2018 ASHS Annual Conference

Orchids are currently one of the most popular floriculture crop worldwide, and rank top in production in the U.S. Consumers nowadays can purchase exotic orchids from various venues, not limited to traditional orchid nursery, but also from grocery and hardware stores. The present popularity of orchids is partially due to the continuous effort by hybridizers to increase flower size, improve flower shape and color. Despite a rather intense breeding effort, additional characteristics such as cold hardiness or tolerance should be considered to make orchids even more popular or approachable to the general public or reduce the heating cost during production. Several species of Cymbidium, Dendrobium, and ones belonging to the subtribe Laeliinae show a certain degree of cold hardiness and those species have been casually used in developing hybrids. However, no specific and systematic attempt has been made to impart cold hardiness into commonly available orchids. At Kentucky State University, breeding effort is underway to develop temperature tolerant epiphytic orchids, utilizing some of these cold hardy orchids such as Cymbidium goeringii, Dendrobium moniliforme, Epidendrum magnoliae, Encyclia tampemsis and Laelia anceps. In this presentation, strategies in for developing cold tolerant epiphytic orchids will be discussed.