This week’s Orchid Wise Orchid of the Week is… Cym. Welcome Amigos
Parentage: This week’s Orchid of the Week is a cross between Cym. Memoria Amelia Earhart × Cym. Pacific Sparkle
Registered: 2023
The reason why it’s our Orchid of the Week:
This week we traverse the year from last weeks early flowering plant to Cym. Welcome Amigos, a spring flowerer.
The later flowering influence has come from Cym. devonianum, which is a grandparent on both sides of the cross, however it was in full bloom only a full month into Spring. The plant on show at the club that month was very impressive. Four long cascading spikes with at least 18 flowers, ranging up to about 24! It was a great showing and the labellum on this flower in person was fantastic! Very dark and very full, setting off the colour of the flower perfectly.
The plant was grown by 3 Amigo’s Orchids here in South Australia, and bred by the late Andy Easton. Andy completed a lot of breeding using Cym. Memoria Amelia Earhart, and we’ve seen some wonderful progeny as a result. The above plant is Cym. Memoria Amelia Earhart ‘Crash Landing’ 4N x Cym. Pacific Sparkle ‘Lippy’ 4N.
Cym. Pacific Sparkle originated from Tucker’s in New Zealand and has been used as a parent a number of times due to it’s floriferous nature. Lots of flowers on pendulous spikes, to match Cym. Memoria Amelia Earhart! Cym. Pacific Sparkle won Grand Champion as well as Champion Cymbidium at the North Shore Orchid Society 2024 Spring Show in New South Wales, so it can compete on the showbench!
The 3 Amigos are growing and producing some wonderful plants
I consider myself lucky to see them in the flesh probably before most do. They are highly skilled growers and are now releasing some cracking breeding of their own too.
At the same meeting there was also another cultivar of the same cross on show, Cym. Welcome Amigos ‘Chee’, which also showed some good traits.
Tracing the plant’s heritage using Orchid Roots, its primary species ancestors are Cym. devonianum, Cym. insigne and Cym. lowianum.