Paph. 'Pinocchio'

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cdub

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I believe this is a primary hybrid of glaucophyllum and primulinum. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I was drawn to this one because of it's size. The leafspan is 10 inches and the arching spike produces flowers only 2.5 inches tall. Such a cutie. I would love to see a breeding line with it's primulinum parent or an especially tiny cultivar and try to see how small the flowers can get. That would be so cool! Just think...a windowsill paphiopedilum with 1 inch flowers!

pinocchio5ce.jpg
 
C'mon now SlipperFan, we're manly men growing orchids here (unless you're female of course) and we can't go around referring to our plants as teacups. I mean I went as far as to say they were cute, yes, but teacups, sheesh. :)
 
cdub said:
C'mon now SlipperFan, we're manly men growing orchids here (unless you're female of course) and we can't go around referring to our plants as teacups. I mean I went as far as to say they were cute, yes, but teacups, sheesh. :)

Even manly men in England use teacups...:poke:

So, you've not heard of the new trend in slipper orchid breeding???
 
Is this a recent trend in the paph world? I believe I have heard the "teacup" term before. Fill me in?
 
cdub said:
Is this a recent trend in the paph world? I believe I have heard the "teacup" term before. Fill me in?

Yeah, I saw Paris Hilton carrying around a teacup Paph. Vinicolor type in her Prada handbag. It's all over the news.
 
OK, you guys!:p

There was an article in the Orchid Digest, Vol 70-1, by Harold Koopowitz, entitled, "New Miniature Paphiopedilums: The Next Big Thing in Slippers?"

And this article from the Miami Herald:


Posted on Sun, Nov. 27, 2005

ORCHIDS
Step slowly for tiny slippers

BY GEORGIA TASKER
[email protected]
When orchid lovers ask, ''What's new in slippers?'' Harold Koopowitz, editor-in-chief of the California-based Orchid Digest, answers, ``Lots of things are new, but we're not allowed to grow them yet.''

It's illegal to ship the newly discovered and much discussed slipper orchids into the United States from Vietnam, China, and South America because of laws against trade in endangered species.

But there is one new thing that Koopowitz was happy to share at the Eighth International Slipper Symposium recently in Kissimmee: miniature slipper orchids.

He called them ''teacup slippers'' and ''pygmy paphiopedilums.'' They are small slipper flowers produced on plants only a few inches across. Koopowitz showed slides of plants producing flowers in 1 ½-inch pots.

An interest in them began to stir in the 1990s, somewhat behind the breeding trends of cattleyas, which were reduced to windowsill size, and vandaceous orchids, which had their ungainly plant sizes slimmed down decades ago.

INCREASED INTEREST

However, the little slippers soon may attain enough critical mass to make it to the market in some numbers. This will not eclipse the big slippers, Koopowitz said, but expand the market for slipper orchid fanciers who lack space enough for big plants that produce striped, pouched, warty and hairy flowers, all the darlings of collectors for the past several years.

Koopowitz, recently retired from teaching ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, said the little flowers are ''cute'' even though American Orchid Society judges don't give points for cute. They give prizes to the biggest among the flowers, not the smallest.

Yet, at one Central Florida orchid judging not so long ago, Doris Dukes, an AOS judge in the audience, said the judges actually bit the bullet and gave an award to a beautifully proportioned, tiny slipper.

So, even judges' doors slowly may open to the teacups. Meanwhile, Koopowitz shared his insider information -- he's breeding the little ones -- about the small species being used as parents for the smaller offspring, and some of the stumbling blocks that make producing them a years-long enterprise.

STARTING SMALL

Among the good parents for little slippers are Paphiopedilum barbigerum, P. charlesworthii, fairrieanum, henryanum, spicerianum and helenae, niveum.

These are naturally small species that are being bred to themselves (it's called line breeding) in hopes of getting a runt or two here and there that will be well-proportioned but helpful in reducing the overall size.

Some of the experiments are just that, such as a little plant the Japanese produced called Pride of Tokyo that Koopowitz said he flowered once, photographed and has not succeeded in flowering again, despite 10 years of trying.

Paph. henryanum, with plum-colored spots and a pink pouch, imparts its color pattern, he said, but often the pouches come out too large for the little flowers.

Many slippers have albino forms that are green and white, and Koopowitz is aiming to produce green and white minis, he said. One small candidate species for reaching that goal is Paph. fairrieanum, with upturned petals that suggest Marilyn Monroe's famously blowing skirt in Some Like it Hot.

''But it's difficult to get a shapely and small plant'' from this particular species, Koopowitz said. ''And frequently fairrieanum hybrids are reluctant to breed on'' because they have an odd number of chromosomes.

EARLY BEGINNINGS

Mary and Paul Phillips, owners of the British and U.S. firm Ratcliffe Orchids, began breeding small slippers in the early 1980s, but the public wasn't ready for them and the effort was stymied, Koopowitz said. Yet, the Phillipses had some of the compact (not yet miniaturized) plants at their Kissimmee nursery, including Paph. barbigerum. Barbigerum, a miniature Chinese species, was crossed with Paph. henryanum to produce Paph. Tyke in 1995.

The Paph. henryanum crossed with Paph. charlesworthii created Doll's Kobold in 1992, and that little one actually received an Award of Merit from the AOS. The flower has a white dorsal sepal with maroon spots and a pink/lavender pouch. Tyke was crossed with Doll's Kobold to get Little by Little, and Tyke was crossed with Paph. charlesworthii to produce Tiny Charlie. Some tiny paphs are available online at Woodstream Orchids and Paphanatics and AnTec Labs.

The Japanese also have taken up this line of breeding, as has Terry Root of the Orchid Zone, a wholesale nursery in California, and Woodstream Orchids in Huntingdown, Md.
 
A favourite of mine

nice flower --But don't do what I did with my first plant of this (for newer growers somtime you have to do it twice before you get it right ;) )don't let it flower forever I loss mine just admiring it then found it very hard to get a new one - nice to see your flower Billie
 

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