Al,

Thanks for your response. I'm strictly an amateur, but I like seeing
how things work. I made a cross several years ago between a heavily
spotted orchid and a "blue" minicatt. All the progeny were pink
minicatts, some with spots, most without, but it was fascinating to
see the variation in coloring and lip formation. I tried a sib cross,
sent the pods off for flasking but the flasking service disappeared,
phone no longer in service, etc. My expectation is that there would
have been more variety in such a sib cross.

I don't have room for the big catts, but will probably try crossing
Jiminy Cricket with a small catt. Some years ago I tried in vain to
cross epi cochleata with b nodosa. Never had any pod form. Hope I'll
have better luck with this.

Janet


On Oct 11, 10:42*pm, "Al Pickrel" wrote:
B digbyana is in the background of a zillion of those big old standard
brassos with the big flurffy, (although *not* fringed or heavily whiskered)
lips. *These grexes go back to the late 1800s. *It adds bulk and girth, but
the fringe seems hard to hold onto in subsequent generations. *There are a
few however. *When it gets bred back to some of it's big flurffy
grandchildren you get some fringing and whiskers. *I think the prevailing
thought with digbyana over the generations has been that it's lip would be
nice but the overall thrown back and curved back petal structure of the rest
of the flower took several generations to work out of the offspring and by
then the lip frill was gone too. *Just a guess.

Brassolaeliocattleya
Ports of Paradise 'Emerald Isle' FCC/AOS (Blc. Fortune x B. digbyana) is the
famous example of back breeding to species to pick up the lip.

Bc. Mrs. J. Leeman (B. digbyana x C. dowiana) is a cool idea but it just
"blended" the cool traits in the F1 generation. *This cross or the two
parents are usually somewhere in the background of all large brassos.
Somebody needs to to do a selfing of Bc. Mrs. J. Leeman *to redistribute the
colors genes and the fringing genes and maybe bring forward the extravagent
traits in both species lips in one plant in the F2 generation. *A simple
blend misses the point.