It's unusual that I have a masdevallia that's alive, and also has a flower that I can show here! Of course, it came from the free flowering orchid raffle at the STOS (Southern Tier Orchid Society) in the Binghamton, NY area. STOS was my first orchid society and some of the older members are ones who were there when I first started society membership in the mid-80's. I made the trip 100 miles southwest though there was supposed to be some freezing rain (barely sprinkled); the club buys wholesale (named) orchids in flower, mostly paphs plus a few others and raffles them off to the members. Once every member has won an orchid they auction off the remaining plants.
There were a lot of big paphs some with very large flowers on tall spikes, but I saw the color combination on one masdevallia and was fortunate that most people were dazzled by the big paphs and that my number was an early draw.
Masdevalia Electric Purple (or at least this plant) is a cross of M. Joan Ragan 'Pink Dawn' x M. Celtic Frost 'Purple Ecstacy'. I don't know either parent from their names, but there was this plant/flower with vivid pink/purple with very bright orange highlights, and another one in flower on the same table, that had the same name but was solid white (?!). The club treasurer said that this cross had two color forms that often resulted and they were bright and vivid or solid white.
The color is amazing on this flower; I wasn't able to get the true depth of color; the pink is like a vivid, deep crushed peppermint color which is washed out and white-looking in the picture because I was using a ring light which has strong blue to it and also there was a tungsten bulb in the kitchen light (I have been taking orchid pictures on my freezer since it's the right height). When I managed to get the orange and other colors somewhat close to correct in the image, the background wall looked a bit off. If anything, the colors may be a bit deeper/stronger. Looking at the plant, there are more distinct pink stripes that don't show up as well in the pictures; if the sun comes out before the flower fades i'll try to get another closeup pic
whole plant (the original plant/pot was shipped inside a larger pot, and
all plants/pots were shipped in pot trays/holders to keep them from
moving around
There were a lot of big paphs some with very large flowers on tall spikes, but I saw the color combination on one masdevallia and was fortunate that most people were dazzled by the big paphs and that my number was an early draw.
Masdevalia Electric Purple (or at least this plant) is a cross of M. Joan Ragan 'Pink Dawn' x M. Celtic Frost 'Purple Ecstacy'. I don't know either parent from their names, but there was this plant/flower with vivid pink/purple with very bright orange highlights, and another one in flower on the same table, that had the same name but was solid white (?!). The club treasurer said that this cross had two color forms that often resulted and they were bright and vivid or solid white.
The color is amazing on this flower; I wasn't able to get the true depth of color; the pink is like a vivid, deep crushed peppermint color which is washed out and white-looking in the picture because I was using a ring light which has strong blue to it and also there was a tungsten bulb in the kitchen light (I have been taking orchid pictures on my freezer since it's the right height). When I managed to get the orange and other colors somewhat close to correct in the image, the background wall looked a bit off. If anything, the colors may be a bit deeper/stronger. Looking at the plant, there are more distinct pink stripes that don't show up as well in the pictures; if the sun comes out before the flower fades i'll try to get another closeup pic
whole plant (the original plant/pot was shipped inside a larger pot, and
all plants/pots were shipped in pot trays/holders to keep them from
moving around
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