One of the flowers with better form that I've bloomed from this cross from Arnold Klehm. Unfortunately, the barbigerum influence on the size is lost a bit in this plant. Barbilight = ([barbigerum x Kay Rinaman] x Nulight)
Yep, that one looks good. Funny, I had the same question as Rick. Are you going to proceed with this one on some other small hybrid/species, or are you planning a sib cross with a small Barbilight to get compact plants with good shape?
A good question. The barbigerum reflexed dorsal tends to dominate most flowers with barbigerum as a parent....
The only problem I could see with henry is, again the reflexing dorsal, otherwise :drool: ..... enter a henry X that doesn't have dorsal issues?....On further breeding;
Why go back to barbigerum? Why not use a mini with more color? I would use henryanum as it is compact (not so mini) and carries a lot of color, & spots to accent the spots you already have in the dorsal. Another possibility would be helenae, going more toward brown & sunset colors. A third would be to go to a brachy, knock out the greens & pick up pink, reds and spots over a white background.....
I didn't mean to imply that those plants were Harold's breeding; at Paph guild either last year or the year before, he presented a group at the show, and that's the only place I've seen them. An altogether delightful grex, but I'd imagine some of standard size. The ones he showed were blooming with 1-2 flowers in 2.5" pots with leafspans of 8-10".
I should include that of course your breeding is totally up to you. It's fun sometimes to play armchair QB, but it's totally your call in the end, of course. You've certainly shown us some great stuff, and I'm sure that your end decisions will be great as well. I reread my other post, and I don't mean to come off harsh - sorry about that...
i have to respectfully disagree with the use of henryanum as a parent in complex-ish breeding. even in OZ's Rainbow Sky line and its ilk the dominance of henryanum in making thin, muddy petals in my opinion ruins any chances of worthwhile hybrids. i understand the notions behind plants like this Little By Little and so forth, but to me they all inherit the same poor features - thin, muddy petals. Combinations with charlesworthii exacerbate the problem immensely.
Ross, your Barb Hella already has these tendencies towards thin petals and muddy color. I guess I'd be thinking hard about ways to eliminate those, and suggestions hitherto proposed will not in my opinion do that.
Here's a consideration - call up Dean Hung and see if he can't find you a Pacific Rainbow or Rainbow Sky from OZ (or something else - some Thinking Reeds are coming out small too) that is small and albinistic. Some, like the Pacific Rainbow here (http://aospacificcentral.org/OakAug2010/paphpacificrainbow.html), do have albinistic tendencies - at least these don't exacerbate the petal color issues.
Also of mention is crossing with not brachys, but complex x brachys, like Russ Palmer (of which this forum has seen many, check out more on the Orchid Zone website: www.theorchidzoneltd.com) for wider petals, smallish habit, and interesting colors. From Harold Koopowitz' minis, the best grex I've seen has been Betty Bracey x Skip Bartlett, so this line of breeding in some cases does work.
Lastly, a smallish complex called Hunter's Point (especially the clone 'Terry') might work well in this line - I have a plant that put up 3 flowers in a 4" pot last year, with excellent form and smallish leaves for a complex. That's a pretty common clone - I'm sure someone in your area has it (or save some pollen and I can put it on mine). There's a pic for those interested a slight scroll down this page: http://www.theorchidzoneltd.com/index_files/Page2172.htm.
I'm sure breeding teacups is really a challenge...it just doesn't seem like any answers are "right" in 100% of cases...
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