This week’s Orchid of the Week is… Cym. Chilli King
Parentage: This weeks Orchid of the Week is a cross between Cym. Chilli Pepper × Cym. President Gorbachev
Registered: 2011
The reason why it’s our Orchid of the Week:
This week’s Orchid of the Week is an old one, but I loved the colours I got from flowering it. Although the photo doesn’t really do it justice, it was one of the darkest flowering Cymbidiums I have ever had. It was a large flower and really stood out on a fairly tall spike with some interesting lip markings.
Bred by Valley Orchids in South Australia, what was supposed to be named Cym. Valley Hero ‘First Prize’ (above photo) was actually registered by another party as Cym. Chilli King.
The product of Cym. Chilli Pepper ‘Hot Stuff’ × Cym. President Gorbachev ‘Diplomat’. Cym. President Gorbachev was a bit of an ordinary looking flower, however both parents were prolific breeders and produced many good progeny. And believe it or not, Cym. President Gorbachev was a parent of Cym. Valley Olympic which was a very successful plant.
Progeny from this crossing were wide and varied, that’s for sure! As can be seen by another seedling from this cross that I still have, first flowered back in 2013.
Cym. Chilli King is also the pollen grandparent of Cym. Valley Splatters, another eye catching spotted Cym. I have in my collection.
If anyone still has one of these, I’d be very interested to see other variants or even obtain a piece….
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.