I love this hybrid. It blooms reliably, is ever so much more easy to grow and bloom than either of its parents, and produces a really beautiful plant that is attractive even when out of bloom. I confess - it hogs a bit more bench space than most, and as Theresa is tired of hearing me whine, I wish it produced taller inflorescences.
My mother carefully totes several large multiple-growth plants of this hybrid in bloom for display at the styling stations and treatment rooms at her salon & spa. The flowers last for weeks even in that harsh air-conditioned environment. Who would have thought 15 years ago that hybrids of
Paph. sanderianum would become as commonplace in public as Home Depot phalaenopsis?!
I certainly tried - but it was like beating my head against a brick wall.
At the time, the powers at Kew were recognizing
Paph. platyphyllum as a distinct species, and the RHS orchid registrar had already processed at least one other hybrid registration listing it as a distinct parent. That hybrid being Ratcliffe's registration of
Paph. Kee Chin Lim
(platyphyllum x malipoense).
I submitted the paperwork with photos more than once, and each time the RHS registrar threw it back with the admonishment that this hybrid had already been registered as
Paph. Sander's Pride
(sanderianum x stonei). [Essentially asserting that
Paph. platyphyllum was in fact,
Paph. stonei.]
I sent emails, snail mails and resubmitted the paperwork to the RHS registrar but never got a personal response other than
"ALREADY REGISTERED AS SANDER'S PRIDE!!!" scribbled on my application forms before they were returned to me. It was almost as if they were saying,
"Get lost and quit bothering us!"
Then, a month or two after this all began, I was in the midst of composing a new appeal and learned that
Paphiopedilum (platyphyllum x sanderianum) had been successfully registered by someone else, naming the originator as "unknown".
Game Over. Oh well.
Since that time I was able to register one hybrid using
Paph. platyphyllum as a distinct species parent [
Paph. Poulsbo Canary
(platyphyllum x armeniacum)], but I haven't tried recently (and I've made LOTS of
Paph. platyphyllum hybrids!) and based on what I see in OrchidWiz when I look up
Paph. platyphyllum and its F1 Offspring, I'm not sure such an application would be accepted now.
SW
