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Betty and Royce Cullen

While this page is going to take a bit of time to load, I think that you will enjoy the pictures.  I was very impressed with the flowers of Betty Cullen.  For those of you who don't know about Betty and Royce, I want to give you a small bit of history.  For many years they raised Disas as cut flowers.  Their approach was unique.  The Disas were all held at ground level and held in sort of ponds that could be filled and drained. ( I never saw it so this is all second hand and if I have an error, please excuse me)  I understand that the operation was quite extensive.  In addition to the Disas, they also grew Proteas which is also originally from South Africa.  I understand that when the Cullens retired to their present location, most of their old farm was plowed under.  What a shame!  I can't imagine all the potting and everything held at ground level though.  It must have been back breaking work!  Ron Maunder volunteered some photos of Betty's old farm operation after he saw this page and rather than redoing the whole page, I have just attached them to the bottom of the page.

Anyway, Betty and Royce now reside in a small town named KatiKati which is also on the eastern coast of the North Island. Following the visit to Ron Maunder, he led the way to Katikati, where we made the acquaintance of Betty and Royce.  Royce took my wife, Kathy for a walk while Ron and I admired Betty's Disas.  Since she was no longer involved in the cut flower trade, she had all her blooms still on show.  And they were fantastic.  Betty has done a lot of crosses and instead of doing flasking, she has sown the seed on peat moss. ( More about that further down the page.) The point here is that this method allows you to easily select for the most vigorous plants.  The fact that some selection had taken place was evident when you examined Betty's flowers.  There wasn't a dog in the bunch.  Since she expressed an opinion that she was loosing interest in Disas, I surely hope someone can encourage her to continue her outstanding work. (Ron you're closest)  Betty was growing her best plants in a lean-to shade house that Royce had built along the side of the house. Since she is right on the coast, she never experiences temperatures below 5 degrees C.   She pots in a mixture of peat and pumice with the ratio being about 50:50.  To water, she uses tap water which runs about 50 -60 ppm on a TDS meter.  She uses the flood and drain technique where she floods for a day or two and then lets the trays drain for the rest of the week.  She fertilizes with every watering during the growing months with a weak solution of Peters.  Rather than trying to keep the surface of the pots free of moss and liverwort, she top dresses with live Sphagnum moss.  While it has worked for her, this is a technique that has some danger and is not recommended for most of us as the moss  can easily outgrow the Disas and smother them.

It also wasn't hard to see what else was demanding her time.  She is an exceptionally talented artist.  There were a number of her paintings around and the quality was superb.  I could have spent much more time with her discussing her ideas about Disas breeding but we were very pressed for time at that juncture and had to bid the Cullens a reluctant goodbye.

Betty in her Shade House.  If you look closely, you notice that the pot surface is kind of  a bright green.  This is due to the live moss on the top of her pots.

 

 The above is Disa Watsonii 'Marina Marco'. I especially liked the red coloration.

 Disa Betty's Bay 'Audrey's Beauty'

 Disa Betty's Bay 'Pink Gemma'

 This beautiful show was put on by Disa Micheal Tibbs 'Michela'.

The pictures to the left and below are Disa Diores 'Alex Gift'

 

This is Disa Diores 'Grace'.

This is a cross between Diores 'Pink Gem' x Diores 'Pink Perfect'.

The pictures to the left and above are a cross between Diores 'Red Collette' x Betty's Bay 'Red Dot'.

This is the outside of Betty's shade house. It is built along the western wall of their house and gets afternoon sun.

 

Disa Foam 'Lana Leigh'.

Glasgow Orchid Conference 'Red MacGregor'.

Above and to the right are Disa Helmut Meyer 'Sid'.

 

The Disa to the left and above is (Unifoam x Helmut Meyer) 'Marlene'.

To the left is Disa WatBett. Note the almost white dorsal

The photo above is Disa uniflora x Disa Bernard Podlashuk.

Disa Bernard Podlashuk is a cross that was done by Sid and Marlene Cywes but a number of plants of this cross were brought to New Zealand by Gary Sobey of Victoria, Australia. They all have the very unusual marking exhibited by the plants below and to the lower left.

 

 The flowers to the right and above belong to Disa Veitchii 'Alecs Joy'.

The image to the left is a nice Watsonii.

 

 

The yellow flowers above belong to Watsonii 'Bernard'. This is a South African mericlone. It's hard to get both good color and good shape with a lot of the yellow breeding that has been done to date.

The flowers above belong to Disa Watsonii 'Cyclamen Jo'.

 
       Betty has done a lot of crosses and sowed the seed on sterile peat moss to germinate.  While this method is a bit slower than raising seed from greenpod sowings, there is the added advantage of doing a bit of natural selection when you pot up the seedlings.  Since you only take the most vigorous and quickest growing, your population of plants is smaller but is comprised of only the biggest and most vigorous plants.  You probably lose some tetraploid material this way since polyploids are usually somewhat slower growing.  The pictures below illustrate some of the plants grown in this fashion.  The first photo, below left, shows right after sowing, while below right show several months later once the seed has germinated but must be protected from birds.

 

 

The photo above shows quite a bit later.  The red circle surrounds a few plants that will be big enough to transplant soon.

 

This photo illustrates the method Betty uses to control what grows on the top of her plants.  She feels that a known, such as this living Sphagnum Moss, is preferable to an unknown and so she tops her pots with it.
 

The Photos that follow from here to the page bottom are all provided through the generosity of Ron Maunder.  I really would have liked to see the operation in action but like many things, it's impossible to undo the past.

This is an overall view of the Proteas part of the Cullen farm.  Protea is a South African shrub which forms beautiful heads that can be cut and sold as cut flowers or dried for long lasting dry flower arrangements.

This is a corner of the Shade structure in which the Disa paddys were located.  Can you imagine bending over the plants every day?  

This Photo shows a larger portion of the Disa structure.  In the last year of operation, the Cullens had over 16,000 plants to repot.  It's no wonder she decided to retire.

The view on the left shows the paddys in flower. Mind boggling!

 

 

The photo above shows Betty's Veitchii bed. It also gives an idea of the simple yet effective construction of the beds.

This is a view from in front of their former house.  The have since retired to Katikati which is a small town located to the left in the picture.  Ron's place is further down the coast to the right or south in this picture.

This concludes the presentation on the Cullens. Thanks Ron for the historical photos. 

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