Description

IMPORTANT NOTE: these plants are NOT IN BUD/BLOOM when shipped. PLEASE look at all the pictures in this listing so you know the condition/size of plant you’ll be getting.

Cymbidium Maureen Carter ‘Fragrant Princess’

IMPORTANT NOTE: these plants are NOT IN BUD/BLOOM when shipped. PLEASE look at all the pictures in this listing so you know the condition/size of plant you’ll be getting. Plants shipped BARE ROOT (unless you order IN POT)

Cym. Maureen Carter is a hybrid that took a well over a hundred years to make. To understand why it took this long, you need to understand a bit more about how orchid breeding is done. There are two general approaches to breeding orchids: 1) One way is to have an end result in mind, and breed towards that end, for example, a large pink flower with stripes and spots on the petals, and stems no longer than ten inches. This approach takes a good deal of experience, a large stable of plants with desired traits to use, and many years of patience, as a generation might be three to seven years, and if it take a mere four generations to reach your goal, you’ll only be ten to thirty years older. 2) The other approach goes like this: ‘Hey, these two plants look nice, let’s see what happens when we cross them’. A few years later, you get some blooming plants, and pat yourself on the back. One of these plants is passed along to your kids, and eventually, grandkids, who really don’t have much of an interest in grandpa’s insane obsession with orchids, but they don’t want to just dump a family heirloom, so they give it to someone younger who also is strangely obsessed with orchids — and the cycle repeats itself.

Scenario 2 is pretty much what happened with Cym. Maureen Carter. The ancestral crosses that led to this plant started back in the 1800s, a century before a hobbyist could simply send a seed capsule to a specialized laboratory for germination of orchid seeds in sterile conditions (yes, that’s how it has been done for nearly 70 years now). They did it the old-school way — they got a seed capsule, let it release microscopic, dust-like orchid seed in the same pot as the mother plant, and hoped for some to grow. In theory, you can do this, too, but you really need jungle-like conditions in your greenhouse for this to happen, plus you have to get pretty lucky with mycorrhizae (that’s another story).

Decades went by before Scenario 2 repeated itself with another generation of hybrids that would eventually produce Cym. Maureen Carter. Then, in 1996, Geyserland (a nursery that did much landmark breeding with Cymbidiums, and hence, more of Scenario 1-type of breeder) crossed Cym. Sleeping Beauty with a naturally-occuring species, Cym. sinense, producing the first crop of Cym. Maureen Carter. When something is good, other breeders will try to repeat the cross, but with (hopfully) improved parents. This is kind of like a rock band paying tribute to a song by recording a version of their own. And in both instances, results can be mixed.

Many Cym. sinense are extremely fragrant, and that had to be one of the reasons for crossing it with Sleeping Beauty; the cultivar of Maureen Carter we’re offering is called ‘Fragrant Princess’ so the Cym. sinense fragrance (and its compact size) definitely shines through.

ABOUT CYMBIDIUMS AND WHY THEY’RE GREAT
Cymbidium orchids are one of the most popular orchid types grown in the world.
Many excellent qualities make them favorites in the flower world:

COLORFUL FLOWERS — Breeders have done an excellent job producing an incredible variety of colors. Colors, spots, splashes: cymbidium blooms have them all.

SHOWY FLOWER SPIKES — Some types hold their spikes erect with big, round flowers and others produce pendulous spikes with graceful arching flowers.

LOTS OF FLOWERS — Some varieties can have 30+ flowers on a single spike! Most modern hybrids have at least ten.

LONG-LASTING BLOOMS — Many modern Cymbidium blooms stay open for two months (or more!).

EASY TO GROW — I usually recommend using reverse osmosis/rainwater/distilled water on orchids when possible, but Cymbidiums don’t seem to need it. They grow outside in non-freezing zones and are used as landscape plants and get the same water as all the other plants. (Of course, using RO/rainwater/distilled doesn’t hurt!)

EASY TO BLOOM — Cymbidiums are not fussy about blooming. They bloom regularly year after year, unlike a lot of other orchids who take up room and board but don’t bloom or do much else! Sort of like kids these days.

HARDY — A mature Cymbidium is a beast of plant. Big, tough bulbs, and thick, stiff leaves make them tough plants that can handle a lot. No shrinking violets, these!

HOW TO GROW THIS CYMBIDIUM
Cymbidium orchids are among the easiest orchids to grow. They grow well in chunky orchid bark (fir bark typically), or thoroughly rinsed coconut husk. Avoid overpotting (i.e., putting the plant in a pot that is too big) — select a pot that is not too snug but also leaves room for growth. Make sure your pot has drainage holes at the bottom. Water twice per week, and fertilize lightly every week or so with any balanced fertilizer. For smaller plants, avoid frost; larger plants can handle near freezing temperatures, but do not leave outside if you grow in an area that gets snow. For blooming size plants (usually three growths/bulbs), allow the plant to experience cooler temperatures (in the 40s F) to set the bud the following season. Larger plants can handle bright light, but younger plants should be grown in bright shade or allowed to receive diffuse light.