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APB.L 22. 1920 The Horists' Review 17 



RAISING ORCHIDS FROM SEED 



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^AVING been asked to read 

 a paper at this meeting on 

 the hybridization and rais- 

 ing of seedling orchids, I 

 first wish to state that I 

 am fully aware that the 

 methods ^hich I shall de- 

 scribe are not necessarily 

 the best or only methods, 

 but they are the out- 

 growt^ J-' my own personal experience 

 in the raising of seedlings and the hy- 

 bridization of cattleyas, laeliocattleyas, 

 brassolselias and brassoeattleyas in va- 

 rious combinations. Of these I may say 

 I have raised a good many thousands. 

 In the last five years we have devoted 

 considerable time to raising seedlings at 

 Hackensack, having raised in that time 

 at least 25,000, some of which have al- 

 ready flowered. Previous to that time 

 we had raised a good num- 

 ber of hybrids which gave 

 us some wonderfully fine 

 varieties, which we have 

 used in the last five years 

 as parents, combined with 

 the best varieties we could 

 obtain in England. 



In hybridization the first 

 thing to consider is the re- 

 sult desired. In the past 

 any two flowers were good 

 enough to cross, so long as 

 seedlings were secured, but 

 we have got over that great 

 mistake — a mistake which 

 oftener than not led to dis- 

 appointment when the hy- 

 brid flowered. 



The Desired Type. 



Four or five years is a 

 long time to spend in grow- 

 ing a plant to maturity, 

 only to be disappointed 

 with the outcome; there- 

 fore I would impress on all 

 beginners in seedling rais- 

 ing the necessity of using 

 nothing but the finest forms 

 for parents. My principal 

 aim has been to get a 

 flower that is perfectly 

 shaped, of good size and 

 richly colored. My idea of 

 shape is as follows: A well rounded 

 torm, with the dorsal sepal standing up- 

 yjght (many of the otherwise best cat- 

 leyas curl the dorsal backward); the 

 lower sepals broad and without any 

 twist or curl; the petals broad and 

 round, meeting well together at the 

 l^ase of the dorsal sepal; labellum or 

 "P large and well frilled at the edge; 

 sizf, about six and one-half inches in 

 ''inmeter. 



The color should be, to be perfect in 

 "^^ opinion, what I term a three-color 

 *^'^'nibmation; that is, the sepals and 

 petals one color, the labellum much 

 ^■ener and darker and the side lobes 

 . '■ ow or the throat heavily veined with 

 .|cilow or gold. The yellow in the side 

 '^>t>es or throat of the lip is one of the 

 J^st things I consider before making 

 ■• cross. I never consider a flower for 

 ^parent unless it has this characteristic 

 strongly defined, as I believe it is the 



A paper by J. P. Mossmaa, of Hackensack, N. 

 J., read at a meeting of the New York Florists' 

 Club, April 13, 1920. 



center of attraction in any flower. No 

 matter how dark a flower may be, if 

 this one color is lacking the whole flower 

 is dull and lifeless. 



Colors of Parent Rowers. 



It will readily be seen that, to get 

 a flower such as I have just described, 

 it would be useless to take a fine form 

 of Cattleya gigas and hybridize it with 

 the pollen of Cattleya intermedia. On 

 the other hand, if we take the pollen of 

 Cattleya Dowiana or its variety, aurea, 

 we obtain all the results desired — a 

 more compact flower, with a color (if 

 Dowiana is used) that is richer through- 

 out the whole flower, and with beautiful 

 gold veining in the throat of the lip or 



Among the prerequisites to the 

 successful hybridizing of orchids, says 

 this grower, are a definite idea as to 

 the results desired from each cross, 

 and an equally definite idea as to 

 the sort of parent plants that will be 

 likely to produce these results. He 

 strongly condemns random experi- 

 ments, as leading to almost unmixed 

 disappointment. His description of 

 his own methods is clear and in- 

 tere^ing. 



veining it puts in the throat of the hy- 

 brid, but also because it intensifies the 

 color of the whole flower. Cattleya 

 aurea does this also as far as the vein- 

 ing of the labellum is concerned, but it 

 does not intensify the color of the 

 sepals and petals as does Dowiana. On 

 the other hand, if we are using a flower 

 with white sepals and petals, expecting 

 to get white sepals and petals in the hy- 

 brid, we should never think of using 

 Dowiana, as it always puts a trace of 

 rose color through the flower, while 

 aurea does not do this, provided the 

 other parent is pure white. Apparently 

 the yellow of aurea has no influence on 

 a white flower, but it does impart its 

 wonderful veining and some of its rich 

 color to the lip of the offspring, and, if 

 the white flower has a colored lip to 

 start with (which is always to be de- 

 • sired), it makes one of the 



most beautiful of flowers. 

 I have raised plants from 

 crosses of all our best large 

 cattleyas, both colored 

 forms and albinos, with 

 Dowiana as the parent for 

 the dark forms and aurea 

 for the white forms. I find 

 them good growers, quidc to 

 flower and, for commercial 

 cut flowers, the best of all. 

 I raised 1,500 plants of 

 Fabia alba (labiata alba 

 X aurea). 



Time of Flowering. 



else large golden yellow disks or side 

 lobes of the lip. In this cross the 

 gigas lip is much enlarged and has a 

 finely frilled edge. 



In this particular cross there is only 

 one point to watch for and that is to be 

 sure to select a Dowiana that does not 

 have the habit of twisting its lower 

 sepals too much, as so many of these 

 fine cattleyas do, and that tendency is 

 surely carried into the offspring. We 

 have some fine varieties of this cat- 

 tleya at Hackensack, including about 

 twenty distinct forms of natural hy- 

 brids that came out of importations, 

 and in all of these the lower sepals curl 

 and twist to a greater or less extent. 

 But in our own seedling, Hardyana, this 

 does not occur, showing that careful 

 selection is a most important factor. 



We have used Cattleya Dowiana as a 

 parent more than any other cattleya, 

 principally on account of the yellow 



Another thing that must 

 be given serious study is 

 the time of flowering. The 

 cross just mentioned flowers 

 at a most opportune time; 

 that is, just after the gigas 

 plants are through and be- 

 fore the labiatas come in; 

 this makes it particularly 

 valuable as a cut flower. I 

 always use, as far as pos- 

 sible, the Dowiana or aurea 

 as the female parent, as I 

 believe the characteristics 

 of the female always pre- 

 dominate. 



I would say that the next 

 best hybrids to the primary 

 Dowiana and aurea crosses are the sec- 

 ondary brassocattleya crosses. The 

 primary brassoeattleyas are beautiful, 

 but the secondary hybrids — that is, 

 brassoeattleyas recrossed back onto cat- 

 tleyas — are wonderful. They have a far 

 greater amount of color, the lack of 

 which is one of the weak points of the 

 primary cross, and have a more com- 

 pact shape. They are not as floriferous 

 as some of the other hybrids, giving 

 rarely more than two flowers to a spike, 

 but they command the highest prices 

 and have practically no set season for 

 flowering. I have some in flower every 

 week of the year and that means a 

 great deal when flowers of the species 

 are out of season and prices are high. 

 Next come the Iseliocattleyas, and it 

 is in hybridizing with these that the 

 greatest care has to be taken. In my 

 opinion, Isplias are useless as cut flowers 

 for the market, but they carry some 



