Description
The well-known Onc. Sharry Baby is one of the top orchid hybrids ever, as even non-orchid folk have heard of it. Well, when something is this good, can it be improved?
To answer this question, let’s go to Hollywood, where beauty is the coin of the realm, and ask a similar question: How often do beautiful mothers produce even more beautiful daughters? Consider: Debbie Reynolds and daughter Carrie Fisher (i.e., Princess Leia to you younger folks), or Jayne Mansfield and Mariska Hargitay (of CSI fame, who clearly inherited some serious assets). How about Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis? Yes, there are other more contemporary examples (Jamie Lee Curtis has been playing the same character for 40 years in the Halloween series) and probably a good number of you reading this will not recognize any of the above.
Which brings us back to Onc. Sharry Baby, and her children, Onc. Heaven Scent ‘Redolence’ and ‘Rainbow’. It’s hard to argue that ‘Redolence’ or ‘Rainbow’ exceed their mother in beauty flower-wise as they look similar in size and shape, but these daughter plants were selected for a different reason: fragrance. Attractive fragrance is a big deal in the mating game, both for orchids and people. ‘Redolence’ definitely produces a different chocolate fragrance, while ‘Rainbow’ makes a citrus fragrance. Floral fragrance is a complex thing — it makes the orchid breeder’s work endlessly fascinating, especially when you start with a classic beauty like Onc. Sharry Baby.
Breeders do select for other traits, and another positive one is that ‘Redolence’ seems to bloom on smaller plants, with floriferous but more compact flower spikes, that are less…uhhh…leggy than mom’s.
So what’s the answer to the original question? Well, obviously, the answer is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and attraction (often) in the nose.
But why force yourself to make such a hard choice? You can get mom AND both daughters and enjoy their lovely and distinctive fragrances!
