Odontonia Pacific Paranoia ‘Other Side Of Kool’

Purple, everyone loves purple.  Although surprisingly my local orchid society members preferred Oncidium Alosuka ‘Claire’ over Odontonia Pacific Paranoia ‘Other Side Of Kool’ when I took a display plant of each in last year!  Apart from that little hiccup I’ve found most prefer purple and it’s a colour that some Oncidium intergenerics do very well.  Pacific Paranoia is a hybrid between Miltonia Honolulu and Odontoglossum (old genus name) bictoniensis, which is also a parent to Odontocidium Everglades Elegance ‘Nancy Lee’.  Miltonia Honolulu passed on it’s purple colouration to Pacific Paranoia but with the increased flower count from bictoniensis.

Now those who have purchased one, be prepared for one prolific orchid.  This orchid regularly double growths and quickly becomes a big clumpy plant, with each growth typically putting up two spikes as the plant matures.  The spikes are generally self supporting although not that big (see photo).  I’ve yet to grow a plant on into a specimen display, so the photo shows only a typical production plant in a 105mm pot.  A few plants that have been potted into 140mm pots are really starting to take off.