This week’s Orchid of the Week is… Cym. Awaken
Parentage: This weeks Orchid of the Week is a cross between Cym. Dream × Cym. tracyanum
Registered: 2020
The reason why it’s our Orchid of the Week:
This week’s Orchid of the Week is a recent registration, and something different. My favourite topic of using diploid parents to create something new and different!
This Cymbidium Orchid hybrid was made by Nado Lenkic of Springfield Orchids in Western Australia. Made using a very lovely diploid white alba in Cym. Dream ‘Snowflake’ and the species Cym. tracyanum ‘Tambourine’, then treated with Oryzalin to convert to tetraploid or 4N. Nado has graciously supplied photos of four different photos from four different seedlings, as well as one of the parents. Clearly a big variety in the resultant seedlings, and something for everyone?……..or not?! It certainly is a bit of an acquired taste.
Cym. Awaken is definitely an acquired taste, with my favourite being the first image! It certainly won’t find its way onto the show-bench but just shows what sort of interesting plants you can create when you try something unusual.
Unfortunately I missed out on obtaining seedlings from this cross, having sold out quite quickly. So I’ll have to think of something reasonably similar but different again, to experiment with.
Cym. Dream ‘Snowflake’ was also bred, registered and supplied by Springfield Orchids.
I also own Cym. Dream ‘Snowflake’. A really clean white alba with a great shape. I’m sure I can find something really nice to cross it with! Cym. Dream has some famous names in its ancestry including Cym. Sussex Dawn and Cym. Culpaulin.
Looking back at the original species ancestors of Cym. Awaken, using Orchid Roots, obviously Cym. tracyanum is a huge contributor, providing just over half of the makeup. Cym. insigne is the next major contributor in the distant background.