This is one of several plants I own of the hybrid of Dendrobium cuthbertsonii and Dendrobium lawesii. The cross has reduced the size of Dendrobium lawesii, a species with long pendant canes, and has produced a plant with erect growths and flowers that are more open (those of Dendrobium lawesii are tubular). The hybrid has canes 12 cm tall with 3 cm flowers that are produced in clusters. The leaves have the "pebbled" appearance of the Dendrobium cuthbertsonii parent.
Dendrobium Illusion is a hybrid of Dendrobium cuthbersonii and Dendrobium lawesii. It is only 12 cm tall and has 3 cm flowers. I have three plants of this cross and this plant has the largest and most open flowers. They are also orange where the other plants have flowers that are red or red-orange.The plant is much easier to grow than either parent and tolerates warmer temperatures than Dendrobium cuthbertsonii. It is almost always in flower.
I have three different plants of this cross, a hybrid of the tiny Dendrobium cuthbertsonii and the much larger Dendrobium lawesii. This plant is intermediate between the other two, one of which has larger flowers that are orange in color and the other which has smaller flowers which are more red in color. They are all around 12 cm tall and the flowers are 3 cm in size.
Dendrobium Illusion is a hybrid of two New Guinean species, Dendrobium cuthbertsonii, a tiny species in the Oxyglossum section, and Dendrobium lawesii, a much larger plant with long cane-like stems in the Pedilonum section. It has some of the better features of both its parents. It is much smaller in size than Dend. lawesii and has the large, long-lasting flowers of Dend. cuthbertsonii and is certainly easier to grow and bloom than that species.
I have three plants and this is one has the largest flowers, which are also more orange than the other two clones, but it does not seem to bloom with as many flowers as the others. The flowers are so very long lasting that the plant is rarely out of bloom. As the old flowers finally fade new buds are opening. Nevertheless its best bloom time is in early winter when these photos were taken. I grow it in a clay pot in live sphagnum moss.
This hybrid of Dendrobium cuthbertsonii, a tiny species, and Dendrobium lawesii, a large cane-type species, is much easier to grow than either of the two parents, and is almost always in bloom, though the largest flush of flowers comes in the autumn. One plus is that the flowers last for many months and so the plant is rarely without blooms.
Dendrobium Illusion is a hybrid of the micro-miniature Dendrobium cuthbertsonii and the large cane-type Dendrobium lawesii. It has short, upright canes that are reminiscent of lawesii, but only a few inches tall. The flowers are most like cutherbertsonii, but it is easier to grow and freer blooming than that species. In fact, because the flowers last so long - up to six months - the three plants I have are never out of flower. This one has the shortest canes and the best flowers and is in a 1.5 inch clay pot, though the pot is not visible because of the moss.
Dendrobium Illusion is a hybrid between the large-flowered but micro-miniature Dendrobium cuthbertsonii and the cane-type Dendrobium lawesii. The plants of this hybrid are about three inches tall, much larger than cuthbertsonii, but much small than lawesii and the flowers are about the same size as cuthbertsonii. The individual flowers last as long as six months.
