Can't wait...

[ChrisFL]

To me C. nobilior is the perfect orchid, small in stature, huge flowers, incredible fragrance, highly specialized succulent growth and flowering habit. I have a small collection of seedlings from crosses that have caught my interest, including two var. coerulea. My understanding is that only one coerulea nobilior plant, ‘Suzuki’, has been found in nature. It was selfed and the offspring resulted in some coerulea cultivars now famous in Brazil and Japan (‘Papagaio Verde’, ‘Francisco’, ‘Luar do Sertao’). This plant is a first bloom seedling from a sibling cross of ‘Francisco’ and another plant from the original ‘Suzuki’ selfing. I selected this plant from F. E. Miranda’s greenhouse after spending too much time looking through the several first-bloom seedlings that were in bud. The buds survived the plane ride from Florida to Texas. Unfortunately, the buds on all the plants were too young to tell whether the flowers were going to be nice. Line breeding still has a little ways to go to get plants with exceptional form, although many of the plants coming from this cross are a huge step above the plants from the original selfing. Unfortunately, as the buds have been maturing, they have stayed relatively thin, so I'm not expecting much.