The one word that best describes the world of orchids is glamour. No group of plants has ever captured the imagination like this strange, exotic and beautiful flower.
When they were discovered in the late 1700s and early 1800s, orchids became sought after by European royalty.
Cattleyas were especially revered by collectors and were eventually given the title "Queen of the Orchids."
From the late 1920s through the 1950s, women wore corsages of cattleya flowers whenever they wanted a touch of glamour. President Eisenhower's wife, Mamie, was never seen in public without her corsage of two or three cattleya flowers. In the 1940s, teenage boys gave their junior or senior prom dates cattleya corsages, because the girls expected them.
Hollywood personalities such as Gregory Peck and Raymond Burr grew a treasure trove of cattleyas.
During Peck's television interviews, he often was surrounded by his large cattleya plants.
Burr's orchid collection was legendary and included a sizable commercial interest, Sea God Nurseries, with hundreds of registered cattleya hybrids and an orchid garden on the Indonesian island of Java.
One of our modern-day celebrities, Priscilla Presley, sat down recently to have her picture taken with her namesake orchid, Cattleya Priscilla Presley. It was through mutual friends that we approached her several years ago about having an orchid named in her honor.
She liked the idea and, in the months that followed, she personally selected the hybrid from photographs of seedlings that were in production. As the delicate buds started to appear in the sheaths, we would ship the special plants across the country — in the dead of winter — praying that the plants wouldn't freeze or get damaged.
All the seedlings from this celebrity cross bloom during January and February — exactly when they are desired most by hobbyists. The lavender shaded petals vary ever so slightly from plant to plant, and the darker throats offer a hint of gold veining and an unmistakable fragrance.
Presley, who also has a rose perfume that carries her name, keeps a collection of her namesake orchids in Beverly Hills, Calif., where they bloom for more than a month.
The new hybrid was unveiled for the first time to the public as a large grouping of seedlings at last month's Virginia Orchid Society show in Richmond.
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