Paph Hellas Questions: history of the clones

Slippertalk Orchid Forum

Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Sep 15, 2008
Messages
2,544
Reaction score
205
Location
Johnson City, TN
Hi all,

Given that his is, along side old Winston Churchill, still one of the more important grexes for breeding I thought this is probably the best place to ask questions about this grex.

My ancient copy of Rentoul's "Growing Orchids I: Cymbidiums and Slippers" made the point that Hellas "Westonbirt" has proven itself to be great breeder. I would like to know about the other clones of this plant. On http://www.marriottorchids.com several other clones are shown:
Autumn Sun http://www.marriottorchids.com/Gallery photos/Hellas AutumnSun.jpg
LaBuena Tierra Sunset http://www.marriottorchids.com/Gallery photos/Hellas LaBuenaTierraSunset.jpg
Orange Delight http://www.marriottorchids.com/Gallery photos/Hellas OrangeDelight.jpg
Sunset http://www.marriottorchids.com/Gallery photos/Hellas Sunset HCC.jpg

Are the above all the products of selfing the Westonbirt clone? I found one link suggesting that this is the case: http://www.oswp.org/files/hist_paph_survey_summary.pdf

Anyone have any more info on Hellas?

Thanks
 
Leon Steynberg from Pretoria (Southern Cross Orchids) did a selfing of Hellas 'Westonbirst' in the '80s. If I remember correctly he selected two or three 'improved' Hellas clones which have since become quite widespread. He also did the same with a number of old proven clones (Huddle and WC amongst them) I am sure the same practice was carried out around the world.
 
Back
Top