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Historical Contribution of Bryants
Orchids
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| History is continuously being rewritten. Sometimes the rewriting
doesn't do justice to or appropriately reflect the significance of the
original events. With this in mind the following is a brief summary of
the history of the contribution of Bryants Orchids at Kurnell to the
world of Orchids. Bryants Orchids has exported Cymbidium cut flowers
around the world as well as supplying the local domestic cut flower
markets. |
Alvin Bryant played an important role in the early understanding of
alba inheritance and the development of pure colour Cymbidiums in the
late 1950's and 1960's. His cross of Sussex Dawn x Durham Castle was
registered as Sleeping Beauty and a number of varieties from this grex
received quality awards and awards of distinction.
Durham Castle "Snow Princess"2n
Sleeping Beauty "Sarah Jean" 2n |
A lot of Alvin's work in the late 1960's and early 1970's
involved hybridising early cut flower varieties for the export market
because early season varieties brought the best prices. Clean clear
colours were required for the Northern Hemisphere export market. There
was a shortage of quality tetraploid parents around at this time so
Alvin developed the superb early flowering pink Sylvania "Sonnet" 4n
among others. This enabled the creation of a number of outstanding
triploid crosses which often gave superior results for cut flower
production to the diploid crosses that were then available. Albas or
pure colours were still important however. Important crosses such as
Pharaoh, Rose Armstrong, Portuguese Passion, Sleeping Dream, Pharaohs'
Gold, Yamba and others were made to further alba development.
Rose Armstrong "Sunray" |
Lisa Rose "Fireglow" 3n (Sylvania x Keera) . The Lisa Rose cross was
hugely successful commercially in Australia, New Zealand and Holland.
Many Kiwi growers still export Lisa Rose varieties. |
 Since
the 1970's Arcadian Sunrise "Golden Fleece" 3n has been one of the most
successful commercial cymbidiums of all time and it was hybridised
by Alvin Bryant. It is still widely grown in Holland & N.Z. |
| To cut a long history short is necessary unfortunately. The
development of tetraploids became the main focus of Alvin's hybridising
in the mid 1970's and 1980's. Using tetraploid parents including
Sylvania "Sonnet", Fanfare "St Francis"4n , Winter Fair "Crystal" 4n ,
White Christmas "Snow Drift" 4n, Lunagrad "Elanora"4n, Wallara
"Gold Nugget" , Palaker "Grande", Joan of Arc "Olivine May" many famous
crosses were produced such as Winter Wonder, Lunara, Tongariro,
Winter Paradise (the top left picture on this page is of Winter Paradise
"Carol"), Trinity Gold, Sylvan Globe, Evelyn Victoria, Cronulla,
Stargard etc. |
| The export cut flower market required cool pastel colours for the
hot northern hemisphere summer. The domestic cut flower and pot plant
market preferred strong hot colours for the Australian winter so the
late 1980's and 1990's saw Bryants Orchids increase its hybridising for
the dark strong colours. Famous crosses such as Yowie Rose, Blazing
Fury, Khan Flame, Lunakira, Emerald Frenzy, Lancashire Khan, Lovely
Angel and tetraploid remakes of Tathra and Wyong Rose were produced. The
pages in this web site should give an insight into our current
hybridising directions. |
| The high number of awards received in Australia, US, New Zealand,
South Africa and the UK for hybrids from Bryants Orchids over the
last 40 years is difficult to accurately quantify as is the number of
our hybrids that are still being used by commercial cut flower growers
and other growers. A number of New Zealand commercial growers have told
me that an estimated 20-25% of the New Zealand export Cymbidium cut
flower production comes from varieties that originated from Bryants
Orchids. |
Pictures of Dutch commercial displays in exhibition near Florence,
Italy. Blazing Fury "Hades" is featured left, Joan's Charisma "Vanity"
right  |
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