Orchid of the Week

This week’s Orchid of the Week is… Cym. Tethys

Parentage: This is a cross between Cym. Suva × Cym. Khyber Pass

Registered: 1969

The reason why it’s our Orchid of the Week:

Cym. Tethys and in particular, the cultivar of ‘Black Magic’ is our Orchid of the Week this week. It is an eternally popular Cym with a solid bold lip and graceful arching pendulous spikes. It is the progeny of another very popular and much bred with parent – Cym. Khyber Pass.

A descendant of Cym. Spartan Queen (one of the parents of Cym. Sensation), and also with a grandparent of Cym. Volcano. If you look into the family tree further on both sides there was always good potential for Cym. Tethys!

Cym. Tethys has been immensely popular as a parent in breeding, having been used in over 135 further immediate offspring registered hybrids! Which is quite a lot!

Some of it’s progeny includes Cym. Pywacket, Cym Canned Magic, Cym. Vogel’s Magic, Cym. Mad Magic and Cym. Splatters.

Cym. Tethys has been known to be a somewhat temperamental plant to grow, and what works for some, doesn’t work for others depending on the local climates, so a bit of experimentation will be needed, but in general a much more open free draining mix seems to work, maybe with a bunch of clay balls. However, don’t be afraid to stand the pot in 1-2cm of water, especially in the warmer months.

The above plant was grown and photographed by Nado Lenkic from Springfield Orchids with the image having been taken from the Springfield Orchids website.

I’m definitely looking to add this one to my collection at some point! Although I have just deflasked Cym. Tethys x Self, so it will be interesting to see what sore of variety we get out of that once it flowers…..and I will update you all when that happens!

Looking back at the original species ancestors of this plant, using Orchid Roots, Cym. insigne and Cym. lowianum are the major contributors present in the distant background.