Orchid blooms
to lovely memorial
Charles Mitamura's namesake
stars at Foster Garden sale
Cattteya Memoria Charles Mitamura.
Special to the Star-Bulletin
By Lois Taylor
Star-Bulletin
Cattteya Memoria Charles Mitamura.
Special to the Star-Bulletin
Scot Mitamura, past vice president and show chairman of the Windward Orchid Society, has registered a cattleya orchid cultivar in memory of his grandfather, the late Charles Mitamura. He has recently released it for sale, and it will be offered for the first time at this weekend's Fall Plant Sale at Foster Garden.
The orchid, Cattleya Memoria Charles Mitamura, is a beauty. The 5 1/4-inch flowers are described as "bright deep yellow with bold reddish flaring on inner and outer portions of petals, sepals yellow with red central stripe, lip red with two bright yellow eyes centrally."
This description is taken from the application for registration of an orchid hybrid issued by the International Authority for the Registration of Orchid Hybrids of the Royal Horticultural Society in England. They approved, and the orchid is now included on Sander's List, a registry of all orchid hybrids recognized by the Royal Horticultural Society.
The new orchid is a cross between two species of the cattleya genus, Hawaiian Fantasy "Dora" and Toshie Aoki "Pizzazz."
Mitamura did not make the cross himself. He bought three unbloomed seedlings (young plants that have not yet blossomed) from Carmela Orchids, a nursery on the Big Island that hybridized the two orchids.
"When the first one bloomed, I called Sheldon Takasaki who made the cross and asked him how his seedlings were doing. Junk, he said. Then when my other two bloomed, they were what you'd expect-cream colored. There are thousands of seeds in each seed pod and there are big variations in seedlings," Mitamura said.
The seeds are taken to a laboratory to germinate in a sterile environment. Thousands of them are spread in an agar medium and they sprout into minute seedlings. The seedlings are then put into flasks, and later into community pots until they are about an inch tall. They are then separated into "thumb" pots, about the size of man's thumb. Slowly the pots increase in size as the plants grow; in six years or so, the first blossom may appear.
"Sometimes the cross is a flop," Mitamura said. "Some have no flowers, others have floppy flowers or poor color or they are slow growing or the leaves are stunted. We throw ... the junk ones out."
There is a strong Las Vegas element in this process, and once in a while you hit the jackpot, as Mitamura did with Memoria Charles Mitamura. Whenever a new seedling blooms, he said, it's like a present. There are presents like a new set of golf clubs and there are presents like a pair of socks.
Growing orchids from seeds, Mitamura said, is somewhat like growing mangoes from seeds. You get a wide range of results, from very good to not so good. You plant a seed and you might get a Shibata or a Pope or a Momi K mango, which is how they first appeared, or you get a tree that bears huge, stringy inedible fruit. To save time, mango growers graft good trees to produce more trees.
Orchid growers clone their great plants, as Mitamura did with Memoria Charles Mitamura. Cloning, or "meristemic multiplication" is a method of removing cells from the tip of newly formed shoots and growing this tissue into a large number of new plants. A cloned plant, like a graft, will be exactly like its parent.
Mitamura named his plant for his grandfather, who was a great influence on his life. Charles Mitamura was a commercial fisherman who became a successful clothing manufacturer. "Right after the war, home sewing became a big thing," Scot Mitamura said. "My grandfather became the distributor for Viking sewing machines, and then started a garment factory, Lei O Hawaii.
"It was right next door to the old Civic Auditorium on King Street, and my grandfather made all the costumes for the wrestlers. Ripper Collins and Hard-Boiled Haggarty were real celebrities to kids my age. I still have their autographs, and guys my age still remember them.
"In back of the factory, my grandfather grew orchids. I'd stay out of trouble by watering them, and that's how I got started with an interest in orchids."
While Mitamura's introduction may be the star of the Foster sale, there will also be a good selection of lady slipper orchids, Paphiopedilum. "These are ideal to grow on a window sill. They require shade and tolerate indoor conditions. The flowers will last three months on the plant, and it has nice mottled foliage so that it's pretty even when it's not in bloom," Mitamura said.
The flowers range in color from white and pale green to a maroon so dark that it is almost black. This last plant is a great favorite with mainland collectors, Mitamura said, although most local growers prefer the lighter colors.
The sale will also feature Hawaiian heritage plants such as taro, edible ferns and several colorful forms of sugar cane, as well as bamboo, citrus, haku lei plants and all the plant sale standards.
The facts
What: The Foster Garden Plant Sale