Tim Culbertson: Catasetums

Since I was young, one of my passions has always been plants.  I began growing orchids in high school, and expanded my collection as an offshoot from working at Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia just after college.  From the very beginning it was all about Paphs, particularly awarded and select clones of historic importance, of which my collection numbers in the thousands.  While I love finding old, rare stepping stones in paph breeding, I also do a little hybridizing of my own, and growing and flowering my hybrids is very exciting.  I was once the youngest accredited judge with the American Orchid Society, and have been a judge now for 20 years; I have served in various capacities with various orchid societies in California and on the East Coast.  Recently, I’ve partnered with Fred Clarke to greatly expand the selection of paphs at Sunset Valley Orchids through the acquisition of significant parts of Sam Tsui’s collection at Orchid Inn. I currently manage the Paphs at SVO, and do hybridizing in a wide range of genera including Cattleya, Catasetinae and Masdevallia.  I love meeting other people who like orchids too, and doing so often finds me traveling to shows, vendors, and peoples’ greenhouses to see the latest and greatest in new hybrids and species.  I like to be involved in plants as much as possible: in addition to Longwood, I’ve worked at the Smithsonian Institution tending to their orchids, and for years for the United States National Arboretum, collecting rare non-orchid plants and documenting cultivated species and hybrids for their herbarium.  In short, I really like plants of all kinds.

I love Catasetums! They are fantastic plants, with an incredible diversity in colors and forms. At SVO, we understand that growing space is limited, so we are working hard to produce the best miniature Catasetums available. This presentation includes some of the important parents in miniature Catasetum breeding, interesting directions for intergenerics, wonderful photos of the pathway we’ve taken to achieve miniature results, some natural history of this incredible alliance, and lots of information on Catasetum culture. !  By the end of this presentation, you will have a new appreciation of their beautiful flowers and ease-of-growth.  I will have lots of plants of this alliance for sale.