Paphiopedilum Mrs. Reginald Young

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emydura

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The label on this plant is Paph Formosa Lady (Susan Booth 'Red' x sanderianum 'Sam Tsui') but clearly it is not that. I am pretty confident it is lowii x sanderianum. The ovary is white. The person I bought it off said he never ever bought this cross, so it is a bit of a mystery. Not sure if one of Sam's flask was mislabeled. The owner never flowered any plants from the Formosa Lady cross himself.

It is not a cross you see a lot of. Probably for obvious reasons. For a sanderianum hybrid, the petals are disappointingly short. Not that much longer than a lowii. Still, it won champion seedling a recent show. The plant is compact and it seems easy to grow and flower. The flowers have a real muscly look.


sanderianum-x-lowii-3.jpg




sanderianum-x-lowii-2.jpg
 
Well, isn't lowii x sanderianum Mrs. Reginald Young? It is not Mrs. Reginald Young either. The color is closer but that hybrid does have longer petals than this grex and a similar color. Petals hang more up and down.
Are you convinced it is a primary hybrid?
 
Well, isn't lowii x sanderianum Mrs. Reginald Young? It is not Mrs. Reginald Young either. The color is closer but that hybrid does have longer petals than this grex and a similar color. Petals hang more up and down.
Are you convinced it is a primary hybrid?

Good Mrs. Reginald Young clones have longer petals. This is just not a good one. You do get variation in these things. Size is not a fixed trait. Same with petal stance. Many sanderianum hybrids have a similar broad petal stance. My awarded PEOY that I recently posted has very broad shoulders similar to this plant. But in other PEOY's, the petals are much more pendulous.

I guess you could get a similar outcome with a more complex hybrid. But this line of breeding would just make no sense. The flower is completely dominated by lowii and sanderianum. A primary hybrid makes more logical sense.
 
It is not ugly, kind of what I would have expected. The flowers have a nice strong colour combination to them.
 
Purely from a judging viewpoint, I love what seems to be the intense color. It is a dark and wonderfully colored flower.
The problems I see are two fold. The dorsal sepal is nicely colored but rolled along the margins. They are twisted, seemingly all to the left. I would like to see less rolling or a less ribbon like edge and to see them stand straighter. Is that fixable on subsequent blooming's? Maybe.
I love the color of the pouch, kind of a glossy bronzy color with some burgundy suffusion.
The petals are a tougher issue. From their point of attachment, out to where they first start to twist, the petal margins seem to roll inward making them seem a little tubular. They could stand to be flatter, broader. The petals seem to be dark in color, twisting but hanging at an awkward or unpleasing angle.
However with that color intensity and flower count and a nice spacing on the inflorescence, I would keep it. Grow it well, have it gain strength and perhaps push out a better spike in a year or two. It may also benefit from a media tweak to get a bit more moisture into the root system to pump up those dorsals and petals.
 
Purely from a judging viewpoint, I love what seems to be the intense color. It is a dark and wonderfully colored flower.
The problems I see are two fold. The dorsal sepal is nicely colored but rolled along the margins. They are twisted, seemingly all to the left. I would like to see less rolling or a less ribbon like edge and to see them stand straighter. Is that fixable on subsequent blooming's? Maybe.
I love the color of the pouch, kind of a glossy bronzy color with some burgundy suffusion.
The petals are a tougher issue. From their point of attachment, out to where they first start to twist, the petal margins seem to roll inward making them seem a little tubular. They could stand to be flatter, broader. The petals seem to be dark in color, twisting but hanging at an awkward or unpleasing angle.
However with that color intensity and flower count and a nice spacing on the inflorescence, I would keep it. Grow it well, have it gain strength and perhaps push out a better spike in a year or two. It may also benefit from a media tweak to get a bit more moisture into the root system to pump up those dorsals and petals.

It is hard to see the dorsal and petal stance improving. I think it is what it is. But I will give it another go. :)

Screaming Eagle (Berenice x sanderianum) was a much more popular long-petalled lowii cross. It was all the rage many years back, but I haven't seen anyone post a photo of one for ages.

https://www.orchidweb.com/orchids/p...nice-louise-am-aos-x-sanderianum-yellow-river
 
David, when did you get it? Have you checked Sam's old lists?

I got it off Brad in 2017. He did get a lot of flasks from Sam around that time. I can't recall ever seeing this cross on one of Sam's lists. I wouldn't expect it would be a cross he would do.
 
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