Quote:
Originally Posted by Roberta
You should definitely consider those Aussie Dendrobiums... they do very well here. In fact, living in Vista, among your orchid journeys, you should definitely make a visit to Sunset Valley Orchids, also in Vista. They are having an Open House on Saturday, Dec 2. Along with mini and compact Cattleyas, and Catasetinae, they specialize in Australian Dendrobiums (temperate area) hybrids. Check out details here, scroll down a bit: Orchid Event Calendar, Shows and Festivals
If you can't make the Open House, you should call for an appointment before you visit. But for the Open House, just show up. |
I ran across this post from a Den. kingianum thread, which sparked this experience. The Fascination of Orchids page only listed SBOE's open house this weekend, so I was about to skip the event, but then I thought I wonder if any other vendors have open houses, and upon browsing discovered that Cal-Orchid is right next door and has an open house at the same time. So I decided that crossing both off the sightseeing list at once would make the once in a lifetime 2.5 hour drive worth it.
SBOE didn't have that much of interest except a C. intermedia 'Little Giant' and Penny Kuroda 'Spots', but I decided to forego both due to a lack of background info. I did however help myself to a coffee and donut, that carb refill was much needed. Only picked up a $15 Laelia sincorana coerulea x self, which was the cheapest thing they had.
Had a chat with another customer that told me to come back to their main event in March.
So across the street we go to Cal-Orchid, where immediately upon entrance I spotted some Afri Orchids leftovers, some petaloid anceps and Autoceps. James was just outside, so I ran back out to inquire about the price, and unexpectedly got a long, very interesting conversation with James and Andy Easton (of New Horizon Orchids) involving orchid breeding, market demand, and some history of these anceps Mendenhall types and petaloid albas. Aside from the Autoceps, I managed to spot the only 'Ultimo' division for $50 on the bench and learned that it was one of 10 Mendenhall selfings that James bought in 1971 (if I recall) from Carter and Holmes. Anyways, very fascinating, and it was an honor in my opinion, to listen to a bunch of orchid breeding heavyweights there discuss and shoot the shit their industry and some features of great crosses.
So I ended up with:
Laelia Autoceps (anceps 'HQ Supreme' x autumnalis magna) $30
Laelia anceps 'Ultimo' division $50
Lc. Bowri-albida 'Kennedys' $40 (SVO seems to suggest this is 4n, not sure)
Laelia purpurata carnea $20
Laelia halbingeriana 'Andy #1' x self $25
Brassavola nodosa 'Susan Fuchs' x self $25
Which added up to $190, so James offered to let me pick any anceps seedling to round it out to $200. I picked 'SanBar Marble King' x 'Newberry Ice', remembering a Carter and Holmes newsletter stating that 'Newberry Ice' is their 'Marble Queen' x self. Honestly, if I had seen this earlier, I'd probably buy 5 more. And finally upon conversation with Andy, he let me have 2 free Laelia anceps 'Bulls' x Laelia crispa alba, which is a cross that Andy made, supposedly one of the few Cattleya ones since he normally focuses on Cymbidium.
I feel like I lucked out with a great deal. Their greenhouse is massive, and unfortunately not even a tenth of it is listed on his website. He has a nice variety of Cattleya, Laelia, some Dendrobium and Bulbophyllum and a lot of hybrids with named cultivars. His selection feels like a cross between SVO and Andy's, and the price-value easily matches these as well.
Easily worth a visit. Especially if you're an anceps fan, there had to have been a dozen or maybe even two dozen crosses there involving 'Marble King', 'Ultimo', 'Constellation', 'John Tucker', 'Ventura', 'Marblehall Imperialis', 'Tierra del Fuego', 'Bravo' and more, in all different combinations. Many of these are 4n bred from meristem mutations of 'Irwin' and 'Sanbar Oaxaquena'. Best thing was James was very open to talking about it, whereas the people over at SBOE said they're not that interested in 4n breeding
Sure... considering your entire 'Pink Perfection' line is 3n and a great number of 'SanBar's are 3n and 4n. They even tried to claim that they got 'Pink Perfection' counted and found that it was diploid, implying that 'Marble King' was diploid. They're all very nice people over there, and granted she did say their breeder was out, but I found the lack of parental information even in the tags prevented me from buying most of their offerings. If I wanted to avoid buying 3n's at SBOE, that would not have been possible. However, if one doesn't care about ploidy, they do have a good selection of Hadrolaelia and Brassavola hybrids, and huge anceps specimen plants. They have a good virus policy as far as I'm aware, but some of those plants at SBOE look kind of sus, just saying...
Cal Orchids Open House
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