Species and hybrids. Hybrids and species. As a botanist I knew there were tens of thousands of species of orchids. But I never thought about hybrids! My first dozen or so orchids were all species. They stood still and persisted all through the hot summer months as I misted faithfully several times a day. They stood by me when I moved them or took them out of the weird arrangements I had originally planted them in. None of them died. A Tolumnia that came to me in spike flowered steadfastly on three long inflorescences no matter how hard I tried to cook it.
My next batch was also all species and with my single-minded focus on caring for my plants I still didn’t give hybrids a thought. Strange how it takes time for things to sink in. Or maybe it’s because I spent so many years embroiled in taxonomy and naming that I willfully ignored the names.
About mid-October we went to a big tent sale down in Sarasota just south of the Bradenton line. It was the first time I saw piles and piles of bare root plants and these were in a sale area because some of them were pretty beaten up. But what could be more fun than to grab the bargains at ten or seven or even five dollars? By now I was starting to feel the cadence of orchid growing and I figured I could find these babies a spot in the dappled shade of our garden and get them established.
This is my first year of orchids and these were my first few months. My experience is so narrow. Maybe it was the slightly cooler weather. Maybe it was because I started to sneak some fertilizer into my mister, but all I can tell you is that a root rampage started among the sale plants I picked up in the bargain tent. Plants that were barely alive, ghostlike roots dangling limp, greenery shriveled to a leathery nub. These babies started producing roots like crazy. Could it be that that’s what they talk about when they say “hybrid vigor?”
I guess I should be gratified to have so many lively additions to my St. Petersburg jungle. But you know me by now. I am just a tiny bit uncomfortable with the whole hybrid idea. I see my friends on Facebook posting gorgeous luscious tremendous spectacular colorful flowers, all of which are hybrids. Yes they are eye candy. And yes my friends have grown them with care and mindfulness. And yes, the growers did a great job of putting together these hybrids.
But do they grow like “real” orchids? Are their rampant roots as sensitive to the environment as their species cousins? These botanical wonders pump out the flowers and the foliage. They are clearly adaptable to the garden, perhaps made for the garden. I wonder how they would make it in the real world? Maybe these questions aren’t fair. You may ask, what’s “real,” and it’s a hard one to answer. A hybrid plant is a piece of art like any painting. Maybe we can stretch it and say it’s a sort of evolutionary product since it’s part of our human evolutionary trajectory. We made it.
The challenge that I’m after is to see how orchid species can endure and thrive outside of their native habitats, in a habitat that might be marginally too hot, too cool, or too dry. I want to see how well I can care for them to keep them growing and developing as free hanging epiphytes, independent of the soil. It’s not that I’m some kind of purist. I guess it’s just that my experiment is focused elsewhere than most peoples growing goals. I like the species better. Are the hybrids with all their “more,” more growth, more and bigger flowers, actually somehow “less” than their species progenitors?
I might have made a lot of people mad by writing this. I’d love to hear your opinions and discuss more. I told you I’m brand new at this!
But I just want to add that there are positives in the hybrids, even for me. I think there’s a lot I can learn from the hybrids. They show me wonderfully what an idealized root can look like and do. They show me real vigor and health and I can look for those signs in my species to see if they are doing OK. And they can teach me too be patient with all kinds of tinkering, not just the stuff I like to do.
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