This week’s Orchid of the Week is… Cym. Memoria Marvin Gaye
Parentage: This week’s Orchid of the Week is a cross between Cym. Brook Street x Cym. Tom Thumb
Registered: 1994
The reason why it’s our Orchid of the Week:
We go back a way this time for this week’s Orchid of the Week. In 1994 there were 501 Cymbidium hybrid registrations! And one of them was Cym. Memoria Marvin Gaye.
The pictured plant was exhibited at the October 2024 Cymbidium Orchid Club of South Australia meeting. It had several long pendulous spikes (courtesy of it’s Cym. devonianum grandparent) with a good number of flowers on each spike. A nicely balanced intermediate flower with a great spotted lip.
Other cultivars of Cym. Mem Marvin Gaye have been seen with a big bold solid red lip as shown in the second photo.
Cym. Memoria Marvin Gaye was awarded an Award of Merit by the Australian Orchid Council in 2012 for a plant owned by Royale Orchids.
The American Orchid Society has also awarded Cym. Memoria Marvin Gaye 12 times over the years.
Looking at the parents, I can’t say I would have thought to make the crossing, but thankfully there are much more informed breeders out there that do think of these things!
Cym. Mem Marvin Gaye originated with Geyserland Orchids in New Zealand, bred by Andy Easton, and has gone all around the world since, giving us a range of light coloured mini/intermediate pendulous flowers to enjoy.
1994 was also the year several other successful Cyms were registered, including: Cym. Allumination, Cym. Devon Odyssey, Cym. Rembrandt and the very famous Cym. Kasuda Shining.
Looking back at the original species ancestors of this plant, using Orchid Roots, Cym. devonianum, Cym. floribundum and Cym. insigne are the major species contributors in the background.