- Joined
- Aug 28, 2006
- Messages
- 355
- Reaction score
- 29
I made this cross in 2005 and have first bloom this season. Someone named Voessler beat me to flower and registered it in 2009. I had assumed when I saw the name in the registry last year that it was in reference to a person since nearly all Cyp hybrids are. However, having now seen the flower, I can say that it really does embrace the spirit of the color violet. It is Cyp Gisela x Cyp macranthos, so it has two shots of macranthos and one shot of parviflorum var parviflorum. Both parents were nice in color but neither can hold a candle to Violet - she certainly has made the most of her available gene pool! The flower is larger than Gisela, about the same as most macranthos. The stature of the plant in this, its first blooming year, is more macranthos-like than Gisela, which has much of parviflorum in its posture.
The flower is so bright that a visitor to the garden today to see the Cyp's remarked when she was still 50 feet away from the shadehouse, "What is that lovely pinkish purple flower, certainly not a Cypripedium?!" I could barely see it from that distance and I knew it was there. She has been propagating Vanda's for more than 40 years and has one named in her honor so she likes bright colors (and orchids since she drove 150 miles to see the Cyp's - and White Flower Farm, which is just down the road from us; oh, and Cricket Hill - the tree peony place that has 8 foot tall tree peonies among their more than 200 varieties on display, also down the road from us). Living near Cricket Hill is also bad for us - we now have more than 40 varieties of peonies and they started to bloom yesterday. I had my pollen brush out today as well as my toothpicks!
Ron
