Phragmipedium Fritz Schomburg

Slippertalk Orchid Forum

Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mrhappyrotter

Grand Chupacabra
Joined
Dec 26, 2012
Messages
2,869
Reaction score
593
Location
Central North Carolina
This one is Phrag. kovachii 'Anabolic' x besseae 'Rob's Choice' from OrchidWeb. I think it's 3N plant, but don't quote me, I'm pretty sure Rob's Choice is 4N.

I purchased this plant sometime around 2018 or 2019 when Jason Fischer was in North Carolina and I was able to meet him in person. Yes it was ridiculously expensive, but it was my first opportunity to buy something of this caliber in person where I could see the plant before making the decision. Plus, I was buying directly from Jason Fischer!

Anyway, this is a pretty decent quality flower. Nice size, consistent color, symmetrical, and shapely. It's been open several days, yet the petals still seem pretty flat. Of course as the flower continues to age they may not stay this flat, but probably won't change dramatically.

On to the bad news, I'm not sure this is worth the money for me personally. I don't hate the flower, far from it, it's a good flower. But I was hoping for darker & redder (or orange) color. When the flower first opened, the red coloration was deep and saturated, like an MDC or similar cross. That got my hopes up. Oh well. The other issue with this plant is that it is sssssssssssssslow growing. It was near blooming size when I bought it half a decade ago. The first growth finally matured last year but this is the first year it actually bloomed (I can't recall if it tried to bloom before but blasted).

Part of the reason I think I'm less thrilled about this is because I ended up with a flask of Phrag. Robert Jan Quene (Fritz Schomburg x besseae) and the best of those really spoiled it for me. They're not quite as large as Fritz, but several of them have been quite shapely, have much richer color, and are faster growing as well as more reliable blooming.

I also purchased a Phrag. La Vingtaine from Jason at the same time that I purchased this plant (and it was equally ridiculously expensive). It tried to bloom last year but all the buds blasted. I'm probably pressing my luck by even mentioning it, but that plant is in spike again this year. I am (and was) more excited about that cross than this Fritz. So, fingers crossed that it actually blooms this time and that the flowers have color more my taste. But we'll see.
 

Attachments

  • 20240818_185427.jpg
    20240818_185427.jpg
    350.2 KB
  • 20240818_185443.jpg
    20240818_185443.jpg
    326.5 KB
  • 20240818_185451.jpg
    20240818_185451.jpg
    327.2 KB
I have a similar cross from Orchids Limited made with kovachii 'Tesoro Morado'. The besseae 'Rob's Choice' makes these triploid (3N) since 'Rob's Choice' was confirmed tetraploid by a university lab somewhere. My Fritz Shomburg has become two large plants and they grow pretty quickly. The shape of your flowers is very nice and similar to awarded plants. Many awarded FS have had 10-11 cm flowers. There is a 4N FCC that was 14.4. It is rare for a Fritz Schomburg to be red. Here is a picture of a flower from my plant when it was as dark as it can be. My flowers are usually 11-12 cm wide and have been more coral color like your flower is now.

FS.jpeg
My Phrag Robert-Jan Quene plant is very slow-growing, so I haven't seen it bloom. It came from Tom Kalina, not Orchids Limited. It is not easy to find Phrag Jason Fischer, Fritz Schomburg, RJQ, Glen Decker, or other hybrids made up predominantly of besseae/dalessandroi and kovachii.
 
I have a similar cross from Orchids Limited made with kovachii 'Tesoro Morado'. The besseae 'Rob's Choice' makes these triploid (3N) since 'Rob's Choice' was confirmed tetraploid by a university lab somewhere. My Fritz Shomburg has become two large plants and they grow pretty quickly. The shape of your flowers is very nice and similar to awarded plants. Many awarded FS have had 10-11 cm flowers. There is a 4N FCC that was 14.4. It is rare for a Fritz Schomburg to be red. Here is a picture of a flower from my plant when it was as dark as it can be. My flowers are usually 11-12 cm wide and have been more coral color like your flower is now.

My Phrag Robert-Jan Quene plant is very slow-growing, so I haven't seen it bloom. It came from Tom Kalina, not Orchids Limited. It is not easy to find Phrag Jason Fischer, Fritz Schomburg, RJQ, Glen Decker, or other hybrids made up predominantly of besseae/dalessandroi and kovachii.

Great info! I just measured, and this flower has an 11.3cm spread. Not that I'd have time or opportunity to take it for judging, but it's good to know that size is comparable to awarded stuff.

Good luck on the RJQ! It's absolutely in my list of top favorite Phrag hybrids.

I got my RJQs from a flask years ago on Ebay. Risky and not necessarily from award quality provenance, but it was relatively inexpensive so I was willing to take the risk. They turned out to be the real deal. I assume they are 2N plants and they seem to be roughly similar to besseae in terms of growing, blooming, and vigor. The best of them are like besseae on steroids, the worst of them are like tiny, crappy, old school Fritz Schomburgs with recurving petals and unremarkable faded pink/purple coloration. My only complaint is that they are notorious for pouting after I repot them, which can be a bit of a setback.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top