Orchid of the Week

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

Parentage: This weeks Orchid of the Week is a cross between Cym. hookerianum × Cym. tracyanum

Registered: 1908

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

I’m indulging myself again for a bit with our Orchid of the Week this week. My favourite topics are the species and primary/hybrids and near primary hybrids, and I could go on all day! I think they offer more variety in shape, colour, fragrance and general diversity than most modern hybrids.

First described and registered in 1908, I believe Cym. Rosefieldense was awarded an Award of Merit by the RHS soon after, but it seems to have fallen out of favour with growers since! Very few new registrations using it as a parent have been lodged, and none for the last 60 years!

Cym. Rosefieldense grows into a very large specimen plant if allowed to, with quite large bulbs, so it isn’t a plant for those with little space. And also, when it flowers it throws long arching spikes that can be over 1m long, so give it some space if you can! If you are able to accomodate such a large plant, it will reward you with a wonderful fragrance.

Cym. Rosefieldense is often mislabelled as Cym. Grand Monarch, so check out our extended Orchid Wise article on Cym. Rosefieldense here that explains the difference between the two plants.

There is still a lot of Cym. Rosefieldense around, so it’s not too hard to obtain, but please just make sure it doesn’t carry any virus. Because it’s been around for so long, a lot of backyard collections have succumbed to virus over the years and these older plants often carry it…..

Looking back at the original species ancestors of this plant, using Orchid Roots, obviously we are only looking at Cym. hookerianum and Cym. tracyanum as parents.