This week’s Orchid of the Week is… Cym. Seamew
Parentage: This week’s Orchid of the Week is a cross between Cym. i’ansonii x Cym. sanderae
Registered: 1915
The reason why it’s our Orchid of the Week:
Primary Hybrid Cymbidium’s are my favourite topic to talk about! And as it happens, I had one that isn’t seen very often flower for me this year!
I will admit, Cymbidium Seamew took a little while to grow on me. It was never really on my list of preferred plants to obtain, but I think that was simply that I didn’t know much about it.
I should have known all about it, with the species Cym. i’ansonii being one of my all time favourite species plants. In 2023 Cym. i’ansonii flowered for me in a pretty spectacular fashion as shown here. Wonderfully shaped and coloured flowers, and to me, this is the best Cym. i’ansonii I have ever seen.
Cym. Seamew is an uncommon Primary Hybrid
Anyway, back to Cym. Seamew! Being a seedling, my plant will be different to all others out there, but you can see the influence of both parents on my flowers and seems to be a good mix of both. The image here of Cym. sanderae has been taken from flikr.
It might be grown by more people than I think, but it is rarely seen on display. I have seen photos of other Cym. Seamew plants display flowers right through from almost white to more orange/red than mine and obviously many different variations on the lip markings.
Clearly we aren’t going to see this one on the showbench, but I like to take mine in each year just to remind people of what the older hybrids looked like. And although no one grows it, it is always a talking point in one way or another.
Since mine flowered it has grown on me considerably. However, time has passed Cym. Seamew by, with only ten registered progeny, and the last being in 1947. So clearly not one the breeders saw much in but there are some older vintage hybrid progeny I’d like to remake to see what they are like. There are so many old hybrids out there that haven’t been documented in photographs!