Crippling in Yellow Cattleya Hybrids

[K Barrett]

I've thought about this for a couple of days and I'm not sure one can lay crippling in yellow hybrids at the feet of C. bicolor. It begs the question, does bicolor cripple in any other breeding program? I'm too inexperienced to know. [but I'm tenacious enough to ask around.]

There would seem to be a 'perfect storm' of genetic incompatibilites between both parents in breeding for yellows that doesn't occur in any other breeding program (greens, lavenders, whites). Perhaps even the extranuclear genetics contained in the ovum comes in to play. Who's to say?

But it's a good point: the myth surrounding C. dowiana hort var rosita is unsubstantiated and undeserved. It deserves a burial. In the battle between fact and legend the tendency to 'print the legend' comes into play. I fear the legend will out despite Ken's letter in 'Orchids'. I for one will take it with a grain of salt in the future. Which then leads me back to my original question of trust, *G*! Perhaps I shouldn't have let that pod of C Natalie Canipeli 'Moonshot' x C Malworth 'Orchidglade' go to waste. *G* Nah, crippling can still occur, no matter which parent is 'at fault'.

[K Barrett]

In a case of print the legend the AOS Homepage has an old article on influences in Cattleya breeding which restates the C dowiana/crippling factoid. I hope we are now all better informed, *G*.