It's not surprising that the off-spring from these two top-ranked Coelogynes is beautiful, nor that they are very similar looking given the two big white and gold parents. There is a major compromise, however. Coelogyne mooreana has upright flower spikes while Coelogyne cristata has cascading spikes. Coelogyne Linda Buckley is fairly upright in flowering habit but has also inherited some of the 'wavey' sepals from its pollen parent.

The pod parent is from Vietnam, i.e. warm and tropical, whereas, the pollen parent is from the Himalayas i.e. cold. This hybrid should cope with a greater range of growing conditions.

Negatives: It is so similar to its spectacular parents that it must rank lower in purchasing order. It only flowers once a year (like its pollen parent) and is probably not as hardy as its father which comes from Nepal.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦  Buy the parents first and then definitely buy a Coelogyne Linda Buckley if you can possibly make space for it.

Varieties: Interestingly, given the few Coelogyne hybrids that were in existence about the time Coelogyne Linda Buckley was made, the same hybrid was created in Australia by Ron Pearce (who also created and registered Coelogyne Edward Pearce). However, when he went to register his hybrid, it had already been done a few weeks earlier by R.C. Hull of the United States of America. Pearce contented himself with adding the name of his daughter as a tag to make his hybrid named Coelogyne Linda Buckley 'Rhonda Ward'. His son, Edward, kindly gave me a huge specimen of this Aussie version.

With orchid registrations, once a hybrid has been registered, all new or other hybrids using the same parent must have the originally registered epithet as the formal name. As in the above case, additional tags can be added on after the official name.

Coelogyne Linda Buckley 'Kirribilli' (made by Kevin Dawes) is a remake using Coelogyne mooreana 'Brockhurst' and Coelogyne cristata 'Major' - both possibly superior horticultural varieties of the original parents. Note again that by established convention the hybrid is still called Coelogyne Linda Buckley.

Registered: 1989 by R Hull of Oregan, USA.

Unregistered:

< Coel Kirribilli Susan Dixon

Coel Lyme Bay >