Epy ( NOT Epi) Mabel Kanda

[Dorsetman]

I bought this many years ago from a Chinese (?) lady called Chantal, I think, who used to trade here - she packed up and went to Australia I believe, and maybe trades there. I remember hearing that all of her orchids came from one of the big nurseries in South Korea, or maybe Taiwan , run by her uncle.
Whatever ; I thought it was an Epicattleya - she mostly sold cattleyas, and labelled it Epi.

But now I find it is a Encyclia x Epidendrum cross - quite an unusual combination.
The Epidendrum is E.paniculatum, which ( in the true form) is a reed-stem type - has "canes" like giant pencils maybe half a metre high or taller, , flowering terminally at the tip with a branched head of very many flowers - over a hundred is possible. Of course they are not large, perhaps 2cm. However it seems that there has been a lot of confusion about this species, and I have my doubts as to whether that was the actual parent here.
The other parent is the well known Encyclia cordigera - there has been quite a bit of chat about these Encyclias lately. They are nice orchids , quite tough, but perhaps not too easy to flower well.

Mabel K must be cable of carrying a great number of flowers , but after growing my plant for at least 7 years and seeing the first flowers , and just 3 of them, you can see what I mean when I say not too easy. But having seen the flowers, and really , in the flesh they look a lot neater than they do in the pic', I know that I have just got to try a bit harder. Quite how, well, I have no idea ! and if you do - then don't keep it a secret - tell me .

[zainal abidin]

Wow is new to me very nice primary hybrid thanks for the interesting info and I always got Cattleya species from Taiwan vendors when they come for the orchids exhibition most of them are great clones.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Hey, that is different and really cool. Did you snap a photo of the plant? I just wondered about the scale of the blooms to the plant size.

cheers,
BD

[Keysguy]

That's pretty Geoff.
I have Epy. Serena O'Neill that is a specimen plant. I thought I posted a pic here this year but I can't find it so maybe I didn't.
Anyway, Serena is Mabel Kanda bred back again to cordigera. The result is you get back that hot pink lip from the cordigera.

I had 6 spikes with close to 100 flowers this year but I bet there were another 50 buds that blasted. It happens every year so that must be tied to your comment about difficulty of blooming perhaps. I give mine a "ton" of bright light to the point that the pseudobulbs have a very obvious red hue to them.

Is yours fragrant? I bring mine up to the screen porch when it's in bloom and that's all you can smell. Heavenly!

Here's a pic from a couple months ago and it's still got flowers on it, just not quite as many.

[Sheryl]

Wow 7 years! I think you know have the patience crown on Geoff! It is lovely!

[JDT]

Love the color combination Geoff