I got this orchid hybrid from looking at Peter Lin’s releases every month or so to see what miniature Cattleya hybrids he was making. There was a point when he was putting Cattleya wittigiana pollen on nearly everything.
Cattleya wittigiana ‘Opal’
Cattleya Psyche ‘China'
You could imagine why he might have been giving wittigiana pollen to whatever was open. The flowers are large, the plant (pictured left in 2” pot) is very diminutive. The pod parent in the case of the seedling I got from Peter, used Cattleya Psyche (above right), a hybrid of Cattleya coccinea and Cattleya cinnabariana.
I knew what both of the parents were. I knew it would be, at worst, a little plant if it turned out less than desired. Combine familiarity and low risk in an affordable package and it’s not a bad strategy for selling unbloomed orchid seedlings.
It took some time and I flowered a decent thing. Sometime later it became large enough to look impressive and was mature enough to use in hybridizing. Those went off to the lab and the seedlings are at Gold Country Orchids now. It took a couple years to grow large enough to hold pods, and then another year to grow those. Soon enough the plant passed its due date to be repotted. I divided it up and named the clones ‘Dorothy Helen’ after my dear basset hound. The hybrid itself hasn’t been named. Maybe Peter didn’t think much of it, or maybe he didn’t end up with very many plants?
This is Cheryl Jones’s piece of the plant that I gifted her as a thank you for hosting an educational event at her home. (Ed note: Thanks Daniel! This is one of the few Cattleya's that has lived and bloomed for me!)
Cheryl grows in either LECA or mounted. She quickly assumed the latter for this plant and mounted it summer 2024.
This happens to be blooming time for Cattleya wittigiana, whereas Cattleya Psyche does not have a specific bloom timing. Incidentally, the hybrid is flowering now for Cheryl and mine are covered in buds. I have another seed pod on my biggest piece to continue work with a hybrid I believe in. If there’s something I hate in hybrids though, as I mentioned before, it’s unfamiliarity. If you looked at a tag on an unbloomed seedling and saw: (Cattleya Psyche x wittigiana) x Cattleya Polestar there’s a lot of information to consider. It is much more pleasant to read a named hybrid as a parent than looking at a list of grandparents and trying to figure out what you’re getting.
Dorothy Helen
My basset hound Dot, was one of a kind. We adopted her with that name and it wasn’t long before I was trying to impress upon people the importance of that dog by changing her honorable name to Dorothy Helen.
Everyone knows importance and syllables are correspondent in an increasing value. The orchid's clonal name came first, so I can’t name the hybrid after her. Dot had a lot of names though: Dottie, Dot Bot, Dot Sauce, Dot Dot, Dot Dog. I’m going to ask Peter if I can register it and if anyone approves or thinks of a better name to honor my girl, let me know next meeting or the one after that.
