http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/26/vemyry3a.jpg

to the OP.
I selfed 2 flowers on my Paph lowii on 2/21/13. I didn't do it based on the moon phase, but based on the fact that I wanted to ASAP as it was a new purchase and I didn't know how old the existing blooms were. There is a thread on this on OB - I tried 2 different methods.
All is still looking good.......see photo

I mention the moon phase because on 2/21, the phase was waxing gibbous......I think just after full moon :lol:

To me, this sounds like a case of someone somewhere along the line noticing that some orchids in the wild showing up pollinated near the full moon. And, as with all new discoveries, no one at the time knew why this happened, how many orchids it applied to or even if it was actually a discovery at all or maybe just someone that wanted to connect yet another thing to full moons.

One thing to keep in mind about all of this, I have found that most myths have their roots in truth if you have the patience to figure out where they came from. The problem is most of them are so old and have been altered in retellings that the original truth is hard to get at.

Myths do not necessarily have to hold up or be real at all.

Could they?

Some of them could end up being true if we searched out whether they are true or not. Many myths are not true.



A good example of a claim ending up to become true would be, (keep in mind this is a way over-simplified story here, and I could be getting some of the details a bit off):

A long time ago, when Western Europeans decided they wanted to colonize and explore Africa. Some explorers started seeing an animal they didn't recognize, but the Africans living in the jungle did. When these Europeans came back to Europe to tell their story of an oversized monkey without a tail, many people laughed at them and thought they were fabricating a story.

For years, this animal was considered a myth.

Well, somebody had the guts to say, "I'm tired of the ridicule", and finally prove that this animal existed.

What is this animal?

We now know this animal as the gorilla.



On the flip side, we have:

(I'm going to keep this example local, because I don't really know how this relates to other countries. Again, the story is way over-simplified and could have some details missing.)

Lobotomies...

There was a time in the US, all the way up to our recent past, (probably up till as early as the 1980's, if I'm not mistaken), lobotomies were a popular surgical procedure to treat mental patients with severe psychological disorders.

The reasoning behind this procedure was that it "calmed the mental patients down".

The reality is that many people who had lobotomies didn't really survive them. The procedure was crude and the results did not coincide with the claim. It didn't necessarily "calm them down".

Somewhere down the line, something happened, (I really don't know what, but I assumed someone challenged this convention). And guess what, this convention was proven wrong somehow, (like I said, I don't know the details)!

Yes, I would have to agree.

That's fair. There could be something to it, I just don't know what that really is.

I'm saying it's plausible, but because there's no scientific evidence to back the claim up and make it stand, then their conclusions are doubtful or could be invalid.

Imo, I think you should. It can greatly affect your understanding of things. It can vastly change your strategies based on your understanding of how an orchid really works.

Some things like what you're mentioning are not necessarily worth the time to do an experiment on. You've even expressed it yourself, and I'm going to agree with you.

However, in all honesty I don't think any of those claims about pollen hold up, but whatever, this is my opinion...

Well, the point of proposing the experiment was that somebody wanted to know if it was fact or myth. I honestly don't know whether it is fact or myth. To test it out and validly come up with a strong explanation that stands, an experiment is in order, otherwise all you'll be getting are opinions.

The cross I'm going to make is Paph. Sacajawea's Slippers (delenatii x sanderianum). Parvis (like delenatii) and multies (like sanderianum) don't hybridize easily. I need all the good luck and mythical or factual "moon power" I can get. :rofl:

Once I bloom seedlings from this cross, I'll cross it back into sanderianum to make a (as of now) new hybrid. I could not locate ANYONE that had plants of Paph. Sacajawea's Slippers.

I like this comment made by someone after Hawking said Heaven is a fairy tale.........in other words a myth

"Stephen Hawking is a genius with an extremely high IQ. He only believes in things that he can prove. I am a man who does not wear his religion on his sleeve. But I do believe there is a God because I have felt His presence in time of need. If there wasn't a God I do not think people would have a soul or conscience. I hope to get to meet Steven Hawking in the hereafter so I can tell him, "See I knew something that you did not know."

---------- Post added at 01:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:00 PM ----------

Good Luck. Have you tried OrchidWeb/ Ltd in Minnesota ? They registered the Slippers cross in 2003 and may be able to give you further data/info

See...

I would not have been as bold as Steven Hawking about saying "Heaven is a fairy tale".

1. It goes into religious territory, and can get very sticky.

2. It's possible that Heaven could be real or could be a "fairy tale", and that's just impossible to come up with evidence for.

3. In this specific context, I think it's just better to leave it alone and let people believe what they may, regardless of the truth.


I'm only speaking in terms of what's physical, what's observable, what's tangible - not God or Heaven or Hell.

even renowned scientists can believe in myths......without question......

People are fallible, man. I think we went through this indirectly.

But the advances we enjoy and know of now are the results of putting certain conventions to the test and having them proven right or wrong.


I mean, are you really comfortable with still believing, without question, that the world is flat?

I'm not saying you believe this, but rather this question is rhetorical. That was the explanation of how people thought the Earth was a long time ago that has long been proven wrong.

Or would you rather believe the truth, that it's elliptical, (it's technically not really spherical, but it's very, very close - and also a sphere can be an ellipse, but an ellipse is not a sphere).

Yes I have. They didn't have any. I tried a whole list of people that said "Here, try this person." Then the other person said "No, we don't have any. Here, try this person" and so on.

---------- Post added at 01:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:25 PM ----------

Where are you going to send your pods to be flasked? I kind of want a small flasker, just in case germination is not high. I really want this cross.

Shane of OrchidOrigins. He does all my flasks and I know he does paphs too because I saw some at his operation. He is a small flasker.

---------- Post added at 01:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:36 PM ----------

if you are asked how long is a piece of string, wouldn't you ask to see the string first before giving an answer ?