Gene Schurg wrote:
I was in the Greenhouse and it appears that my L. anceps and Schomburgkia
splendida will both be in flower at the same time. Both of these monsters
have flowers on long inflorenses but the flowers are very different. I was
thinking....what would happen if they were crossed?

A search of the RHS website shows this to be Schombolaelia Splendid Spire
registered by SBOE in 2003.

Picture of this is at
http://sborchid.com/OrchidOfTheDay/S...endidSpire.htm

Those of you in the know, is this a worthy cross? Sounds like a lot of fun.
The registered cross shows the seed parent as the Schomburgkia. If I get
the change should I try it both ways?




Worthy depends on how much you want to see what happens... There really
isn't any other measure of worth in orchids anyway. If you like it, you
value it, if you don't like it, it has no value.

Main problem I see with it is that it would take up a lot of space to
bloom some out. But you are already growing the parents and know what
you are in for. Imagine 50 or so in your greenhouse and decide how much
you want to make the cross. In my opinion, there is very little
commercial 'value' in this kind of cross, at least in my area where
everybody grows under lights and greenhouse space is tight. I couldn't
even give these away. But, in a more tropical clime, perhaps they would
be more popular.

A more useful schomburghkia cross around here would be to smaller,
perhaps rupiculous, laelias. If we could bring down the size of the
progeny a substantial amount, there would be more interest.

Rob
--
Rob's Rules: http://littlefrogfarm.com
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit