Phrag. besseae

Marco · Sep 18, 2006

Shadow said:
It was much better as a whole flower. Now it reminds me seafood.

chicken and a lung

NYEric · Sep 19, 2006

The solely delAssendroi hybrids I've seen have a softer orange tint to the flowers and the slightly downswept petals. Why not mix the 2 species and get something new? After all, the mix is why people hybridize. PS Isolating the species will improve certain characteristics but wont improve the overall qualities of the resulting prodigy... [think Darwin] E.

Drorchid · Sep 22, 2006

Kyle said:
I don't see much use in makng Phrag Jersey. In my opinion it only causes confusion between the pure dalessandroi species. I think it would much better to self the dalessandroi and preserve the species rather then muddle the genes.

Its like crossing caudatum with wallisii. Whats the point?

Kyle

As long as you keep records, I think it is perfectly OK to cross 2 species that are very closely related. The point or reason why you would do this is that often the hybrid will show hybid vigor....meaning it will grow faster, less prone to diseases, will be able to tolerate a wider growing range (temperature; light and or humidity) and sometimes the flowers will be larger, or more colorfull than either parent.

As two examples we crossed Phrag. popowii with Phrag. wallisii (= Phrag. Stairway to Heaven), and this hybrid bloomed much faster for us than either parent, and is much easier to grow.

I also crossed Phrag. fischeri with Phrag schlimii (= Phrag. Pink Panther; see other thread); and in my opinion this hybrid is way more superior than either one of it's parents, both in it's vigor, and in the shape and color of the flowers.

The problem off course arises when people don't label their plants correctly, and when sister species (like besseae and dalessandroi) that look very similar are labeled as the same species and get crossed with each other. So if they were labeled incorrecty, after a few generations no one knows what is what....so that is why it is important to always maintain records and keep the labels in the pots!!

Robert

silence882 · Sep 22, 2006

I agree with Eric and Robert!

Hybridizing like species or varieties is fine as long as good records are kept and one doesn't try to sell the offspring as true species. EYOF has registered some hybrids with Phrag Jersey as a parent, so I assume it has the potential to have improved characteristics over either species parent.

If I had a second dalessandroi, I might try a species cross. There's something about selfings that I really don't like. I think it creates sort of a bottleneck in the genetic diversity of the species (just don't ask me to explain how or why I get this impression!).

--Stephen

Kyle · Sep 22, 2006

silence882 said:
EYOF has registered some hybrids with Phrag Jersey as a parent, so I assume it has the potential to have improved characteristics over either species parent.

I could be totally wrong, but I think some of those hybrids they had made prior to the whole besseae/dalesandroi mess was sorted out. Way back when they thought they were crossing two besseae, but in fact it was two diferent species. It wasn't until many years later that they realized that the error in thier ways. Fast forward to now, and we get 10 Jersey hybrids registered at the same time in 2004.

silence882 said:
There's something about selfings that I really don't like. I think it creates sort of a bottleneck in the genetic diversity of the species (just don't ask me to explain how or why I get this impression!).

I think in the short term, with plants, selfings and brother/sister (sib crosses) are OK. But look what Robert posted recently about besseae flavum. All crosses came from one plant. Vigor and fertility has been lost.

Kyle