Doubting Thomas.....

[MrCym]

Call me Didymus if you prefer but the more I learn about Cymbidiums, the more skeptical I become about the parentage of various orchids, You have all the well-known rorts like Ceres'F.J.Hanbury', Cym. insigne 'Mrs. Carl Holmes, even Ruby, supposedly a hybrid of giganteum and progenitor of Rio Rita 'Radiant'. One has to listen to supposed experts claiming Cym. i'ansonii is really a lowianum when it quite obviously is not and the ongoing less than erudite discussion about Cym. parishii 'Sanderae'. One has to ask, how much of the recorded information in Sander's is anything more than an informed guess? I suspect that up to 20% of the recorded breeding for older Cymbidium hybrids at the second or third generation is incorrect. Does this concern me? Not unduly but I do try and return to the old primaries (sometimes with a modern twist) just to reassure myself that what was recorded is in fact correct. We have seen quite a number of seedlings bloom this past month purporting to be a tetraploid strain of Devon Odyssey remade by crossing the 4n Cym. erythrostylum with Cym. devonianum 'NH' 4n. Either something very strange happens to flower color when a hybrid that was pink at the diploid level is remade at a higher ploidy or the cross, made by another nursery, is seriously mislabelled. I am tending to believe the latter.

[Nigel]

Call me Didymus if you prefer

Well Didymus, I suspect you aren't giving enough credence to the effects of global warming!
We have had a carbon tax here in Australia for a year now and the birds are singing in the trees, the grass is greener, my orchids are sending up spikes galore, and our beloved prime minister and treasurer are smiling. She is in China and he is in charge.

[MrCym]

Forget the PM, get in sweet with the Treasurer!

Who's going to win the Golden Slipper?

[Nigel]

Gai Waterhouse.

[Van Deiman]

Ruud Awakening has a lot of support.

[MrCym]

Well with three runners, she starts with a little advantage...... Sort of like NHO versus "BIB"!

[MrCym]

They had to supplement Ruud Awakening at $150,000 so they must mean business.

[Nigel]

OVER-REACH for sure

[Gary S]

All you guys must be making good money out of orchids, with all of the background knowledge on the Aussie horse racing scene - must be a few good bets placed then.

Gary..

[Nigel]

Well Gary, it's like this.
When it comes to cymbidiums.........go to the Big Maan.....Mr. Cym.
When it comes to punting.......................go to the Dancer. He tipped over 20 winners in a row the last 2 years and backed them all.
When it comes to getting useless advice............go to Nige.