SOUTHERN ONTARIO ORCHID SOCIETY NEWS September 2016, Volume 51, Issue 8 Meeting since 1965

Next Meeting Sunday, September 4, Floral Hall of the Toronto Botanical Garden,

12 noon; sales. Cultural snapshots on the stage at 12:15 pm. The first session will be introduction and watering by Alexsi Antanaitis Speaker Program at 1 pm ; Our speaker is Alan Koch of Gold Country Orchids in California. Topic: Species Habitat, Hybrid Habitat –a program that explores how orchids grow in nature and how to take that information and apply it to the we grow. Alan hybridizes mini cattleyas and has been a frequent speaker at our meetings. He will be bringing plants for sale, but you can pre-order from his lists that are on the SOOS website. [email protected]

Member plant table discussion. Raffle. .

th th TOUR OF ORCHID GROWERS September 10 —11 , 2016 Please note that this will be a self-directed tour. You decide which growers you wish to visit, and when. You can use Google, MapQuest, your GPS or an old-fashioned map book to get you there. Please respect the conditions, i.e Dates, and hours the growers have indicated that they would be available.

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Name Address Contact Growing Date & time open situation

Crystal Star 20815 2nd Concession Saturday ONLY Eric Lee East Gwillenbury, 905 478-8398 Greenhouse 10am-noon L9N 0G9 1pm-4pm

2535 Winthrop Cres. Jocelyn Weber Saturday-Sunday Mississauga, 905 823-6815 Outdoors 10am-4pm L5K 2A9

Flora-peculia 24 Rockvale Ave. Small indoor Sunday Terry Kowalczuk Toronto, 416 828-8023 greenhouse ONLY M6E 3A9 + draw for a neo 11am-3pm

28 Torrens Ave. Sunday Outdoors Toronto, 416 421-7805 ONLY Synea Tan under lights M4K 2H8 10am-3pm

4 Leahann Drive Sunday Greenhouse Scarborough 416 759-2538 ONLY Joe O'Regan summer outdoors M1P 1B7 1pm-5pm

President’s Remarks Welcome Orchid grow in nature and how to take that information and apply it to the plants we grow. Lovers. It is with a saddened heart that we say goodbye nd to a most valued friend and orchid kindred spirit, Mario October 2 Graham Wood Topic: Maudiae. Why has it Ferrusi, who left us on July 31. He worked within the changed so much? November 6th Jean Ikeson Topic: Dendrobiums society and Judging Centre as past president, chairman th of the judging committee, program coordinator, vendor December 4 Party time and auction and auctioneer at our Christmas auction. He brought us so many wonderful speakers. We will find it very difficult Our cultural snapshots will continue to take place on the to match Mario's growing expertise and love of orchids. I stage at 12:15 pm, starting in September. The first will miss his humour, guidance, honesty and friendship. session will be introduction and watering. Alexsi Ed. Mario also was a much respected and loved force in Antanaitis will be running these. All are welcome to the national and international orchid community. He participate in the sessions. Remember, if there is a topic served as an American Orchid Society trustee and vice you would like us to cover, please let me know. president and served the Pleurothallid and the We have finalized our fall growers tour (see schedule in Odontoglossum alliances. th th newsletter). Please keep September 10 and 11 open. Members whose names begin with the letter N through At this time, we have two of our vendors willing to share R will be supplying the treats for the September ideas. This will be a great opportunity for you to see all meeting. the different orchids they have and perhaps purchase ones that catch your eye. Three of our other members Orchidfest has come and gone. If you missed it, you have also offered to share their growing areas as well. missed a terrific speaker in Holger Perner. His Thank you Crystal Star, Flora—peculia (Terry presentation was fascinating and engaging with an Kowalczuk), Jocelyn Weber, Synea Tan, and Joe ample sprinkling of humour. A bonus - many of us were O'Regan for inviting us in. Two of the growers are open able to purchase orchids directly from China. Thank you Saturday and four are open Sunday (again, please see Doug and Terry Kennedy for taking on the plant schedule). This makes it easier to plan your visits. importation and hosting arrangements. Saturday Growers, we very much appreciate your time in letting midnight at the airport and then again Ag Canada plant us tour your setup. Thank you. Ed. You can take in the inspection Sunday morning. Ugh! Ferrusi orchid sale on the same dates or a week later!

Our future speakers are as follows: Our fall shows are not so far away. Both Don Wyatt and September 4th Alan Koch Topic: Species Habitat, I will be asking for your plants for the SOOS displays. Hybrid Habitat –a program that explores how orchids 2

September 26th – 27th is the COOS show in AOS Judging Results Cambridge. Don Wyatt will be crafting our display. Please note, all of these awards are provisional until Thanks Don. th th published by the American Orchid Society. . October 15 – 16 is the ECOS show in Montreal. I will Toronto Judging Centre at Orchidfest, August 7, be designing the display. nd rd th 2016: October 22 – 23 is Windsor's 4 annual show. Phragmipedium Olaf ‘?’ HCC-AOS, 78 points, Terry and Check their website for discount coupons. I will be doing Doug Kennedy this one as well. th th Note! The next judging will be held at the Toronto November 12 – 13 Essex County Orchid Society's Botanical Gardens, Saturday September 3; judging show. Once again Don will be designing the display. education by Alan Koch at 10 am; judging at 1 pm. Thank you in advance, members who generously loan AOS Judging is a service of the American Orchid us your precious babies. Society and is open to all! Happy Orchiding, Laura Liebgott Questions or comments: Please contact me at: [email protected] or 905 883 5290 Native Orchid Rescue Offer by the SOOS Conservation Committee Do you know places where native orchids grow that may be threatened by upcoming road or building construction Coming Events 2016 or other developments? If so, SOOS's Conservation September Committee would like to know where and whom to 3, TJC Monthly AOS Judging at TBG contact in the hopes of mounting a rescue operation. Our goal will be to carefully remove and transplant those 4, SOOS meeting, Toronto Botanical Garden, orchids to suitable new locations where they will again sales 12 noon, program 1 pm, Alan Koch. have the opportunity to thrive. If you can help, contact 10, 11. Fall growers tour. any member of the Conservation Committee directly or 17, Montreal judging, Jardin botanique de Montreal Tom Shields, the chair, at [email protected]. 24,25, Central Ontario Orchid Society Show, Hespeler Arena, Cambridge, Ontario. Welcome New Members October Sandra Zelazny 1, TJC Monthly AOS Judging at TBG 1-2, Central NY Show, Syracuse. 2, SOOS meeting, Toronto Botanical Garden, Phone Lost at the SOOS meeting August sales 12 noon, program 1 pm 7th. Yellow Windows phone. Please call 647-401- 15-16, Eastern Canada Orchid Society Show and 7337. Thank you, Edna Ruiz Montreal judging. 22-23, Windsor Orchid Society Show. Holger Perner in China transcribed by Inge Poot. 19-23, AOS Members Meeting, Huntington All illustrations courtesy Holger Perner, PhD Library, San Marino, California. Our August 2016 Orchid Fest featured Holger Perner as our speaker and supplier of some of the orchids his November company grows in China. Holger was born in Germany 5, , TJC Monthly AOS Judging at TBG and took on a project for the company he worked for that 6, SOOS meeting, Toronto Botanical Garden, sales placed him in China for the duration. He met his wife 12 noon, program 1 pm Wenqing while there and six months later in 2001 they 12-13, Essex County Orchid Society's show. were married. The project lasted seven years, but at the 12-13, Niagara Frontier Orchid Society Show and Mid end of it they decided to stay in China. Holger worked on America Orchid Congress, Buffalo Botanic Gardens. another project on sustainable uses of natural resources 19, TJC business meeting and Montreal judging, Jardin and when that project ended too, they decided to start botanique de Montreal. their own larger company – putting what the other December projects had taught them to good use. They had two 3, , TJC Monthly AOS Judging at TBG. pretty daughters, Isabell and Stephanie, now teenaged, 4, SOOS meeting, Toronto Botanical Garden, sales who incidentally, accompanied them to our Orchid Fest 12 noon, program 1 pm and helped with the plant sales. 10, Montreal judging, Jardin botanique de Montreal. The Perners’ company, called Hengduon Mountains Biotechnology Ltd, is located in the Hengduon Mountain range in South-West China, on the outskirts of the town of Chengdu in the Sichuan province. It is a six 3

hour drive from Chengdu to Huanglong, the nearest hall, insisted that all cork bark be removed and larger town, going north. Chengdu is in a rounded destroyed and then confiscated six plants to take back to basin-like valley that traps clouds due to the lack of an their labs and see what bugs/ diseases they might outlet. This results in an ideal orchid growing culture from them. The poor Kennedys were beyond environment. The sky is cloudy 300 days of the year, but frazzled! I think we all owe them a big thank you for their global warming is unfortunately increasing the number of efforts to bring off the importation after all! On top of that sunny days each year. The summers are warmer than they were hosting the Perner family and as anyone who here in Toronto, but winters are just above freezing with has hosted a speaker before knows, that alone is very high humidity. Our speaker compared the sensation enough of a job! I hope they have caught up with their of being out of doors there in winter to standing in cold sleep by now... water!

The above picture shows the Perner facility on the left – during a sunny day! One cannot buy land in China, but only rent it. The nursery is built on one hectare of rented land. The greenhouses are simple hoop houses with swamp coolers for the summer. They have one warm house for non-natives such as Borneoan paphiopedilums. There is a shade house and a lab employing several technicians. Cypripedium flasks are kept five months in a fridge and are then moved to a facility at 5000 meters elevation to grow to maturity. The summer day temperature there is 25 degrees Celsius. Just growing orchids would not pay the bills, so they also grow lots of berries to keep the creditors from the door. Another source of income is the sale of flasking media they developed for the different genera. They are sold as powders to which you just add distilled water. Luckily they have developed good relations with the The above picture shows a small part of the interior of the flask growing area of the lab. Chinese Plant Protection Department so export Now for the habitats of some of the orchids they are documentation is not a problem. They have been propagating there: exporting to the USA a number of years and have found that the degree of difficulty varies greatly from entry city One is the so-called yellow dragon, a river that from an to entry city. Their first export to the USA was to Los aerial view has a vaguely dragon-like shape and a Angeles and went without a hitch. Their next one went to yellow hue. On looking at it close-up it turns out to be dotted with the most curious yellow lime-stone “basins” San Francisco and was an utter disaster. The authorities holding emerald green water. On the banks where a bit there would not let any orchid into the country! The of soil managed to accumulate, one can find scrubby import of plants into Canada for the Orchid Fest was the vegetation and colonies of Cypripedium tibeticum. This first importation into Canada from China and entailed many hitches! First the Chinese authorities held the ladyslipper has large nodding maroon . It is one of five species of cypripedium propagated by the shipment up so that it only just arrived in time; then Perners. Two houses are reserved for their Cypripedium Agriculture Canada would not release it due to a mass propagation, the rest for other ornamentals- that problem with the import permit number and once that was solved they inspected them just outside the lecture pay the bills! They have received two notable awards for 4

the results of their line breeding of Cypripedium tibeticum.

Cypripedium Wenqing is white with purple blotching and veining on the underside of the pouch and around the pouch opening. The sepals and petals are veined, The above picture shows four selected clones of their starting out purple near the column and gradually specialty ofCypripedium tibeticum! Talk about giant cyps! changing to brown the closer you get to the tips. The Normal wild clones are at most half this size. clone shown seemed to be large. The natural hybrid These plants were not part of the wares offered at the carries the same name. Orchid Fest, because they can only be shipped In Paphiopedilum hybrids we were shown slides of successfully in late fall when dormant and in August they Paphiopedilum Doll’s Kobold (charlesworthii X are still in active growth. October is the earliest for henryanum) and Paph. Woessner Ministar (henryanum shipping them. X helenae), with the former looking like a large Holger added at this point that to grow them successfully henryanum with an “umbrella” dorsal and the latter like a – just like all Himalayan plants – they have to be small henryanum with a yellow dorsal with a proximal protected from Winter Warmth. The cold does not brown overlay. The pink henryanum pouch came bother them at all. The growing season in the Himalayas through in the examples shown. is a mere three months and there are no January or Paphiopedilum appletonianum, Phragmipedium pearcei February thaws as occur here. So the plants break and Mexipedium xerophyticum are three other species dormancy as soon as the temperature goes above zero being propagated by them. Holger also mentioned Celsius and that way manage to set seed at the end of Dendrobium fimbriatum, Paphiopedilum hirsutissimum, the three months of above freezing temperatures. When and Coelogynes as plants that they they grow our Cypripedium reginae it waits a couple propagate and then sell. months before breaking dormancy when temperatures If you want to see these plants in their natural rise and as a result barely makes it to flowering before environment, as well as other Himalayan wildflowers being cut down by frost. Seed set is zero without such as red and blue Meconopsis (growing in limestone greenhouse help! just like Cypripedium tibeticum) then be sure to save up So insulate a bed of Himalayan flowers heavily after the for one of the botanical tours that the Perners organize ! first hard frost and do not remove the insulation until the true start of your growing season – in the case of Orchids In China And Their Cultivation In The West Toronto, in late April. Then only protect them from As you can expect there is no way all of the Chinese climate change induced unexpected late frosts. orchids can be covered in the time available, so this first The Perners also do some hybridizing. One hybrid is talk will give an overview of some of the species in the Cyp. tibeticum X Cyp. farreri named after Holgers wife genera , Cypripedium and Paphiopedilum. Cyp. Wenqing. There are 33 Chinese species in the genus Cymbidium and that is a large part of the currently 44 species recognized in the genus. The Chinese species are subdivided into three subgenera as shown in the chart below:

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the water. The white column and down-curved dorsal are the “head” and the lip with its central yellow-gold crest forms the “body”. The has far more flowers than the similarly coloured eburneum. Cymbidium sichuanicum (shown below) was only described in 2006. It has densely flowered, arched of the palest beige flowers with red veins and dots on the lip and darker beige veins on the erect dorsal and petals. The species is the hardiest of all Cymbidiums and can take a bit of snow. Last winter an atypical cold spell in an area close to the Vietnamese border resulted in many dead epiphytes on the trees, but this species was unscathed.

Our speaker decided to cover some interesting aspects of the high-lighted species of the subgenus Cyperorchis and all in the subgenus Jensoa. There is some controversy about Cym. lowianum variety changningense. Some authors consider it to be a hybrid of lowianum and mastersii, but it is more likely to be a variety of lowianum. It is smaller than Cymbidium changningense. Cymbidium tigrinum is the cute miniature seen fairly Cymbidium eburneum var dayanum was described by frequently at our shows. It has 3-6 flowers on an erect to John Day in 1864. It has one or at most two flowers per arched inflorescence. The flowers are about 5 cm inflorescence that only last two days as cut flowers. But across, sepals are flat, usually olive in colour, and the it was used in hybridizing anyway because it has lovely olive petals clasp the column top and curve slightly down white flowers with just a bit of yellow in the throat of the over it. The white lip is boldly spotted red, especially so lip, some even some red. on the erect side-lobes. Lighter olive and more golden Cymbidium erythraeum looks like a crab with down- clones do exist. curved petals whose tips become parallel to the lateral The hybrid Cymbidium Lowgrinum (lowianum x tigrinum) sepals. The petal and sepal colour varies greatly from never got awarded. The tigrinum was not evident in the white to straw-coloured to beige to olive and the cross at all! But it had hybrid vigour! segments may have red dots along the mid-vein. The lip Cymbidium banaense is pictured in Orchid Digest Vol. is white with red dotted markings. The markings are 76 #3, July-Sept 2012. It has arched inflorescences of densest on the erect side-lobes looking like eyes peering cupped white flowers that are blushed pink around the out from behind the down-curved dorsal. Cymbidium yellow crest of the lip, near the base of the petals and on flavum is simply a flavum “forma” of the species the exterior of the sepals and petals. However it is found erythraeum. in South Vietnam, not China. Cymbidium hookerianum (sometimes referred to The Chinese version is Cymbidium wenshanense . It has incorrectly as hookeri or grandiflorum) looks like a better white flowers with the petals hugging the top of the shaped erythraeum. It usually has light green sepals and column and the lip with red-brown stripes. The clone petals that are quite flat and the petals have only the shown had nodding cream flowers with a pink flush and slightest downward curve. The lip is white with most the inflorescences were pendent. A well-flowered clones sporting orange dots along the margins and specimen is very pretty. And the extra attraction is the darker red dots along the mid-vein and some scattered fragrance of the flowers! on the rest of the lip. In the best clones the dorsal is The hybrid Cymbidium Hengduan’s Isabell ( tortisepalum perfectly erect. But the best feature of all is that it is very X wenshanense) is unusual because the sepals stay fragrant! A flavinistic form exists where the red/purple untwisted for a few days. The clone shown had elegant colour is replaced by yellow. flat, rosy-beige sepals and wide lighter beige petals that Cymbidium mastersii reminds me of a white duck trying hugged the column. After a few days the flat sepals to land on water! Some clones have very sharply acquired a single twist. ascending petals that turn down in the distal half looking Subgenus Jensoa: for all the world like the wings of a bird trying to slow All the species in this section are miniatures with usually down. The lateral sepals are held somewhat forward narrow sepals and petals. The petals are shorter and pointing, like the legs of a duck trying to get purchase on tend to frame or hug the column. 6

Cymbidium gnarled flowers that don’t open properly...) can cyperifolium (see command $100,000 for a plant!!! The clone shown had picture on left) has beige flowers with green tips on the sepals. The petals light green flowers and dorsal hugged the column. The pale yellow lip had with pale red blotches red markings and the stems had a nice red flush. (I sure on the lighter green preferred it to the $100,000 clone!!!) lip. The clone shown Cymbidium goeringii comes in two strains. The had eight gracefully inflorescences have usually one . One strain has inclined flowers on an green flowers with a white red-marked lip and no upright inflorescence. fragrance. The other strain has pale green flowers and a This species is not white, red-spotted lip and is fragrant. The sepals have an much in demand and ellipsoid shape. The are very narrow. is therefore not Cymbidium tortisepalum has 2-4 pale green flowers with completely collected cream, red marked lips on an upright inflorescence. The out from its natural sepals have a slight twist to them and the petals go habitat. straight up, one on each side of the column. There is a Cymbidium sinense variety longibracteatum which is considered a synonym on the other hand is for Cymbidium goeringii. The clone ‘Spring Sword’ is a highly prized in darker pink variety that flowers in the spring. China. The flowers Cymbidium kanran is an elegant species with the most have a lovely striking clones having long narrow sepals. The lateral fragrance of sweet sepals can droop or in good clones be held almost violets. The typical horizontally. The colour can vary from green to beige to form has narrow red to brown. A white picotee on the sepals enhances brown sepals and petals with darker veining. The petals many clones. The lip is off white with red markings. The almost clasp the column. The lip is beige with red-brown pointy petals are porrect (stick out horizontally). Our blotches. But many colour variations and aberrant flower speaker compared this species to the ideal “road-kill” forms are eagerly collected or saved such as the shape and found it far superior!!! The leaves are fairly albanistic yellow form. One stunning clone had flat form, narrow and elegantly curved. deep brown colour and red markings on the yellow lip. Cymbidium lancifolium is a forest floor species found Cymbidium ensifolium has upright stems bearing 3-6 from China to as far away as Borneo. (See photo below) star-shaped flowers. The petals are about half the length Most clones have cream flowers with a heavy red mid- of the sepals and only frame the column, they typically vein on the petals and a lighter one on the sepals. The do not cover it. The base colour varies from the lip and sometimes the petals as well are spotted red. occasional white to the more common pale chartreuse to Alba forms are found as well. The petals frame or hood green, to pale pink. Typically the proximal half to two the column, depending on the clone. The upright thirds of the sepals and petals are striped red and the inflorescences bear one to seven flowers. There are white lip is spotted red. There is a bean or lotus form of forms from 15cm tall to 30cm tall. Most have quite wide the species available whose flowers have very wide, leaves. short white sepals. This sells for $100-200 per growth! (see picture below) Cymbidium macrorhizon in the Cymbidium best clones has nanulum is a very flowers like a hard to grow but Cymbidium cute species. It has lancifolium, but upright other clones are inflorescences more cupped and bearing about 5 the red colour is beige to chartreuse more diffuse; but flowers with brown, it has no leaves, longitudinal veining no roots, only an on the sepals and association with petals. As is typical micorrhizal fungi. It for this subgenus the petals hug the column. (See actually remains in picture Orchid Digest Volume 68, #2 April-June 2004, pg the protocorm/ 104) juvenile stage. It Cymbidium faberi has narrow leaves with the desired grows in a cool, vase-shaped presentation and special clones ( with shady habitat and 7

has a wide distribution. Cymbidium quibelense has a large distribution from Cypripedium Mix: North Vietnam to Southern China. It has upright  Equal parts: sand, coarse woodland soil, rotten inflorescences bearing 2-4 well-spaced nodding light wood, broken bricks.(see picture below, green flowers. The white lips have red markings. The clockwise from left) petals are porrect, but go out at a 45 degree angle. Culture of Chinese Cymbidiums: Plants do and look well in the fluted tall pots that Chinese growers tend to use. The crown of the plant rests on top of a mound of medium to prevent constant moisture at the crown. Sphagnum moss is wrapped around this elevated mound to prevent the medium from washing away. The all-purpose bark-charcoal-Perlite mix does not work. Put broken crockery in the bottom of the pot. A bark and large sponge-rock mix works as a drainage material too. As a potting medium a cyp mix (see later) with more bark added worked well.

Could use one part coarse woodland soil, one part rotten  The mix described by Mr Dupuis in the wood (from limestone area), two parts seedling grade bark; two parts fine sponge-rock. (Fine sponge-rock is Orchidophile bulletin of the Orchid Society of much more useful than the fine construction grade France, is too dense: Perlite. The latter always wants to float onto the top of the mixed medium.) 2 parts Ceramise (looks like dirty Perlite) Remember to keep all Chinese plants cold in the winter. ½ part rotten wood from limestone cliffs They should be on the dry side to prevent rot of the 1 part woodland soil buds. The same also holds true for Dendrobiums.  Mix recommended by Spengercreek Labs: Cymbidium sinense wants to be warmer in winter. 1 part small Perlite 1 part fen soil or peat (makes it acid) ½ part broken limestone to adjust pH to 6.5 The problem with growing in Perlite is that it floats and later grows a dense covering of moss that impedes air and water flow into the medium. Mulching with pine needles with the odd leaf and dirt mixed in seems to help with this problem.

Cypripedium species and some hybrids propagated by the Perners:

Cypripedium subtropicum of section Subtropica grows ½ to one meter high! It is a fussy species and any cultural mistake leads to sudden death. The plants superficially resemble the South-American Selenipedium species, but have a different ovary structure and a fat rather than thin testa on the seeds. Flowers are yellow with a purple- spotted lip. They open successively with up to five open at a time.

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Cypripedium marked with maroon spots and dashes (P. Cribb, The fasciolatum of Genus Cypripedium, pg. 266) section Cypripedium sichuanense is also from section Cypripedium Trigonopedium. It was described as a new species by has yellow Holger Perner in 2002. It is a bit easier to grow. It has a flowers with an pair of large plicate leaves with brown spots and a single egg-sized brown flower with a lip that is red-brown. (For a photo yellow lip.(See see Orchids, December 2006, pg 915) at left). The sepals and Cypripedium bardolphianum is from section Sinopedium. petals have light It is a miniature with a pair of lance-shaped leaves purple venation attached to the stem very close to the ground and as does the bearing a single fairly short-stemmed flower from the margin of the lip centre. The sepals and petals are brown, the lip is dull opening. It has yellow with brown veining.(See Plate 33, 34 in Cribb, an unpleasant The Genus Cypripedium) scent. Cypripedium Cypripedium Hybrids: tibeticum also of A very successful cross of Cyp. flavum X Cyp. reginae is section Cypripedium Ulla Silkens. It has large flowers looking Cypripedium as mostly like Cyp. reginae. The flowers tend to be white shown earlier with magenta markings on the pouch. Hybrid vigour has light makes it grow well. maroon sepals Cypripedium Sabine (fasciolatum X macranthum) has a and petals, large inflated white pouch that is indented along the veined darker maroon and a deep maroon pouch with longitudinal veins. The dorsal sepal is wide and curves even darker venation. The petals tend to be long and over the pouch. Sepals and petals are cream with gold wide and hang beside the pouch. or pink to red-pink veining and flushing. The petals are a bit messy and narrow. Cypripedium palangshanense of section Enantipedilum Cypripedium Burnie (reginae X fargesii) was registered is tiny with a pair of rounded veined leaves that lack in 2007, but no pictures are on record. cross veins. The single, two centimeter flowers are Cypripedium Princess (reginae X lichiangense) nodding. The shiny maroon, descending sepals and registered in 1995 by Whitlow, is pictured in the Orchid petals form a hood over the very dark maroon lip. Digest Vol 62 #1, pg 16, Jan-Mar., 1998 and has flowers that look like the clone described for Ulla Silkens, but the Cypripedium formosanum of section Flabellinervia is petals are quite wide and flat. unfortunately not winter hardy and must be overwintered Cypripedium Michael (macranthum X henryi) The indoors. But such a beauty deserves a space in any cool example shown in Orchid Wiz was very similar to the greenhouse for the winter. The plants have a pair of pink clone described in Cyp. Sabine, but the petals are plicate leaves which look as if someone had cut off the more symmetrical in shape and stance. distal half with pinking shears. The stems bear large Cypripedium Wim (henryi X tibeticum). Below is the white flowers with delicate red markings around the clone grown by the Perners: large plants and large bases of the segments, around the column and around flowers with brown sepals and petals, a white pouch with the hole in the middle of the pouch. This hole just magenta screams to passing solitary bees that the pouch would veins and make a great motel for the night! Just like our shadings. Cypripedium acaule does, but the latter has brown The colour sepals and petals and a magenta pouch with a hole in intensifies on front. Another nice feature of Cypripedium formosanum the in-turned is that it forms runners and a single plant will soon be a portion of the nice big clump – so grow it in a pan, not a pot! pouch opening and Cypripedium fargesii from section Trigonopedium is very on the pretty even when not blooming, but is hard to grow. It underside of has 3.5 to 9 cm tall erect stems that bear a pair of almost the pouch. round up to almost 20 cm diameter leaves. The leaves This clone have heavy black-maroon spotting. The single flower seems to borne between the leaves is dark red or dull yellow multiply well.

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Holger Perner article to be continued.

.Crystal Star Orchids

broker service with over 15 top orchid nurseries Summer Open House From June to August weekends only From 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. By appointment only Tel: 905-478-8398 or email : [email protected] 20815 2nd Concession Road East Gwillimbury Ontario L9N 0G9

Ching Hua Orchids, In Charm, Krull Smith, and Sunset Valley.

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About SOOS: Web site: www.soos.ca ; Member of the Canadian Orchid Congress; Affiliated with the American Orchid Society, the Orchid Digest and the International Phalaenopsis Alliance. Membership: Annual Dues $30 per calendar year (January 1 to December 31 ). Surcharge $15 for newsletter by postal service. Membership secretary: Liz Mc Alpine, 189 Soudan Avenue, Toronto, ON M4S 1V5, phone 416-487- 7832, renew or join on line at soos.ca/members Executive: President, Laura Liebgott, 905-883-5290; Vice-President and Treasurer, John Vermeer, 905-823- 2516, ; Secretary, Sue Loftus 905-839-8281; Other Positions of Responsibility: Program, vacant; Plant Doctor, Doug Kennedy; Meeting Set up, Yvonne Schreiber; Vendor and Sales table coordinator, Diane Ryley; Library Liz Fodi; Web Master, Max Wilson; Newsletter, Peter and Inge Poot; Annual Show, Peter Poot; Refreshments, Joe O’Regan. Conservation Committee, Tom Shields; Show table, Synea Tan, Cultural snapshots, Alexi Antanaitis, Directors at large Marion Curry, Lynda Satchwell and Kevin Hushagen . Honorary Life Members: Terry Kennedy, Doug Kennedy, Inge Poot, Peter Poot, Joe O’Regan, Diane Ryley, Wayne Hingston. Annual Show: February 11-12, 2017

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