New Hybrid Attempt: C Hawaiian Wedding Song 'Virgin' x Clty Chantilly Lace 'Twinkle'

[wetfeet101b]

This is my first attempt of hybridizing orchids. All my previous excersizes were just to practice and hone my skills at pollinating the flowers.

Now that I have two orchids that I really want to cross, I am going to try to stick with this project until completion.
If the pod fails, I will just try again the next time they bloom.

Pod Parent: Cattleya Hawaiian Wedding Song 'Virgin'


Pollen Parent: Caulocattleya Chantilly Lace 'Twinkle' (syn. Diacattleya)


Here's how I pollinated the flower:

Step 1: Plant selection. I chose the two plants based on their traits that I *HOPE* would be passed on to the offspring.
Comparison of the entire plants:


Comparison of the flower sizes:


Step 2: Tools of the trade.
Some people use toothpicks, fine paint brushes, etc. I choose to use a short length of garden wire with one end curved. This facilitates easier hooking and attaching of the pollen.


Step 3: Get the pollen
Place a white piece of cloth or paper under the flower. This is to make sure that the anther cap (and the pollen) does not fall onto the floor after being dislodged from the flower. In my case, my greenhouse floor is dirt and wood bark. If the pollen falls onto the floor it is gone forever.

With my preferred hooking tool, I carefully dislodged the anther cap from the flower's column.
With my hooked wire, I inserted the hooked end face up all the way under the column until it hit the stigma pit (sticky substance) behind the anther cap. I then pulled out the wire tool in an upward motion so that it hooks into the back of the anther cap and dislodges it from the column.

This photo shows the anther cap (with pollen) sitting on the labellum. It did not fall onto the paper, or onto the floor.


Next step is to remove the pollen from the anther cap.


Step 4: Pollinating the pod parent
Now that we have the pollen, it is time to put it to good use. It is time to pollinate the "female" plant.

Using the same wire hook, I attached the pollen to the hooked tip. I used some extra "stigma paste" from the pollen parent to help the pollen stick to the wire better.

I then carefully pulled down the labellum of the pod parent flower to reveal the stigma pit just behind the anther cap.
I then inserted the wire with the pollen until it touches the stigma. The sticky paste in the stigma will cause the pollen to stick to the flower and detach itself from the wire.
One pollinia should be enough, but I put all four of them in there just to be sure.

Photo of the stigma containing the recently attached pollinia.
With any luck, the pollination should be successful and I should see the ovary start to swell within one week.


Step 5: Label the cross
If you are only pollinating one pod, then you can skip this step.
However, it is still highly recommended that you label the flower with the pollen parent for future identification.


Step 6: The parents are then returned to their favorite spots in the greenhouse:



I will post updates to this thread once there are significant milestones.

John

[wetfeet101b]

Regarding my parent plant selection

Orchid hybridization is somewhat a voodoo science and there is no way to absolutely tell what the offspring would look like.
But below are the list of traits that I hope that the parent plants would pass on to a successful offspring.

C. Hawaiian Wedding Song 'Virgin'
1. Flower size
2. Flower substance
3. Plant tolerance of high/low temperatures.
4. Flower tolerance of low temperatures.

Ctly. Chantilly Lace 'Twinkle'
1. Flower color pattern
2. Plant size (mid-size to compact)
3. Root vigor
4. Leaf vigor

So if I am to describe my ideal hybrid, it would have the following traits:
1. Compact plant
2. Large flower size
3. Think flower substance
4. Vigorous leaves and roots
5. Dark purple spots all over the flower
6. Light (but significant) purple flush on the petals and labellum.
7. Flower buds would not blast when temperatures drop below 60F.
8. Plant does not wilt when temperatures hover around 100F.

BUT it is too early to predict right now.
Now that I have the pollination out of the way, the next step is to nurse the pod until it matures.

And then we proceed to the next adventure which is to germinate the seeds and wait about 5-7 years to see if any of the offspring are worth keeping.

Happy Growing,
John

[Ron-NY]

good luck with the cross..can you save a compot for me to grow out?

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Very cool, John! Looks like another article for the library

Cheers,
BD

[bench72]

this is a really good post on how to pollinate orchids... well done John! I am looking forward to seeing the result of the cross with great interst!

[wetfeet101b]

good luck with the cross..can you save a compot for me to grow out?

Oh definitely!
Assuming that I can actually get the seeds to germinate and survive the replating stages, I am thinking of asking some forum members to take some of the resulting compots to improve our chances of actually getting some to reach blooming age.

Keeping all the seedlings in my growing area would not be a good idea. Another one of those ninja frosts here in California and there goes my future hybrid

But right now those bridges are too far away to even consider lol.

[wetfeet101b]

I had to edit the original post because I found out that I was missing an important step.
Dont forget to label the pollinated flower with the pollen parent.
Since you know what plant the pod parent is (right?) , you do not normally need to identify the pod parent on the flower. But if you have room on the tag for both pod and pollen parent, then thats even better.

[ang709]

While I was reading the first part, I thought I would ask what traits you hoped would be passed on, but you covered that already. It was very interesting for me reading about and seeing the pics of your process. I hope it goes well for you, and please do keep us updated on the progress.

[pavel]

Good luck, John. Out of curiosity -- any 'method to your madness' in deciding to have Wedding be the pod parent vs being pollen donor?

[Ron-NY]

Another siugesstion would be to put the date of pollination on the tag as well. I never put the pod parent onto the tag for the tag hangs on the pod parent plant. My tags read: X Blc so and so 8/15/08. I like to send out green pods. If I know the date I can harvest it before it totally ripens.

I don't sow my own seed but send my pods out to a grower in Hawaii. He does the lab work and grows the plants for me. I buy the plants back at a reasonable (wholesale) price. I buy as many as I want and I have no financial outlay until I buy the plants. He get's to sell the rest of my plants. As the breeder, I get to name them. (this is a private situation that I have arranged and not common practice). I should be getting my first cross back at blooming size in December. It is C. walkeriana var alba 'Pendentive' Am/AOS X L. anceps var. veitchiana

I know Paul asked on your choice of pod parent. Paul. I would have chosen the same. Sometimes when there is a big difference in the flower size the pollen grains are also sized accordingly. Putting big grains on a small flower might not have worked.

I was a bit toothpick happy myself this past week. My Bl. Richard Mueller came into bloom...I made a few crosses and all did not take. None of the ones onto the Richard Mueller took. I think Richard Mueller onto 2 others did. I will take a few pics tomorrow.

I had to edit the original post because I found out that I was missing an important step.
Dont forget to label the pollinated flower with the pollen parent.
Since you know what plant the pod parent is (right?) , you do not normally need to identify the pod parent on the flower. But if you have room on the tag for both pod and pollen parent, then thats even better.