Description
Two things make Aliceara Marfitch such a compelling hybrid. First, its perfect purple color – fit for ancient nobility and VIPs. Second, the fascinating patterns on the blooms, as if inscribed with some ethereal hand. The blooms are ones you can admire from afar for their elegance and size (four to five inches across), and up close, for the richness of the color and patterning. Beallara (now Aliceara, for some obscure reason) Marfitch, named after Charles Marden Fitch, a well-known photographer of orchids, originated in the Beall Nursery on Vashon Island in Seattle in the 1960s – 1970s. As far as intergeneric Odont hybrids go, this one traces its ancestry to four different genera, making it a lovely mutt. Marfitch’s flower spikes can bear between 5 – 12 flowers on a well-grown specimen, with blooms lasting around two months (give or take). The particular cultivar we’re offering, ‘Howard’s Dream’, received the Award of Merit from the American Orchid Society. Like most intergenerics, this orchid is very easy to grow and bloom; a bit of cooler temps into the 50s F during the winter is just fine.