registered, so it must have been a spontaneous mutation in the original Horace cross. This would explain why no other Horace cultivars have been awarded. Ron says that some plants from self-crossings of ‘Maxima’ have been very nice, but not better than ‘Maxima’.
Cattleya Horace (probably only ‘Maxima’) has so many immediate offspring listed on Orchid Roots that I didn’t want to count them and this cultivar continues to be used as a parent today.
Cattleya Horace (trianae x Woltersiana) was RHS registered in 1938 by Flandria Orchids in Belgium. WW2 came soon after and as Ozpaph emphasized recently in a Slippertalk post, the war caused the loss of many British and European plants, breeding records, and probably award records. Jerry Fischer noted on the Orchids Limited website that the first award for Horace was in 1949, which must have been RHS because the first AOS award was not until 1963. He also indicated that the 1949 award was for the cultivar ‘Maxima’.
The 1963 AOS award to ‘Maxima’ in Orchids Pro was a 78-point HCC given to an unknown exhibitor. Two years later ‘Maxima’ received an 81-point AM, again to an unknown exhibitor. Forty-two years later (2008), Ron Midgett of New Earth Orchids in Santa Fe received an 82-point AM. The judge’s comments noted:
“…though an older hybrid, flatness and proportional conformation make this plant worthy of an AM.” Ron’s plant had an impressive 4 flowers on the inflorescence, the largest flower being 19.1 cm wide.
Ron published a short online article about what makes Cattleya Horace ‘Maxima’ not just a great flower but also a great breeder:
Cattleya Horace 'Maxima' AM/AOS...A Great Parent
His main points about Horace ‘Maxima’:
-it does not breed like a typical lavender, but like a semi-alba; when bred to strong yellows it produces progeny in a wide range of colors
-it has a strong stem that can carry as many as 4 flowers (most flowerings have 2 blooms or occasionally 3 but you can get 4 if well grown)
-it passes its great form on to almost anything
-it has excellent substance
-it has large flower size
Some of this suggests polyploidy to me and I have seen it noted that Horace ‘Maxima’ is 4N, but I don’t know if this was reliably proven with chromosome counts. If the 1949 RHS award was for ‘Maxima’ it was only 11 years after Horace was registered, so it must have been a spontaneous mutation in the original Horace cross. This would explain why no other Horace cultivars have been awarded. Ron says that some plants from self-crossings of ‘Maxima’ have been very nice, but not better than ‘Maxima’.
Cattleya Horace (probably only ‘Maxima’) has so many immediate offspring listed on Orchid Roots that I didn’t want to count them and this cultivar continues to be used as a parent today.
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