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To romance for a moment, picture a long dining table laid for twelve person with the finest while linen and shining cutlery, lit by the soft glow of candlelight from silver candlesticks, and these dark blooms with their mysterious musky scent stretched out as table decoration and matching the white tie and tails of the male guests, and their claim to be called black would be fully justified. From this flight of fancy we must been used extensively in breeding, and never more successfully then with flos-aeris to produce the well-known Arachnis Maggie Oei (pronounced ‘wee’). This cross was made with ‘luteola’ by John Laycock; the seed was sown in 1935, and first flowered in 1940. Nothing is known of the lady, except the surmise, from the spelling, that she was Indonesian Chinese.

There are two varieties of Maggie Oei, one with reddish-brown bars across the petals and sepals called ‘Red Ribbon’, and the other ‘yellow Ribbon’, and distinctively paler. In the earlier 1950s when this free- flowering plant was returning to cultivation after marking time during the Japanese Occupation, John Laycock used to take a supply of these sprays to Hong Kong by boat every Christmas, to give to his friends and to satisfy himself that they had the long-lasting qualities suitable for export. In 1957-58 we were beginning to fly Maggie Oei, first to England and London florists, and to Holland, and then further a field, so giving birth to Singapore’s export industry for cut orchid flowers.

Posted in: Home and Garden by bowo84 /