Thank you arthurm. The answers to your questions is... 1. Yes it is a stray pod I did not plan this. I had a 2nd tolumina at 1 time but it has since died about 6 mo ago. Is it possible that it could have crossed with one of my other orchids around it? 2. I was going to try to do the germinating myself not send it out. Was thinking about starting a new hobby. Hoping it works. 3. Unfortunately I do not have the name of the plant species, the spike with the name on it has been lost. I may be able to get lucky and go back to home depot where I bought it and see if there are any exact matches. And I have a few questions to add. What do you mean by green pod or ripe seed? This seed pod stuff is new to me. I have propagated new plants from spikes but never seeds (yet:-)) And also are you saying to wait 2 months to sow the seeds out of the seed pod? Or what's a tell tale sign of when to sow the seeds? Thanks a ton for your response...

oh, how interesting. They claim "BOSTON" is a registered trademark. I'm not finding a registration record, but I'm no expert on Benelux trademarks. The usual deal in the U.S. is that if it's a trademark, it is not a clonal name or a grex. You can't have both. The same entity, ANTHURA B.V. CORPORATION, has a patent in the US for what they call ANTHURA GOLD. The link is below. Long story short, I think you have a noid as far as the RHS is concerned. Here is a link that might be useful: Anthura Gold patent

Wow, Vladimir and Albert for the CSI ( a popular show about crime that had used DNA and fingerprints mostly in the 1990's, and they used petri dishes to grow disease cultures) type of info, BTW, I haven't tried the seed germination with Agar and /or gelatin, I've found a nursery who sells these native plants, so I am happy to just purchase these plants. Nature seems to do just fine without Agar or gelatin, but, sometimes people need to find a way to get propagation going beyond nature, I am not sure how these nurseries got the plants I bought but, I'm pretty sure that they got these plants I bought from "air layering" of the native Rhododendrons. That means simply taking a branch from the native Rhody, and securing it to the soil of a new pot, and waiting until it forms roots in that pot. But, If they got their new Rhodies from seed or whatever, I really don't care, but, I am thinking "air layering" is what they just might use for making new plants, I say this because I think that the seed growing system of making more Rhodies of the "native" Rhododendron Maximum" which is the native Rhododendron, the one Rhodie that I was wanting to grow many of here in my zone 6 Pa garden, I should say my Zone 6 western Pa yard under my trees because this Rhodie only likes shade. Well, anyway, I'm glad to get my seedlings from my nursery that had grown these native Rhodies from air-layering or whatever damn method they had used, but, I must admit that I am kinda curious about the use of gelatin or agar, when they do use these substances to grow from seed, IF they are using this agar to grow plants from seeds.

Michael in your original statement you stated "most" ( most transmission of blackspot is from leaf to leaf, not ground to leaf." I was interested in your reference for "most". I am sorry if I did not make it clear. I have no problem with your quote from Horst: ""The fungus overwinters as mycelia in fallen leaves or on infected canes." It does not include a "most". Now you are limiting your statement with a "If fallen leaves are covered with a new layer of mulch, infection of new growth in spring is going to come primarily from infected canes and old leaves hanging on the plants--carried to the new growth by splashing water." That is a completely different statement than your original one. I have no problem with that one. If you remove the possibility of one; than, yes, most has to come from the other. ----------------------------------------------------- Regarding the effects of different mulches and pH. In another thread I introduced that a scientific study has shown that horse manure fosters the friendly anti backspot Trichoderma fungi. It is also possible that the soil pH affects the blackspot due to its effect on friendlies. A cornmeal mulch has been reported to decrease blackspot (see threads in organic roses forum) and it also is known to foster friendlies. ----------------------------------------- Some tree mulches should also help: "A total of 37 species were found on decaying litter of all 3 tree species. These included .........Trichoderma album Preuss, and T. viride Pers. ex Fr." From: Title: "FUNGI ISOLATED FROM DECOMPOSING CONIFER LITTER" Author: JOHN W. BRANDSBERG Published in: Mycologia, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Mar. - Apr., 1969), pp. 373-381. Here is a link that might be useful: link for decomposing conifer litter