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Today I drove to Venice, FL to look at some orchids at the Spring sale of Fender's Flora. I wound up buying 55 of them. :-( They had a 20% off special if you bought some quantity. Most are small in 2 or 3 inch pots. A few special ones came in 4 inch pots but they were already listed at $30 or more. Many of the orchids had really high prices which really threw me for a loop but I guess that's the world we travel in.
Anyway, my question - Just how are seedlings handled at orchid shows? Are they even ligitimate? They had tables and tables of seedlings with a motherplant or a picture shown to see what one is buying. But upon further discussion with them they told me that one doesn't really know what the seedling will look like when it blooms. Only mericlones are identical. Ok, I can understand the exact genetic clone thing but the hybrids have me confused.
So you cross two or more intergeneric hybrids (I suppose each has been registered) and get whatever children will come in the seedlings. The seedlings then are only named by their cross, right? Since they all can look different, can they all compete under the same general description? Who winds up naming these various new plants? Am I correct in understanding that the bloom of such a seedling can get registered and then named so that the label would list the parents along with the given name in quotes? How in the world is this kept straight? Who decides that a flower is different from another? It all seems rather complicated to me.
A really pretty newly named such example could then be mericloned to get more of the same, right?
Do I have this generally straight? The main reason I'm asking is because the growers asked me to send them pictures of any outstanding seedlings once they show themselves. It's like they have no idea as to what they came up with yet they sell the seedlings to look like some sample they have there which is already blooming.
I just never thought about all this until I saw a grower in action. I fugured they seed orchids like other flowers and get the same orchid over and over again. I guess the difference is the cross they produced which will bring unkown results, right?
Do I have this generally straight?
Fred
PS this is part of one of their orchid houses
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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