Anyone seen Phrag Raymond Faroult..?

[Achamore]

One problem is different hybridizers in different countries did different breeding lines. There are plant from growers, like Franz Glanz, or Allan Tetzlaff, or even EYOF, that we here will never get.

This is less of an issue with the pre1907 crosses though, so an added incentive to try to collect them...!

 

[NYEric]

Um, the problem with that is they are "pre-1907", many of them no longer exist.

 

[Achamore]

Um, the problem with that is they are "pre-1907", many of them no longer exist.

Not really. Most are primary hybrids, or at most secondary, so can be created again. Sedenii was one of the popular ones to use in the breeding, kind of the besseae of its day.

Learnt more about this Raymond Faroult. It was bought at auction from Keith Andrews in Dorset in 1987 by the woman (Sue) who sold it to me. She reckons he had most likely bought it in as part of a still older collection, as phrag hybridising wasn't really his thing. He made many crosses in other genera such as Odonts, Disas, Phals and also Paphs. So our surmise is that it is at least likely to be a pre-WW2 survivor at the very least. Recall that it was a mature plant when Sue bought it. I see from an article http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2015/02/the-orchid-man-keith-andrew/ that he was still alive in February, so I will try to make contact with him, to see if I can learn anything more.

 

[Achamore]

Ok, I spoke with Keith Andrews, and he said he is certain that he did not breed this plant, but would have bought it from a man who liked to come round with plants he had picked up from the botanical garden collections in south Wales. The man in question was a hairdresser and drove a Jensen, but beyond that Keith was unable to recall details such as his name... But he said it would have been one of those plants that collections have which are a bother, if it lost its ID tag. So the hairdresser would come around from time to time and say, well, I know someone who would probably like that, I'll take it off your hands if you like... and so it ended up with Keith who sold it to Sue who sold it to me. Malcolm Perry reckons he sold two small divisions of Sue's plant to people in the UK over the years, and there is a rumour of one in the Midlands, so I will report back if I learn more. But increasingly we believe this plant must be a survivor from the 1890's or at least pre-WWI.

The person who registered it was Victor Faroult, who was active in hybridising many types of blooming plants back in the 1890's. https://archive.org/stream/journaldelasoci16soci/journaldelasoci16soci_djvu.txt will give you more detail, if you can read French. We have at this point no knowledge of just who Raymond was, perhaps Victor's son..?

 

[Achamore]

Ted Croot of the Sheffield Orchid Society has emailed me to say that he has a specimen of Raymond Faroult. I'm waiting to see if he has any photos of it. It seems that Olaf Gruss will be at the next meeting (in January) of the British Paph Society, and if so he should be able to give a decisive verdict on this.

 

[SlipperFan]

Ted Croot of the Sheffield Orchid Society has emailed me to say that he has a specimen of Raymond Faroult. I'm waiting to see if he has any photos of it. It seems that Olaf Gruss will be at the next meeting (in January) of the British Paph Society, and if so he should be able to give a decisive verdict on this.

Good. It will be interesting to hear.

 

[Achamore]

Haven't heard any further from Ted Croot yet. But in the meantime I have been fascinated to see the next bloom open up, the first one to open from bud since I brought the plant up from Bristol. Its a lot paler this time, and also the dorsal sepal is not drooping in such a pronounced way. Much more appealing this time around, but I am surprised by it going paler. Warmer conditions maybe?

 

[trdyl]

Very nice!

 

[NYEric]

I hope that you can get Olaf's Phrag book there.

 

[Achamore]

Does our Raymond Faroult look like the one in Olaf's book?

 

[Achamore]

I hope that you can get Olaf's Phrag book there.

Can you tell me the title of his book please?

 

[NYEric]

"Lateinamerikanische Frauenschuhe" It's in German but it has photos of most Phrag crosses.

 

[Achamore]

Ok, I have ordered it via this website in Germany: http://www.koeltz.com/

 

[NYEric]

If you like things like this, the Albine Paphiopedilum book is cool also.

 

[Achamore]

Can't afford a 2nd such purchase at this time of year..!

 

[NYEric]

If you were closer I'd let you borrow mine!

 

[Achamore]

Can you describe the book a bit?

 

[NYEric]

It's small and has photos of most of the album Paph species. The only one I don't think they have is that weird anitum v katerae, or whatever.

 

[Achamore]

Just received Gruss's Phrag book, which is a tour de force. Worth every penny, despite it being pretty dear. And the good news is that yes, the Raymond Faroult shown in his book has the precise same form as the one I have and have posted here. (One cannot judge by colour very well from the book, as there are too many vagaries, especially in terms of White Balance when shooting, the CMYK conversion, and then the offset printing which changes many subtle hues. In any case, I have already seen quite a lot of variation in colour on just the two blooms of my plant. But the form is spot on.)

 

[trdyl]

That is wonderful news.