Tim is a middle school teacher with a very diverse background in orchids, experience gained from working at Longwood Gardens, the Smithsonian, and the US National Arboretum. Fueled by his love of tracing the development of hybridization in awarded and select clones of historical significance, he maintains a 3000-plant orchid collection which includes ‘rare stepping-stone’ plants in Paphiopedilum breeding. He is an engaging speaker, excited by new hybrids and has presented talks on breeding trends in encylias, laelias, holcoglossums, and Zygopetalinae, among others.
His presentation on Lycaste follows this same interest as he traces the hybrids of Lycaste Auburn, a foundation hybrid containing a lot of Lycaste skinneri (virginalis) through its many generations to improved lines of perfect form and color: the pink Lycastes, improved by frequent backcrossings to Lyc. skinneri (vriginalis) and use of tetraploidy; the amazing red Lycastes developed through crosses and backcrosses of skinneri (virginalis) and lasioglossa; and the addition of the little yellow Lycaste species to produce huge yellows, and whites. He ends with the latest trends in Lycaste breeding, including a review of Japanese trends, breeding to flowers with huge but crippled sepals, and his personal hybridization efforts to increase petal size, and use of brown Lycaste to increase the flower count per pseudobulb. He ends the lecture with useful information on growing Lycastes successfully. Some of the key hybrids covered in this talk are Lycaste Koolena, Shoalhaven, Shoalhaven ‘Mrs Skinner’; Wyldfire, Chita Melody, Chita Sunset, Yukiko Dream, Memoria Kageyuki Mito, Shonan Melody 'Chita Snow Fall' FCC/AOS and Larry Cox 'Elektra' AM/AOS.
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