mrhappyrotter
Grand Chupacabra
Cymbidium Eastern Melody 'New Horizon' is Cym. x nishiuchianum x Cym. insigne. Cym. x nishiuchianum is a natural hybrid between Cymbidium goeringii and Cymbidium kanran.
I purchased this as a mature, blooming sized plant from Tim Culbertson several years back. I wasn't sure if it would bloom in my conditions, but I wanted to give it a try because this hybrid (and this cultivar) are fairly famous. It never bloomed until this year, though it was kept in standard indoor conditions until more recently when I built a small greenhouse that I keep minimally heated in winter. So, from my experience, this hybrid is really easy to grow, but does appear to require cool and drier winter conditions in order to set spikes. Not terribly surprising given the parentage, I suppose.
This plant produced two spikes. These photos are from a month ago, before the second spike opened. The flowers on the first spike didn't last terribly long for two reasons. First, we've had multiple hot spells in March and April this year, where greenhouse temps reached upper 80s and into the 90s (30+C) during the day. As a result, I've had to leave the door open during the day time. Apparently honey bees find these flowers irresistible, so with open doors, they've made their way into the greenhouse and spent quite a bit of time "pollinating" these flowers. Whether successful or not, it does cause the flowers to die prematurely. So between the bugs and the heat, they didn't have much of a chance for longevity. Oh well.
When I asked Tim if these flowers are fragrant, he said they were faintly fragrant. In truth, they definitely aren't strongly scented, but faint probably isn't entirely accurate either. It's a nice scent, taking after the Jensoa parentage. You do have to stick your nose up to the flowers to smell it most days, but sometimes I'll catch a whiff from a distance even with other more powerfully fragrant Cymbidiums in the vincinty.
As I mentioned, this has been super easy to grow over the years and quite vigorous. Blooming seems to be a bit more challenging. Hopefully I can keep this up. The flowers are very pretty and nicely colored.
I purchased this as a mature, blooming sized plant from Tim Culbertson several years back. I wasn't sure if it would bloom in my conditions, but I wanted to give it a try because this hybrid (and this cultivar) are fairly famous. It never bloomed until this year, though it was kept in standard indoor conditions until more recently when I built a small greenhouse that I keep minimally heated in winter. So, from my experience, this hybrid is really easy to grow, but does appear to require cool and drier winter conditions in order to set spikes. Not terribly surprising given the parentage, I suppose.
This plant produced two spikes. These photos are from a month ago, before the second spike opened. The flowers on the first spike didn't last terribly long for two reasons. First, we've had multiple hot spells in March and April this year, where greenhouse temps reached upper 80s and into the 90s (30+C) during the day. As a result, I've had to leave the door open during the day time. Apparently honey bees find these flowers irresistible, so with open doors, they've made their way into the greenhouse and spent quite a bit of time "pollinating" these flowers. Whether successful or not, it does cause the flowers to die prematurely. So between the bugs and the heat, they didn't have much of a chance for longevity. Oh well.
When I asked Tim if these flowers are fragrant, he said they were faintly fragrant. In truth, they definitely aren't strongly scented, but faint probably isn't entirely accurate either. It's a nice scent, taking after the Jensoa parentage. You do have to stick your nose up to the flowers to smell it most days, but sometimes I'll catch a whiff from a distance even with other more powerfully fragrant Cymbidiums in the vincinty.
As I mentioned, this has been super easy to grow over the years and quite vigorous. Blooming seems to be a bit more challenging. Hopefully I can keep this up. The flowers are very pretty and nicely colored.
