Take a look at a picture of Paph. Winston Churchill. That is about it! Bulldogs are big, very complex hybrids that are bred for huge size, very large flower segments, and round, 'salad plate' type flowers. It is very difficult to recognize the species in the background from a bulldog type flower, but there is always a lot of villosum, bellatulum, niveum, and the like in the pedigree.
For a long time even paph afficianados (like myself) called them 'toads'. The shine had worn off that particular apple. It is hard to improve on Winston Churchill. Ratcliffe Orchids pretty much perfected the 'British Bulldog' type, probably as early as the 70's or before. But, some advances were recently made in white and green complex, and that has sparked a mini-boom. This boom has made all the forms more popular, so you see them more. But I don't know that there is much improvement, still, in anything but green/white complex. They are getting AOS awards again, but I'm not so sure the judges are really doing their homework.
Some interesting new developments in toad breeding include backcrosses to species, especially fairrieanum. If you see a nice complex paph crossed back to fairrieanum, buy it. They are very nice.
|
Hybrid Mode
