South Coast Orchid Society

Kay Francis Photo Archive:
Full Resolution Image
Blc. Memoria Helen Brown × Blc. Great Island and Blc. Memoria Helen Brown × Blc. Waianae Sunset 'Pokai', seedpods (197904H7_17)

Blc. Memoria Helen Brown × Blc. Great Island and Blc. Memoria Helen Brown × Blc. Waianae Sunset 'Pokai', seedpods, April, 1979. The slide label says on the front "with seed pod / Blc. Xanthedo / Blc. Helen Brown / 7/21/79", and on the back, "Took to Stewart's to sow", but the partially visible labels match the seedpod pictures of July, 1979, where the labels are completely legible, revealing the parentages of the two pods as stated above, the parent that Kay would later register as Blc. Great Island identified by its cross number from Miyamoto's nursery, "No. 580". The date 7/21/79 on this slide is anomalous as well, as it does not match the content of the slide and is later than the processing date of the slide itself. It is presumably the date of Kay's actual Memoria Helen Brown × Xanthedo cross. Also, in the July, 1979 slides, the pod plant is identified as Helen Brown FCC, but we found no record of any cultivar of Blc. Memoria Helen Brown ever receiving an FCC/AOS, and as the hybrid was registered in 1967, there were no ODC awards for it, either. Kay's pictures of her plant, the earliest dated in June, 1977, are not quite typical of the best known cultivar, 'Sweet Afton', but there may have been some variation among divisions or mericlones distributed in the mid-1970's.