Orchid of the Week

This week’s Orchid of the Week is… Cym. Margaret Thatcher ‘Perfection’

Parentage: This weeks Orchid of the Week is a cross between Cym. Valley Angel × Cym. Culpaulin

Registered: 1991

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

This week’s Orchid of the Week is an oldie, but another successful Cym. from Valley Orchids in South Australia. Cym. Margaret Thatcher is very shapely and has a really nice bright shade of yellow, set off by an interesting red marked lip here. Tall upright spikes usually produced lots of flowers, making it a plant that many still grow. Cym. Margaret Thatcher ‘Perfection’ was also joined by other cultivar’s – ‘Diplomat’ and ‘Memories’. ‘Diplomat’ was a much greener coloured flower, whilst ‘Memories’ was another yellow, similar to ‘Perfection’, but with a different spotted lip. It was probably not as popular, however, still a nice flower in its own right.

One of the parents, Cym. Culpaulin was a very successful breeding Cym. Cym. Culpaulin’s parents are Cym. Melinga and Cym. Sussex Dawn, so a wonderful parentage there! Cym. Margaret Thatcher has been used to breed 20 registered offspring so far, so there is some love for it out there!

I owned Cym. Margaret Thatcher ‘Diplomat’ back in the day, which I obtained from Valley Orchids, but somehow never managed to obtain ‘Perfection’ which I think was a better flower.

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