Mericlones of Paphiopedilum

I used the search tools but don't find much. As I soon will order a few plants, I'm comparing lists and catalogues of european vendors and I've found Paph. Claire de Lune 'Edgar van Belle' offered as mericlone.
As far as I know, there can't be a mericlone of this awarded cultivar, or am I wrong?
I know that this particular plant is a good grower, but flowering divisions for 22 euros of this awarded plant - hard to believe. What do you think? Are there already Paph-mericlones?
Thanks.

From what I know, paphs can not be mericloned. The only way to get an award paph is to get a division. Sounds very questionable.

Is this a well known retailer?

I think some mericloning of Paphiopedilum has been accomplished but with very low yields and high expense (at this time).

So not cost effective compared to simple trade by cuttings/divisions.

Yes, it is not impossible but it is rare. I remember Nicky Zurcher was offering some mericloned Paphs in Australia at one time.

Nicky has mericloned Paph Albion FCC/RHS, he tells me.

I've read and heard the same.

it can be done but it's difficult / expensive.

Xavier has something mentioned about it in the papers he released recently.

Ozpaph said:

Nicky has mericloned Paph Albion FCC/RHS, he tells me.

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Yes, that's the one.

Yes, I've read both articles, and I assume it is possible but seldom done.
Now, there is this cultivar, Paphiopedilum Claire de Lune 'Edgar van Belle' AM AOS offered at least at three vendors, another two sell Claire de Lune without cultivar name. Prices differ greatly, and as a photo can be misleading, I'm not sure about what to believe. I know that this so-called 'Maudiae-Group' can be breed without too much variation in the offspring, but this would never result in this particular cultivar Edgar van Belle.

I have only been able to clone a Paphiopedilum once, and this was actually a protocorm that was proliferating in the lab, so out of one seedling i was able to make multiple flasks, and we ended up with over 100 seedlings that were all the same clone! Unfortunately I did not know in advance what it was going to look like, but luckily it ended up being a very good flower! This was Paph. delenatii 'My Time'. I have never been able to "Mericlone" plants from an established Paph that was growing in the greenhouse. The biggest problem when you try to Mericlone Paph's is getting no contamination, and even if you do get a meristem to grow without contamination, it is hard to get it to a protocorm stage, and it is hard to get it to multiply.

Robert

I heard that a company which was succesfull in clone cyps now working on paph and phrags, so no idea how far they are.

The first AOS award for Paph Clair de Lune 'Edgar Van Belle' was in 1940, and it is a vigorous grower. There has been plenty of time for hundreds or even thousands of divisions of this cultivar to exist without any need to mericlone it. As an abundant older cultivar I would expect it to be moderately priced. This makes it a poor choice to put through an expensive and probably low yield mericloniing process. It just doesn't make economic sense.

They're probably using the word "mericlone" to throw buyers off into thinking something special when in fact, it is a division. A division is a clone of itself.
Ray Rands use to play with words to get people to buy plants that have been a round for years.

PaphMadMan said:

The first AOS award for Paph Clair de Lune 'Edgar Van Belle' was in 1940, and it is a vigorous grower. There has been plenty of time for hundreds or even thousands of divisions of this cultivar to exist without any need to mericlone it. As an abundant older cultivar I would expect it to be moderately priced. This makes it a poor choice to put through an expensive and probably low yield mericloniing process. It just doesn't make economic sense.

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Practice on a vigorous antique???? Maybe in pure research mode it doesn't have to make economic sense (just history).