Lc Netrasiri Faiball x Thihty 'Casen's choice'

[OrchidAddict]

This has to be the wackiest name for a plant ever. Does anyone know if it's supposed to be "Lc Netrasiri Faiball" as it says on tag, or if it should be "Lc Netrasiri Fireball?" I don't know.

Anyway, all I know is that I fell in LOVE with this gorgeous plant when I went on a trip to a local greenhouse recently. I took my mom there to buy her an orchid for her birthday, and, well, let's just say I ended up buying myself an early Mother's Day present! This one is the absolute pride and joy of my collection right now!!!



The color you're seeing should be correct ... it's a flaming orange flower with darker orange spotting. The lip is best described as fuchsia (I think the next photo shows the lip color a little better), and it has some yellow flaring up around the anther cap, which is lavender.

I have NEVER seen an orchid this boldly beautiful in person. It just demands attention. It's also EXTREMELY fragrant. The fragrance is practically impossible to describe; the best I can do is say that it smells somewhat like an expensive, high-end women's perfume. In the afternoon, this one flower scents my entire living room. It's just amazing!

I have a feeling this bloom has been open for a while ... it appears to have had another one behind it that had been removed before I purchased it ... so perhaps when it blooms again I'll get a nice surprise and have a cluster bloomer!



Anyway, this is technically a "mini" catt, although the flowers are of decent size; it's just a very compact plant. The waxiness adds to its charm, as it makes the flower super-shiny and quite attention-getting!

Here's another picture that I just HAD to capture as the sun was moving across the room and the light was "kissing" my flower at a different angle. Ahhh....



I think this beauty deserves a better name than "Lc Netrasiri Faiball x Thihty 'Casen's choice'", which is what it says on the tag. If anyone finds a registered name for this grex, please let me know. My internet search didn't turn up a thing.

Oh, and in case you're wondering what orchid my mom ended up getting... well, even though we were literally surrounded with jaw-dropping gorgeousness, she couldn't find a single orchid she wanted. Instead she gravitated to a table of half-dead unnamed succulents which she asked me if I'd let her pick from instead. I told her it was her birthday; she could get whatever she wanted. The succulents my mom picked were in such bad shape that the owner of the greenhouse gave them to her for FREE.

I thought they were rather hideous, but my mom was over the moon with getting these bizarre-looking plants. Ah, well, I suppose she'll never understand my love for orchids any more than I'll understand her passion for shriveled-up cacti.

Anyway, thanks for looking at my beautiful new baby!!

I'm in love... so in love...

[Chris1140]

If it's not 'fireball' it should be. Fantastic color. Great choice.

[stateless]

beautiful bloom, fragrance sounds great, the name is strange

[OrchidAddict]

Ahhh.... well, I just figured out the answer to PART of the name mystery. The first part should be "fireball," not "faiball." Here's a pic of a Lc Netrasiri Fireball 'Napporn' that I found on the internet:



Personally, I think mine looks quite a bit more fiery than this sleepy little mauve number. But hey, I'm just a consumer, not a judge...

But it makes me wonder why the heck someone can't print a word as simple as FIREBALL on a tag properly. With all the wacky, convoluted orchid names out there, someone messes up "fireball?"

[PaphMadMan]

I can confirm that C. (or Ctt.) (NOT Lc.) Netrasiri Fireball exists, and could conceivably be a parent of this plant, but Thihty 'Casen's Choice' is a complete miystery. There doesn't seem to be any registered Cattleya hybrid beging with Th that could possibly be the other parent accounting for the color and spotting.

[Chris1140]

Don't worry about your mom, Jenn. Orchid growing is a calling that not everyone gets, at least not right away.

[OrchidAddict]

I can confirm that C. (or Ctt.) (NOT Lc.) Netrasiri Fireball exists, and could conceivably be a parent of this plant, but Thihty 'Casen's Choice' is a complete miystery. There doesn't seem to be any registered Cattleya hybrid beging with Th that could possibly be the other parent accounting for the color and spotting.

Thanks for looking into that and for clarifying the (Ctt. vs. Lc) issue! I really appreciate it! Unfortunately, I can't help but be frustrated that the name of the second plant used in this cross is such a mystery.

Apparently I seem to have a knack for buying plants that don't actually exist. Perhaps there's a warp in the space-time continuum in the greenhouse where I bought it? I should contact Stephen Hawking ... he might have a theory about it... (I'm such a geek -- sorry, off topic... )

At any rate, when I purchased the plant, I was just gushing on and on at the sales counter about how beautiful it was and how the fragrance was absolutely heavenly, and the nursery manager told me that she has this one in her personal collection too, and it's one of her favorites. I wonder if she knows that the tag makes no sense at all.

She DID tell me, however, that the previous owners of said orchid nursery live on the property and are generally "around" to help out if there's any need for assistance with anything. She said that they can ID pretty much any orchid, and she invited me to bring in any orchid I might have trouble identifying. She was pretty confident these two could identify anything.

I'm not sure if the brains of two people are going to hold more information than OrchidWiz plus the entire contents of the internet (I scoured the web for hours looking for a picture of a Thihty 'Casen's choice' and came up with nothing. Not even an article or page that mentioned a flower with that name.... or even just the "Thihty" part of it), but I suppose it's worth a try. After all, the plant did come from their nursery, even though they recently sold it and it's now under new ownership. I'm not sure if this mystery plant arrived before or after they handed the reins over to the new owners, but I suppose it would be worth a trip down there to see if they can tell me what is going on with this crazy tag.

Oh, and on a random interesting note, during my search for the "Thihty" flower, I came across a member of another forum who had purchased the same cross. It looked quite similar to mine, except the color of his was less vibrant and the pattern of spotting was more concentrated toward the outer edges of the petals and sepals. But anyway, his tag was misspelled too!!

His read: Lc. Netrasiri Faibell x Thihty 'Casen's Choice'.

Since both my plant and his plant had tags that were misspelled in two completely different ways, it would seem that this was more than just a fluke goof-up on the part of my local orchid nursery. I would love if someone could get to the bottom of this and find out what this cross really is. The form of the flower is exquisite when it's at its best, and perhaps this is just wishful thinking, but I think the eye-popping color may just qualify it for an award. I don't know much about the award process, but I'd love to bring mine to a show table and see how the judges react.

Of course, if I can't figure out what the heck it IS, that may present a problem. Pbbbbbtttttt!!!!

I do understand that I might be missing the point by obsessing over the name of the cross... perhaps I should just relax and enjoy the gorgeous blooms... but dang it, I'd really like to show this plant!! If anyone knows anything about this "Thihty" mystery, please share your knowledge. I will be forever grateful! Thanks all!!

[orchidbaby]

Lol I love your theatrics in your postings. I'm so drawn in. But wow that bloom steals the show for sure! It DOES demand for attention! Great buy. Looks to be almost hard to find. Never seen one like it. Fireball is the most appropriate naming. Thanks so much for sharing ... A true gem, one of a kind! And by the way. I went to an orchid nursery and got my Leptotes Bicolor, it has 3 buds well established looking and 1 more poking out on the other side.... I'm a little nervousness because its my first warm grower and its so small! Not sure if u came across my post about it.... Tonight is supposed to be REAL Cold so I'm freaking out I'm gunna harm it by accident
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[pavel]

Very vibrant! So how tall is your new mini? (Btw, just because a Catt is a "mini", that doesn't mean the flowers will be small -- though I suppose that depends on what one sees as "small." )

[coeruleo]

what a stunning flower. i usually don't care for the typical pink/lavender cattleya (anything, really) so this one is really a great find. lucky you! weird about the name. something about it seems like it came from thailand. i hear they are notorious for selling things with the wrong or misspelled tag. their language looks nothing like our alphabet, so thai people will spell things in english differently by trying to spell things phonetically so there isn't always consistency, and they have sounds in their language we don't really use. and also, 'porn' appears an awful lot in their names, trust me, i live at the edge of thaitown. several of my neighbors' last names are "something-something-something-something-porn" (they have really long last names!) it must be a thai grown hybrid.