This week I would like to present Cymbidium Julie Hawkes (Red Beauty x Kelly's Winter).

This small standard cymbidium was registered by V. Haskard in 1995.

Previous Awards:

There are 2 awards for this cross.

Cymbidium Julie Hawkes ‘Phyllis’ HCC/AOS 77 pts (2012) has 26 flower on one inflorescence.

Another clone, ‘Teisha’ HCC/AOC 78 pts from Australia (2002) has 11 flower on one inflorescence.

Description:

Our candidate plant has 12 fully opened flowers on one inflorescence 86 cm long.

The parentage species that makes up the majority of this cross listed from highest % to lowest % are insigne, lowianum, eburnenum, hookerianum, erythrostylum, and few other species

Flower Measurements:

NS H - 10.0 cm; NS V - 9.0 cm;

Dorsal Sep. W - 4.5 cm; Dorsal Sep. L - 6.0 cm;

Petal W - 3.0 cm; Petals L - 6.0 cm;

Lat/Sepal W - 4.0 cm; Lat/Sepal L - 6.0 cm;

Lip/Pouch W - 3.5 cm; Lip/Pouch L - 4.5 cm.

Judges' Comments

Joanna K. Eckstrom

Very pleasing, nicely colored flowers, well arranged on the inflorescence. Flowers appear full and well-rounded although I am a tiny bit disturbed by fold / dimple on some of the dorsal sepals. If this plant were to be nominated, I might consider high HCC. I wonder if flower count on 'Phyllis' is correct ...

Best regards,

Joanna K Eckstrom

George Hatfield

Sergey,

I agree this is a very good cymbidium! I would probably score this 83 points. The Cym. Red Beauty parent is a diverse grex with many notable clones that imparted various attributes to their progeny. Cym. Red Beauty 'Netty' was probably the most noted as it was very large appox 14 cm. NS. with over 20+ flowers per inflorescence on a well grown plant. One common flaw of Cym. Red Beauty progeny is a lack of uniform pigment density centraly in the petal. This hybrid seems to have overcome that problem!

Best Regards,

George Hatfield

Alan Koch

The information on ‘Phyllis’ is correct, I was on the team back in 2012. I would love to see images of this plant, as I did not receive any.

The flowers were crowded which led to them looking more cupped. All judges mentioned they more than likely would have given it an AM if it hadn't been crowded. Size was incredible when considering the flower count.

The current candidate has better color than the two previous awards. It is slightly smaller than I would expect for the cross, and the petal width is a little narrower than I would anticipate and just a little crowded but not as crowded as ‘Phyllis’. The lip is a beautiful contrast to the sepals and petals with good markings. I would score this between 77 to 79 points.

Alan

Ed Weber

My comments:

Only one AOS award to this grex. The other is an AOC award.

Considering only the AOS award in my comments, I find that while slightly smaller than 'Phyllis', our candidate has better shape and confirmation, denser coloration (unless photography is to blame), and is generally more appealing than 'Phyllis'. I am not a big fan of pink flowers. Everyone who knows me knows this. However, I find the color of this flower to be very pleasing and consistent from one flower to the next. The presentation is also more pleasing, given that there are fewer flowers than on 'Phyllis' this is not surprising. The flowers on 'Phyllis' appear to be all over the place. I probably would not have awarded that clone had I been present.

The markings and color saturation of same on the lips of our candidate are much more striking than 'Phyllis' and are shockingly consistent from flower to flower. This I find a highly desirable trait.

Given the number of ancestors this cross has there is a surprising shortage of information available. I went looking to see where the hooded dorsal came from and found that, not surprisingly, several of the ancestor species have this trait. Given this information I am able to overlook it in our cross but it DOES impact my form evaluation, only less so knowing it is a common trait.

Overall I really like this flower. I would not hesitate to nominate it for a flower award. I would likely come in somewhere between 80 and 83 points. Thanks to the grower for sharing.

Ed Weber

Omar Bounds

Very nice: I would own it.

Award quality ? Nope. At least not yet.

I would like a little more from Red Beauty.

Give it a few years to develop.

OPBounds

Carrie Buchman

Cymbidium Julie Hawkes

Lovely pink flowers on a cleanly grown plant. The lip is stunning, and the flowers are relatively open compared to the 2 awarded clones. The flowers are well formed and of a comparable size, though they are bit crowded on the inflorescence. The markings on the lip are distinct, symmetrical and visually appealing; and I love the maroon markings on the underside of the column echoing those on the lip itself. What sets this flower apart are the flat petals (‘Teisha’ has incurved tips) and the minimal hooding at the dorsal apex. The inflorescence is staked. I would hope that the inflorescence would be strong enough to hold itself upright with the weight of the flowers. I would nominate it for a flower quality award.

Kind Regards,

Carrie Buchman

Deb Bodei

Hi Sergey,

Here is my commentary for inclusion in the judges summary for this week's plant.

Observations and Commentary

The flower form is very good with a dazzling lip. Petals and sepals are full and certainly fill out the circle nicely. There is an overall balance to this flower form that is very attractive. Slight cupping as usual in the dorsal but also some additional pinching on a few blooms.

The color is very pleasing and the warm pink of the sepals and petals really showcases that striking lip. I like the consistency of the longitudinal mid-line on the petals and it seems to add depth to the overall flower. I do see a few color breaks in sepals and petals on some of the lower flowers that could easily be accounted for in the scoring.

The size is on par with others awarded, and from the photo substance and texture stand up. The fact that there is only one inflorescence and that it is a young plant will bring down scoring on the last two line items in the ‘other’ category. I would have loved to have seen a second inflorescence to give this plant a chance to achieve a higher score now.

Recommendation

I would nominate this plant for a flower award and can see it just about reaching the AM mark this year. It also runs the risk of just missing and landing an HCC, which is ok. If this plant visits the judging table again as a larger plant with more inflorescences and a similar flowing, it would score much higher. I would encourage it to return even if it was awarded this time.

Thank you,

Deb

Mark Werther

Cymbidium Julie Hawkes

Thirty to forty years ago we had several Cymbidium growers like Bianci and Starke bring Cymbidiums into judging. It is certainly interesting to see a Standard Cymbidium for a chance as we do not see many like the West Coast CSA.

My first response was that the flowers were beautifully formed, exceptional color and patterns, and a very well-organized vertical inflorescence. In the same thought is that the flower is smaller than what we normally expect by 1 – 2 cm.

I went back to Cym. Balkis first (like ‘Silver Orb’). The one I was looking for had the distinctive dotting pattern on the lip. I then refreshed my memory on the big three: lowianum, insigne and eburneum:

Lowianum for size and the central mid-rib lines and the solid red V on the lip that I imagine allows color transfusion. Insigne for the dotted lip and pink coloration with consistent transverse lineage. Eburneum seems to get thrown in for support.

That look me to Alexanderi – generally white with dotted lip and a true building block registered in 1911. Now we have traveled 110 years.

As far an award, the beautiful perfect oval confirmation partially balances out the smaller size. The pleasant distribution of the darker pink combined with clear raspberry lineage is excellent. The spacing and general consistent pattern of the lip spotting is also excellent. I would nominate and submit an 82 – 83 score. What makes this more interesting is that the history of its breeding indicates that over twenty flowers may be obtained on one inflorescence.

Mark Werther

Sergey Skoropad

Cymbidium Julie Hawkes

This’s gorgeous cymbidium!

I found presentation is very pleasant, just right.

Color is very nice, consistent, compare to awarded l like this color much better.

Have 12 flowers compared to 26 on clone ‘Phyllis’ doesn’t bother me, I prefer to see better presentation with less flowers than crowded with more flowers.

Shape of the flowers is full, making nice circle.

Lip is beautiful, I like contrast between deep red markings on the lip and soft pink color of the petals and sepals. I found that marking on the lip is consistent from flower to flower.

I would nominate for flower award and score as low AM. If I can see same plant with 2-3 spikes and same presentation I would give flowers high AM.

Thanks

Sergey

Exhibitor - Trevor Yee, Australia (Accredited Judge, Australian Orchid Consul)

Grower's Advice

Thank you your considered observations and comments on my cymbidium.

I was honoured that Sergey suggested I put forward an orchid for consideration, and after a few deliberations, we settled on this cymbidium.

We thought it would be an ideal candidate to stimulate discussions on cymbidiums since the East Coast panels typically don’t see many for award consideration.

I don’t grow many intermediate and standards cymbidiums and prefer the pendulous types. However, once in a while I am pleasantly surprised at an outcome and Julie Hawkes was one of them. This year I also decided to place the plant in a shadier position and let the buds face stronger light. The result is that all the flowers have opened in one direction. Many growers in Sydney try to have flowers evenly spaced around the raceme – but then you only see half of them!

Some of the attributes I find appealing on this particular blooming are the way the flowers have arranged themselves to face the viewer, flower petals are open and not too cuppy, nice even broad segments on all the flowers and even coloration across the flowers. Usually the newer flowers are smaller but I’m pleased that the size is also quite uniform. The patterning of the lip is also a standout.

Some elements that could have been better are the arrangement towards the top is slightly bunched – but this could be remedied with stretching the developing inflorescence (using a nico-roll). There are a few minor color breaks, but as you get more flowers, there is a higher chance of something going wrong.

Overall I would have scored it a high HCC or low AM range 78-82 pts.

Attached is a FCC awarded some years ago to give you some idea of the full shapes we have attained in Australian breeding. This is Cym. Serhan’s Passion ‘Marion’ FCC/AOC