Attempting to make mini complex ...?

[Ryan]

I'm interested to know if anyone's into mini complex standards ? This cross I've made hopefully will yield something worth keeping along the plum fairy , Ali taba
Kind of lines... It's paph winchilla'Dark Gem' ( which is ochilla 'chilton x winston Churchill ' Indominable ') and I've pollinated it with P. fairrieanum. I looks like the pod has taken ... Any thoughts? Has anyone got experience with this kind of breeding ??

 

[Ozpaph]

That'll be interesting if its viable.
Ask Jim.

 

[Scott Ware]

As you pointed out, other complex crosses with Paph. fairrieanum as one parent such as Paph. Surprise Creek and Paph. Ali Taba have produced smallish cultivars that seem point in the direction of miniature complex breeding, so it seems reasonable to expect this cross to produce similar results. Unfortunately (with a few exceptions) Paph. fairrieanum hybrids tend to be reluctant breeders, so moving this kind of hybridizing forward could be a challenge.

 

[TyroneGenade]

I would, as a rule, cross onto the smaller plant of the pair if I wanted smaller plants. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that the mother plants, to the greater extent than the pollen donor, influences the size of the off spring. Here in Iowa I am doomed to indoor growing so I have taken an interest in making mini-Paphs. To this end I have acquired some henryanums to cross onto. I would also like to get a helenae or two but I keep being outbid on Ebay. Grr!

 

[Ryan]

Yeah that would have been great except the Fairrieanum isn't mine . But it makes sense . Hmm maybe I will get the opposite of what I'm after .. Larger gawky offspring .

 

[TyroneGenade]

I suppose the worst that can happen is that you get lots big plants with big flowers that look something like this:

from http://www.orchidboard.com/community/cypripedium-alliance-paphiopedilum/19068-paph-oto.html

from http://www.sentinelorchids.com/paphiopedilum.html

from http://slipperorchids.info/paphcomplex/Reds/

That looks like a good outcome all the same.

 

[emydura]

I'd be rapt with that last one. That is a cracker.

Ross Hella knows more about miniature breeding than anyone I think. He has many posts on this forum regarding this topic if you do a search.

 

[Ozpaph]

I'd be rapt with that last one. That is a cracker.

.

ditto!

 

[MorandiWine]

Contact Dennis Olivas of D & D Flowers in San Francisco. He and I had talked about this exact subject and he was successful a few years ago.

Good luck


Tyler


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

 

[littlefrog]

http://www.deerwoodorchids.com/

Ross has been working on miniature (or 'teacup') paphs for years... Has some pretty neat stuff.