Pretty picture: Epidendrum Petticoat Pink

. . . or maybe it's Epi. Sun Valley 'Pink Petticoats.' I couldn't find a "Petticoat Pink" in the International Orchid Registry. I did find a Sun Valley 'Pink Petticoats' on the internet, but the color isn't a close enough match for me to be confident about the ID. So I don't know what this is for sure.

And I mostly don't care, either. Not only am I not that into this kind of Epidendrum (though I like the ones with the orange/green/magenta combination, like Epi. pseudoepidendrum, the hybrids tend to be shaped more like this one, e.g. Rose Valley 'Caribbean Dream' or Neon Valley. I appreciate the distinct shape and arrangement of the hybrids, I guess, but they're just not my thing.

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum (Mod Maude x Shin-Yi Pie) x Hsinying Rubyweb

It's nice when the dark blooms aren't so dark as to be completely devoid of color, I guess.

Paphiopedilum Mod Maude = Paphiopedilum Maudiae x Paphiopedilum Red Maude (Ref.)

Paphiopedilum Shin-Yi Pie = Paphiopedilum Raisin Pie x Paphiopedilum Magic Flame (Ref.)

Paphiopedilum Hsinying Rubyweb = Paphiopedilum Hsinying Web x Paphiopedilum Ruby Leopard (Ref.)

Somewhat related, from 2008: my own personal Paphiopedilum Supersuk 'Eureka' x Paph. Raisin Pie 'Hsinying' x Sib, which lived here for about three and a half years, and has now been dead for four years. (It is predicted to remain dead for the foreseeable future.)

And from 2009: Paphiopedilum Maudiae Alba NOID.

Pretty picture: Dendrobium Spring Bird

I have disliked orchids before, for various reasons. Sometimes the flowers are fine but just didn't photograph well; sometimes they don't do anything for me personally, but I can see why they might appeal to other people, so I just chalk it up to "not my thing" and move on. With this one, though, for reasons which aren't entirely clear to me, I just hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

In this particular case, it didn't photograph especially well either, but I looked at other pictures of the same grex elsewhere on the internet and concluded that the photos were more or less accurate. It really is kind of a muddy and washed-out light orangey pinky yellow. *shrug*

I couldn't find photos of either parent on-line, though I'd be willing to bet that both are prettier than this.

Dendrobium Spring Bird = Dendrobium Demitasse x Dendrobium Sweet Love (Ref.)

Pretty picture: Maxillariella Maui Coconut

At some point, a new genus, Maxiarella, was split off from the genus Maxillaria. And I would just like to take a moment to boo and jeer and make rude gestures at the taxonomists who thought it would be a good idea to split one genus into two that are practically anagrams of one another.¹ I'm sure you had your reasons, guys, but nobody's ever going to be able to keep those straight. If you're not going to try to make the words recognizably different, maybe just leave them in the same genus, okay? It's not like anyone will know.

And then you get the intergeneric hybrid of the two, which is Maxillariella, also very easily confused for both of the parent genera. I mean Jesus Christ, taxonomists. Is the thrill completely gone from changing the names around every five minutes, that now you have to invent new ways to upset and confuse everybody?

[noise of irritation and disgust]

Anyway. Name aside, I don't have any particularly strong feelings about this one. We've seen previous Maxi[mumble]a species in 2015 (M. cucullata), 2012, and 2014 (both M. tenuifolia) The foliage on Maui Coconut is more interesting than usual, I suppose, but the flowers are small and unshowy.

I'm pretty sure this is supposed to have a fragrance, and my notes say that I might have gotten a whiff of something coconuty at the show but I wasn't sure about that.

I'm also not actually that big a fan of the smell of coconut, so even if I were certain about the fragrance, it wouldn't improve my opinion of the hybrid much.

Maxillariella Maui Coconut = Maxillariella sanguinea x Maxillariella tenuifolia (Ref.)

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¹ Not quite actual anagrams, but about as close as a pair of non-anagrams could get; they differ by one letter. Both start with "Maxi," both end in "a," both contain a double-L and an "ar," but they remain one letter apart. (maxiarElla; maxillarIa)

Pretty picture: Phalaenopsis NOID

The tag said 'Phalaenopsis Gigantia "Sunshine,"' but there is no "Phalaenopsis Gigantia" in the IOR records.

There is a species, Phalaenopsis gigantea, which as its name implies is enormous (leaves to 2 feet (0.6 m) long!), with blooms that have dull red or maroon dots sprinkled liberally over a white, cream, or light pink background.¹ It sounds pretty incredible, and photos that include the leaves are pretty impressive, both in the size of the leaves and the number of individual flowers per spike.

However, basically none of that description applies to this plant. From the photo, I'm guessing it was in a 4 or 5-inch pot, which would make the leaves maybe 5 or 6 inches long. 2-foot leaves may not be required for blooming, of course, but if the leaves don't look like Phal. gigantea, and the blooms don't look like Phal. gigantea, I'm forced to conclude that either this isn't Phal. gigantea, Phal. gigantea is a lot more variable than Google lets on, or Phal. Gigantia is an actual plant that the International Orchid Registry has somehow just not heard of yet. And I trust Google and the IOR a lot more than I trust orchid show tags.

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¹ (Or so says Google Image Search, anyway. See also Wikipedia and www.bigleaforchids.com.)

Pretty picture: Rhyncanthe (Cattleya Horace 'Maxima' x Rhyncanthe Daffodil 'Bee's Wax')

I've written this post over and over and didn't like any of them, so now the post is like four days late. However, I did warn you I was likely to be quiet for a while, so I don't feel too bad about the lateness.

There is no whole-plant photo because the one I took turned out really badly.

Cattleya Horace = Cattleya trianae x Cattleya Woltersiana (Ref.)

Rhyncanthe Daffodil = Rhyncholaelia glauca x Guarianthe aurantiaca (Ref.)

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum Hawaiian Contrasts

This is another Lehua creation, but I couldn't find it on their site when I was preparing the posts in April.

I really liked the foliage. So few orchids have interesting-looking foliage¹ that it's always exciting to run across one that does.

It's possible that I'm forgetting something, but I think this was as close to green as the blooms got this year. Not exactly dazzling, but there's a place for subdued colors too.

Paphiopedilum Hawaiian Contrasts = Paphiopedilum Varuna x Paphiopedilum Jewel Green (Ref.)

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¹ Search your heart: you know it's true.

Pretty picture: Lysudamuloa Red Jewel 'Sweet Baby'

This is the second Lysudamuloa Red Jewel from the show, the one with a clonal name attached. It looks an awful lot like the other specimen; I wouldn't be at all surprised that that one was also 'Sweet Baby,' just without a tag to identify it as such.