The Road to White Breeding by T Burnett
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1 The Road to White Breeding by T Burnett No greater parent has ever made its way into white complex breeding than Paph. F.C. Puddle. It is either a direct parent or in the ancestry of over 1800 registered crosses to date. The last registered cross using this orchid was registered in 2000 but we can see the importance of this orchid in the road to breeding whites. It has an almost pure white flower, it is neither large nor full-formed, but is a prolific breeder. While its whiteness proves to be highly dominant, its deficits in size and form are generally recessive and can be relatively easily overcome. These two traits in Paph. F C Puddle’s breeding, together with its high fertility, have made it instrumental as a white parent. From this starting point, many fine crosses have come about. This next step toward better whites generally involved crossing Paph. F C Puddle to other complex greens, yellow or golds to get bigger, fuller form. Paph. F.C.Puddle FCC/RHS Usually the other parent had a great deal of Paph. insigne in its background and this often helped to improve flower size. The following are among the best in this next generation, from a perspective of both flower quality and future parental attributes: Paph. Whitemoore (Paph. Dervish x Paph. F. C. Puddle) Paph. Dusty Miller (Paph. F. C. Puddle x Paph. Chardmoore) Paph. Shalimar Paph. F. C. Puddle x Paph. Susan Tucker
Transcript of The Road to White Breeding by T Burnett
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The Road to White Breeding by T Burnett
No greater parent has ever made its way into white complex breeding than Paph. F.C. Puddle. It is either a direct parent or in the ancestry of over 1800 registered crosses to date. The last registered cross using this orchid was registered in 2000 but we can see the importance of this orchid in the road to breeding whites.
It has an almost pure white flower, it is neither large nor full-formed, but is a prolific breeder. While its whiteness proves to be highly dominant, its deficits in size and form are generally recessive and can be relatively easily overcome. These two traits in Paph. F C Puddle’s breeding, together with its high fertility, have made it instrumental as a white parent. From this starting point, many fine crosses have come about. This next step toward better whites generally involved crossing Paph. F C Puddle to other complex greens, yellow or golds to get bigger, fuller form.
Paph. F.C.Puddle FCC/RHS
Usually the other parent had a great deal of Paph. insigne in its background and this often helped to improve flower size. The following are among the best in this next generation, from a perspective of both flower quality and future parental attributes:
Paph. Whitemoore
(Paph. Dervish x Paph. F. C. Puddle)
Paph. Dusty Miller
(Paph. F. C. Puddle x Paph. Chardmoore)
Paph. Shalimar
Paph. F. C. Puddle x Paph. Susan Tucker
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From the whites that this clone produced came the foundation to improve the shape and size. In order to improve this new generation of whites and take the next step forward, the normal method was to again cross to larger complexes. Greens or green/yellows were crossed to these whites to obtain clean whites in the next generation.
However, brushed golds, honey tones, and even reds were used to add the size and form. New colours ranging from light pastel to deep pinks began to pop up in the next generation, along with the traditional whites. The generation of pink type breeding become a buy product in this quest. The crossing of a brachypetalum, Paph. godefroyae with Paph. F,C.Puddle produced Paph. Skip Barlett with a nice shaped white and fine peppering spots.
Paph. Skip Bartlett
(Paph. godefroyae x Paph. F. C. Puddle)
Paph. Skip Bartlett, has been the most successful parent to come directly from Paph. F C Puddle. It is a mating between Paph. godefroyae var. leucochilum x Paph. F C Puddle, and the Paph. godefroyae var. leucochilum used was the awarded cultivar ‘Bion’ FCC/AOS.
Paph.godefroyae var. leucochilum ‘Bion’ was an immense example of the species, and probably contributes greatly in Paph. Skip Bartlett’s ability to fill out its own progeny. There are two other qualities for which Paph. Skip Bartlett excels. It has a strong ability to pass on its whiteness to its progeny, and it is quite fertile.
These crosses usually involved crossing Paph. Skip Bartlett to the biggest and fullest complex hybrids available at the time. The first Paph.Skip Bartlett cross made, Paph. White Knight (Paph. Green Mystery x Paph. Skip Bartlett) registered by Orchid Zone in 1987 advanced the quest for excellent whites.
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Paph. Green Mystery
Paph. Skip Bartlett
Paph. White Knight (Paph. Green Mystery x
Paph. Skip Bartlett)
The Paph. White Knight cross set the stage for breeding Paph. Skip Bartlett to many of the finest large complexes over the next decade in the quest for perfection in whites.
Paph. White Knight seedlings showing the various forms and soft colours.
Paph. White Knight
Paph. White Knight
Paph. White Knight
Paph. White Knight
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There have been 154 crosses that have used this hybrid as either pod or pollen parent. This is a testimony to the fact that Paph. Skip Bartlett not only breeds quality, but it is also very prolific and very fertile when crossed with other hybrids
Paph. White Knight is continuing as a parent with amazing success. It has produced a number of flowers of remarkable size, fullness, and clear colour when bred to some of the best contemporary standard Paphiopedilums.
Some of the more commonly known offspring using Paph. White Knight are :
Paph. White Knight
Paph White Knight x
Paph. Memoria Toshio Miyata) = Paph. Knight's Challenge
Paph. Memoria Toshio Miyata
Paph. Knight's Challenge
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Paph. Gege Hughes = Paph. Knight's Vow
Paph. Gege Hughes
Paph. Knight's Vow
Paph. Tara Marie = Paph. Silver Knight
Paph. Tara Marie
Paph. Silver Knight
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Paph. Elfstone = Paph. Mystic Knight
Paph. Elfstone
Paph. Mystic Knight
Paph. Jolly Green Gem = Paph. Tokyo Knight Dream
Paph. Jolly Green Gem
Paph. Tokyo Knight Dream
Orchid Zone has made many crosses using Paph. White Knight.
The next step is to inter breed the best of the whites onto whites or larger greens and yellows to improve the size, eg Paph. Jamboree Knight.
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Paph. Jamboree Knight
Paph. Jamboree Knight 2 clones
(Paph. Sunglow x Paph. Knight's Challenge)
Some are pure white with other throwing back to Paph. Sunglow previous parents.
Paph. Jamboree Knight
Paph. Toyko Knight x
Paph. Stone Lovely
= Paph. Airedale Dawn
This cross was made by Orchid Inn. A flask was purchased by Colin Dinsdale who flowered it and it is now registered as Paph. Airedale Dawn. The cross has lightened the yellow to a very pastel green and one more generation forward should see some fine whites.
I have used Paph. White Knight breeding lines to produce Paph. TB Ray McIntosh which are basically soft lemons or whites. This cross produced 10 seedlings of which only a couple have flowered to date.
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Paph. TB Ray McIntosh ‘Ronnie’
Paph. TB Ray McIntosh ‘2014’
The first of this cross to flower, Paph. TB Ray McIntosh ‘2014’ was an extremely small plant but the flower was quite large for the plant size. As the plant matures it will be interesting to see whether the next flowering is larger on a mature plant.
It will be interesting to compare the others when they flower.
Other crossing using Paph. Skip Bartlett has been used to produce white offspring but they are relative small in size compared with those produced by Paph. White Knight crossings with large exhibition Paphiopedilums.
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Paph. White Queen
(Paph. Via Virgenes x Paph. Skip Bartlett)
Paph. Pixie Dust
(Paph. Skip Bartlett x Paph. niveum)
What can we expect when we start crossing these almost pure white hybrids back to reds, autumn tones and spotted complex hybrids? Will we see large white dorsals with bold spots or lovely soft pinks? Time alone will tell.
