Quite a beauty!

Oh yes, it IS beautiful!! How nice to win Orchid of month!

Beautiful flowers, Melisa. Good luck!

Who needs Daffodils when you have pretty yellow blooms like that Melissa ! Trying to figure out where the "Orange" comes into play there tho

That is one beautiful and healthy looking Dendrobium, Melissa. I ran the name through OrchidWiz to see if it had been registered but could find nothing. Best of luck in the show!

Jim

I have not been around lately, but I want to show you the blooms I have in my garden.
Cattleya guttata X Cattleya bicolor





And Oncidium divaricatum

Hi Cecilia! Good to see you back! Those are certainly beauties, and they look very happy! Good growing! Really love that Oncidium.

Lovely orchids, Cecilia! How is your summer going? We are very tired of winter up here.

I do love your Onc. divaricatum. That one's going on my wish list!

Thank you Tara and Elaine !
Those plants are really tough! They grow in my garden with very little care!
I had several problems lately and I could not pay very much attention to my plants but they are growing happily anyway.
The Summer here is rather odd this year. We have had really very hot days but also important storms.

Just had a couple more blooms open up and since it's still January, thought I'd pop them in quickly. Whole new load coming up for February.

First is one of my most prized plants, Blc. Pamela Hetherington 'Coronation' FCC/AOS. Bought this plant way back in the early 1970's directly from the Stewart's Orchids showroom here in southern California.
Here's a bit of interesting history: http://www.google.com/patents/...
The blooms are approx 7" wide, 8" tall and very fragrant.
Since Ernest Hetherington named the cross after his daughter, he must have thought it pretty special (and so do I !!!).



The other one I want to share is Lc. Persepolis 'Splendor' AM/AOS.

I've had this one for a long time, too. These orchids seem like old friends!
This year's blooms are unusual because, as you can see, one is resupinate, the other non-resupinate. Go figure!

The blooms are not as big as Pamela, but still a good 5 of 6 inches.



Note to @drdawg: In spike and should bloom in February: C. Peter's Creek! Will post if it comes through.

Ceci, lovely blooms and I need to chime in on the Oncidium divaricatum, what a nice plant and rich spikes!

Ted, interesting link regarding the 'Coronation' variety! Such a very special plant, special enough to have it patented. And how wonderful to have this plant and having it bloom for you.
'Splendor' is gorgeous too! interesting symmetry in that display!

Edited to add the parentage of Pamela Hetherington, if one is interested
http://www.orchid.or.jp/orchid...

Hi, Ceci, it is good to hear from you again. There is some good news in that your lovely hybrid Cattleya has been registered and now has its own name. She is now called: Cattleya [C.] Mrs. Mahler (C. guttata x C. bicolor). That is a big beautiful Oncidium as well. Good growing!

You have a couple of nice ones there, Ted. As Elaine would say, the orchid boffins have changed the name of your big beautiful Heatherington Catt to: Rhyncholaeliocattleya [Rlc.] Pamela Hetherington. Whatever you call her, she is a beauty and I can almost smell her from here. The Lc. Persepolis also has a change and is now called C. Persepolis (C. Kittiwake x C. Pegi Mayne). Frustrating isn't it?!! I'm buying tags by the boxcar load. Good growing!

Jim

We are having the house repainted and I have workers everywhere. This comes on the heels of having the roof replaced so there has been banging and motors running for weeks around here. The painting has required me to move all of the orchids sitting or hanging close to the house so the OC is a bit of a mess right now. On the bright side, it will give me a chance to look them over and make some changes when I return them to their rightful places. And so it goes.

Jim

Ted, such great memories of my 'Catt house', filled with Stewart's, jones & Scully,Krull Smith etc back in the 70's and 80's. Thanks for posting these, the old standards are hard to beat even today!

Explain to me what a patented orchid means. If someone has one (I wish!) and wants to sell divisions, is there a royalty paid to Stewart, does one need written permission from Stewart, or are sales of this specific plant banned?

Why would one patent an orchid anyway? If there is a "useful" purpose, why aren't all crosses patented?

Sorry for all the questions. I am an inquisitive soul.

Thanks Jim ! I now know that my Cattleya has a name! Mrs. Mahler
Ursula ! I also love my oncidium divaricatum ! It never fails!

Ken, the way I understand this patent, and please Ted and all correct me if I am wrong,
only the patent holder (s) may propagate the selected variety ' Coronation' by meristem cloning. This would prevent the market from being flooded by this particular Orchid. I don't think this applies to any other selected variety of Pamela Hetherington.

If I remember correctly, pharmaceutical patents hold for 20 years, I don't know if this holds true for this kind of patent. If yes, than this would be now in the public domain.

Jim, anything to keep you busy??

Thanks, Ursula.

I don't know about Jim, but we are having some good daytime weather and I took advantage of it to open all the greenhouse doors. I am in the process of moving seedlings from 2" to 3" and 3" to 3 3/4" pots, trimming roots as I go. I might finish the first batch tomorrow.

Ursula, that is my understanding of patented plants, too. Illegal for anyone but the patent holder to propagate by mericloning.
However, might not be a problem, and not because of the time limit of the patent, but simply because Stewart's went bankrupt years ago. They were originally in San Gabriel, CA, bought out and moved to Natchez MS, then simply died. Probably no one left to defend the patent now. Anyone want to attempt mericloning Pamela? - way beyond me!