Hybrid Orchid Plants : The Ultimate Guide to Growing

Namely, your hybrid orchids. These plants, born from the crossbreeding of two orchid species, are some of the most beautiful and popular additions to a horticulturalist’s collections. With their huge variety of colour, size and shape, it’s easy to see why hybrid orchids attract both newcomers to the orchid world and experienced connoisseurs. In this complete guide to hybrid orchid plants, we’ll learn about the history of hybridising orchids, discover how they’re created, and explore the best practices and recommended care tips for growing and enjoying your hybrid orchid plants, as well as some tips for helping your plant thrive.

 

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What Are Hybrid Orchids?

Hybrid orchids are orchids that have been hybridised from two or more species or genera. It is done to combine advantageous characteristics from the parent plants such as exotic colours, patterns, fragrances or increased resistance to disease. Orchid crossbreeding has been done for more than a century and there are now thousands of new orchid hybrids registered every year available to orchid enthusiasts.

Another attraction for hybrid orchids is their potential for variety. Species orchids have more predictable characteristics; they look the way you expect them to because their heritage has been relatively well protected over generations. But hybrids are products of mixing things up, and so can venture far from the norms in any particular lineage. In that way, hybrid orchids can be very exciting, but also a little unpredictable.

The History of Orchid Hybridization

Orchid hybridisation had begun centuries earlier, with Charles Darwin writing about hybrid tea roses, Israel Umbel’s work with heather, and Edmund Hal Cooper popularising hybrid potatoes. But the 19th century saw a flurry of innovation; it can sometimes be referred to as a time of orchid mania. By the 1880s, serious horticulturists began to breed and reproduce orchids by creating hybrids, or crosses. The first documented orchid hybrid, Calanthe Dominii, was produced in 1856 by John Dominy, a gardener in Exeter, England. This offspring resulted from the fertilisation of one Calanthe orchid seedpod by another, proving successful.

With the burgeoning interest in orchids brought more lucrative options. While large hybridisers began to improve the reliability and yield of orchids grown for their bulbs, the market demand for new ‘mine-and-yours’ hybrids encouraged chromosomal creativity. By the 1890s, one report tells us of cultivars containing ‘five times as many chromosomes as there are species in a genus,’ with hybrids made of ‘three species’ or even ‘genera’. Today the Royal Horticultural Society maintains a database of some 20,000 registered orchid hybrids.

How Are Hybrid Orchids Created?

The start of the hybrid orchid-breeding process involves selecting parent plants that exhibit pleasing characteristics. Before any hybridisation can take place, one flower must be pollinated by the pollen of another. Depending on the intricacy of the pollination process, this can be done by hand with a small paintbrush. The pollen found on the pollinator in an orchid flower can be brushed from the anther to the stigma of another flower. After pollination, the flower will produce a seed pod, which takes several months to mature.

When the seed pod is ripe, it is harvested and the seeds inside are sown in a sterile growing medium, often a plastic flask or a petri dish. Because orchid seeds are so minuscule and devoid of nutrients, they require a special nutrient-rich growing medium in order to germinate. The process by which seeds can germinate and grow in vitro – that is, in a petri dish rather than the ground – is called tissue culture or in vitro propagation. This technique has enabled orchid growers to produce thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of plants from a single cross (hybrid orchids are also produced through sexual or fertilisation methods).

Once germinated and putative plantlets form, the individual seeds are potted up and raised under artificial conditions to a true singly rooted plant, with the process taking several years until a grown flowering plant can be sold or planted out. The result of this labour is a hybrid orchid that combines the best traits of its parental individuals.

Popular Types of Hybrid Orchids

Since hybrid orchids encompass thousands of different varieties, knowing where to start can take some research. Here are a few of the most common types of hybrid orchid that are widely available and relatively easy to grow:

Phalaenopsis (Moth Orchid) Hybrids

The genus Phalaenopsis, referred to as moth orchids, are generally thechids on planet Earth. Many of their hybrids are known to have large, long-lasting flowers and are relatively easy to care for, which is very important for people to succeed with their first orchid. Phalaenopsis hybrids can be found in many colours, such as white, pink, purple, yellow, and even in bicolours of various combinations of those colours.

Cattleya Hybrids

Cattleya hybrids, for instance, are thought to be especially prized for their brightly coloured and usually dramatically scented flowers, which are used for corsages and similar floral arrangements. Today, due to hybridisation, cattleya orchids are available in a much larger number of highly diverse colour and flower form combinations than would be possible with just the stocks of their parent species. Cattleya hybrids are often thought to have larger and more flamboyant flowers than their parent species, often with more striking patterns and colour combinations.

Dendrobium Hybrids

Dendrobium orchids are one of the most diverse in the world and hybrids range from very small, often fragile flowers to larger, showier blooms. Dendrobium orchids are also extremely versatile, and will grow well in a variety of conditions. Hybrids are chosen for, among other things, their prolific habit and the ability to produce numerous flower spikes at a time.

Vanda Hybrids

Most Vanda orchids produce big, bright, often blue or purple flowers on bold stems and – very important for a cut flower – that bloom lasts for a long time. The flowers of hybrid Vandas are striking, and they come in many colours and patterns. In contrast with most other orchid hybrids, Vandas are usually grown in baskets or mounted, with the aerial roots hanging from the basket or stake.

Oncidium Hybrids

Orchid lovers also collect so-called ‘dancing lady’ orchids such as Oncidium orchids (dancing lady meaning a flower shape that resembles a lady’s full skirt with a puffy train like her skirt pleat). Hybrids of Oncidiums are easy-to-grow, vigorous plants that long produce 20- to 30-flowered sprays. They tend to mature early and bloom abundantly until they die. Their flowers are small and brightly coloured in combinations of yellow, red or brown.

Growing and Caring for Hybrid Orchids

Although they are usually more forthcoming than their species counterparts, hybrid orchids will die without proper attention. After you’ve procured a hybrid orchid, here is what you need to do to ensure that it thrives: 1. Water and light The best way to look after hybrid orchids is by giving them frequent, small amounts of water. This is especially important for those that do not have pseudobulbs. Ensure that your flowers are getting enough water by checking the interior potting material; if the bottom two inches feel dry, it will benefit from a watering. The amount of sunlight your flowers need is largely dependent on the evergreen or deciduous nature of your hybrid. Hybrid orchids are divided into two groups: those that bloom and die in spring and summer, and those that are evergreen and bloom in winter. The orchids that are only in bloom for a short period make the best houseplants because they won’t overpower your living space. They might need more light to flower, but can be kept under artificial lights without issue. Many of these deciduous orchids are epiphytic plants that grow on barks and tree trunks in shaded forests; since they rely on water running down trees to hydrate themselves naturally, they don’t need excessive amounts of water. On the other hand, evergreens do best with indirect light and require much more water.

Light Requirements

Light is perhaps the single most important orchid-care factor. Most hybrids like bright indirect light; they’ll appreciate east- or west-facing window areas out of direct sun, or they will need grow lights. Shade orchids from the sun where you live might need good supplemental light to provide enough for good growth; some like light from shade. Too little light is definitely bad – it will result in fewer or no flowers at all. But too much direct sunlight will scorch leaves.

Temperature and Humidity

Most orchids need warm and humid conditions. The best temperature for the majority of hybrid orchids is 65°F (18°C) – 80°F (27°C) in daytime, and a little lower in the night. Humidity should be high, between 50 and 70 per cent. Place a humidifier where your orchids are.Another way to increase humidity is to put the pots in a tray with water and pebbles.

Watering

Watering is important to an orchid’s well-being. Thoroughly water hybrid orchids and let the water run out of the pot before putting back into the orchid dish. Overwatering is one of the most common reasons for an orchid’s death by root rot. The general rule is to water once a week. However, the frequency of watering could differ based on orchid variety, potting medium, and environmental conditions, and let potting medium dry out a tad between watering.