Orchid named after US first lady Melania Trump wins award

First lady Melania Trump is back home at the White House, recovering from successful surgery for a benign kidney condition. Dictates of postmodern etiquette might warrant a Cecily Strong Saturday Night Live sketch, but classic manners call for flowers. In the case of Flotus, a simple bouquet, even an eco-friendly one, won’t do; show some real class and send an orchid with her name on it – literally.

The Rlc Melania Trump is a fuchsia-hued show-stopper, a first-of-its-kind hybrid Cattleya orchid. During its monthly competition over the weekend, the American Orchid Society honoured the orchid with one of its coveted HCC (Highly Commended Certificate) awards. Judges, who rate specimens on as many as 15 criteria, scored the Melania at the top of the HCC range.

The five most popular types of orchids are Paphiopedilum, Oncidium, Dendrobium, Cattleya, and Phalaenopsis. “And Cattleyas are the most glamorous of all,” says Arthur Chadwick, president of Chadwick & Son Orchids Inc., who raised the winning flower. “This variety was a fashion statement from the 1920s to 1960s. They’re the most visually appealing, and they require significant care.”

This is no grocery store flower. Not just anyone can pick a pretty flower and call it “Melania”.

First, it must be a scientifically original cross, like a Labradoodle but for plants. Rlc Melania Trump is a mash-up of two known orchids, Cattleya Bold Swan and Rhyncholaeliocattleya Chia Lin. Siblings include Eva’s Tango Seductor and Rlc Farrah Fawcett (another Chadwick custom).

The name must be submitted to the Royal Horticultural Society and meet RHS’s stringent nomenclatural standards. “And nothing happens until it blooms,” Chadwick says. “You can’t tell one from another based on the leaves. Grown from seed, an orchid takes seven years to bloom,” so cultivating hybrids demands no small investment of patience, matchmaking, and constant Gregor Mendel-style experimentation.

It’s only after the presidential candidates are announced that Chadwick takes stock of the various flowers he’s been experimenting with and chooses ones fit for naming, hedging his bets by submitting orchids for both political parties. Having staggered the growth of multiple plants, he can ensure that there are blooms open for whenever the White House press secretary is able to arrange a meeting. Before Trump, Chadwick presented Michelle Obama with her own Cattleya, the Lc Michelle Obama in a range of lavender-hued blooms, in 2009.