I haven't flowered this hybrid yet. The few photos of flowers of this hybrid seen on the internet show a large variation in colour, from some that are very similar looking to the pod parent and have extremely dark lips, to others that have much lighter colouring from the pollen parent. The pictures indicate a very attractive flower and records of orchid club meetings show that many have won awards.

Both parents have large, very attractive flowers with striking colours. This is always a good start! Coelogyne usitana has extremely droopy flowers on a zig-zag stem. Coelogyne lawrenceana has very upright flower spikes which it has failed to pass on to the hybrid but at least the stem is straighter and lost the zig-zags. Both parents are sequential flowering (one flower at a time) so the hybrid should flower over an extended period.

Seedlings of this hybrid are on sale in Australia and I have also remade the hybrid in my laboratory. The seedling I bought is very slow growing and lacks vigour. My own seedlings were only deflasked in 2012 and will take three or four years to flower. At this stage they also lack the vigour of many of my other hybrids. I attribute this, in part at least, to my coldish growing conditions. Coelogyne usitana is by far my most heat demanding species and shows little tolerance to any coolness.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦ This looks like it will be a very attractive orchid.

Varieties: None known

Registered: with the RHS at Kew by D W Bird in 2011.

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