Plants, People, Science

Orchids and Anthuriums - A Discussion with Dr. Teresita D. Amore

• American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) • Season 1 • Episode 6

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In this episode of Plants, People, Science, Sam and Lara talk with Dr. Teresita D. Amore, Associate Researcher in the Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She discusses her orchid and anthurium breeding program, the traits that growers and designers are looking for, the rewarding aspects of her job, and what led to her career.

To see Dr. Amore's work on the cover of HortScience go to https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/56/8/hortsci.56.issue-8.xml.

Read the HortScience article "Anthurium 'Kopho Welo' and 'Honi-honi'" at https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI15901-21.

Learn more about the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) at https://ashs.org/.
HortTechnology, HortScience and the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science are all open-access and peer-reviewed journals, published by the American Society of Horticultural Science (ASHS). Find them at journals.ashs.org.

Consider becoming an ASHS member at https://ashs.org/page/Becomeamember!

You can also find the official webpage for Plants, People, Science at ashs.org/plantspeoplesciencepodcast, and we encourage you to send us feedback or suggestions at https://ashs.org/webinarpodcastsuggestion.

Podcast transcripts are available at https://plantspeoplescience.buzzsprout.com.

On LinkedIn find Sam Humphrey at linkedin.com/in/samson-humphrey. Curt Rom is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/curt-rom-611085134/. Lena Wilson is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-wilson-2531a5141/.

Thank you for listening!


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Sam Humphrey:

Welcome to Plants, people Science a podcast by the American Society for Horticultural Science where we talk about all things horticulture.

Lara Brindisi:

Good morning, I am doing great. It is my first full day back from Ecuador, actually, so I'm feeling refreshed and ready to get into our podcast. How are you doing?

Sam Humphrey:

I'm all right. Probably not as good as you, though. I am in the middle of a very like grueling strawberry harvest, and it's not grueling because it's hard, it's just grueling because there are so many like hundreds of plants that we have to harvest, so it's a lot to deal with, but it's really exciting to see the data developing. You know, what did you find rewarding about Ecuador? I'm so excited to hear about what your experience was.

Lara Brindisi:

Yeah, I loved working with the farmers. It was a really wonderful volunteer opportunity where I could share some of my knowledge and they were able to share so much of their knowledge and their culture. I was specifically working on a cacao farm and looking at microbiology and potential uses for biocontrol. And, yeah, just such a rich country with wonderful cultures and loved it.

Sam Humphrey:

How long was this trip again it?

Lara Brindisi:

was only two weeks actually, but you know it was very full days. I definitely worked a lot and it's at the equator, so it was pretty hot, though not maybe that much different than a summer in New Jersey. Yeah, or maybe in North Carolina when you're doing your field seasons.

Sam Humphrey:

I don't know, I miss it. I miss the like hot, like humid, sunny field days. There's just something about it that makes it more rewarding, I think, at the end of the day. Speaking of which, our guest today has a lot of experience in hot environments working on these tropical sort of plants.

Lara Brindisi:

Oh yeah, perfect timing to be talking about the hot, humid climates.

Sam Humphrey:

All right. Today we'd like to welcome Dr Teresita D. Amore, who's a researcher at the University of Hawaii at Minoa, focusing on the breeding and genetics of dendrobium, orchids and antheriums in the Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences. She also earned her MS in horticulture from the University of Hawaii and her BS in agriculture from the University of the Philippines.

Lara Brindisi:

For those of you who are not familiar, antheriums are common houseplants known for their unique flower sphatic, which is a spike of very tiny flowers, and also the brightly colored heart-shaped sphath. Antheriums look a bit like a piece lily, but are usually more brightly colored, like pink or red, and are leathery and heart-shaped Antheriums are also used as cut flowers and are known for their long vase life. Dendrobium, on the other hand, is a large, diverse genus of orchids known for their large, plentiful blooms, and both of these plants are part of Dr Amore's breeding program, and I'll be posting pictures on my Instagram for reference, which you could find in the show notes and a little more at the end.

Sam Humphrey:

All right, Dr Amore, could you tell us a bit about your plant breeding program?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

So I have a very great plant breeding program. In my opinion. I enjoy working with flowers, so I am breeding tropical flowers here at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I'm focusing on dendrobiums and antheriums, which are two of the major cut flowers exported by the state of Hawaii, and our program started in 1950, started by my advisor who Dr Haruyuki Kame-Moto, who is considered by many as the father of Hawaii floriculture. So we have long history, so to speak, and we develop flowers for our local growers, primarily because we are a land-grant college, so we try our best to address the needs of our local stakeholders.

Lara Brindisi:

Okay, and this is different than, let's say, the potted flower industry. Right, this is for cut flowers mainly.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Yes, this is primarily for cut flowers and because one of the reasons we're focusing on cut flowers too is that potted plants sometimes have restrictions in as to exporting in medium. So, although many times the medium for potted plants is artificial so we know about restrictions for soil we do have nematode problems in the state so, and there are certified nurseries, but our primary focus is on cut flower production, because cut flower antheriums are produced in greater quantities than potted antheriums.

Lara Brindisi:

What are some of the differences with breeding for cut flowers versus potted flowers?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

So for breeding for cut flowers, vase life and handling is quite important because the cut flowers are detached from the main plant so they're not getting extra food. So definitely how the post harvest life is very critical or one of the traits we look at and evaluate versus if you have a potted plant, as long as it's attached to the, as long as the stem or the flower is attached to the plant, they can keep on producing. So that's one big difference. For potted plant we also look at the plant size, the plant size. So the smaller it is, the better it is for packing and transport. So that's one of the other difference. I think.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

In my opinion, when we breed, the differences between breeding for cut flowers and potted plants is more marked for the orchids, for the dropium, so definitely, for when we were actively breeding for potted and dropium it was critical that the flowers develop faster, about 18 months to two years from the time of pollination, and we look at two flowers per stem at least, because it's so hard to sell something with only one stem. So multiple flowering is very critical and you want shorter stems so that you can pack it easier, because you're packing the plant and the flower, whereas if we're breeding for cut flowers, we want longer stems, because longer stems mean more flowers per stem for orchids or, in the case of antherium, that's more stem length that the designers can work with, so they can use it either for long, tall arrangements.

Sam Humphrey:

So that's so interesting to hear how many things you're looking at with these plants. It sounds like overwhelming, honestly, from someone who, like I, have never done this work before. It's a lot of traits to look after. I'm curious. What are your top breeding objectives?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Okay. So we look at growing qualities, of course, because we're looking at traits important for the growers and also lately we've been looking at traits important for the designers. For the longest time we were focusing on traits wanted by the growers. So that means high yield. Of course More yield means more stems to market. We also look for disease resistance In antherium.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

We were looking for tolerance, field tolerance at least to bacterial blight, as well as examining how well the plants can stay in the ground and not get affected by the burrowing nematode, which affects primarily the roots. And once the roots get infected then there's rapid decline. So plants that are affected by burrowing nematode the disease is sometimes called antherium decline because the plants lose vigor because they're not feeding through the roots. There's also another disease that has been making a comeback and it's called blacknose or anthraxnose In antheriums. This is manifested by brown spots on the spadex and usually it may look good in the field, but during times when the weather is very hot and with high humidity, then the coletotricum that's the causal organism spores are the disease.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Development isn't there. So there are times it looks good in the field and then after three-day packing, when it gets to the end source surprise, there are dots on the spadex. So we know there's a genetic basis to that. There are some varieties that won't exhibit it and are very strong against the disease. So that's one of the breeding goals and if we know there are some desirable cultivars, we will try and cross them, make hybrids with the more tolerant ones or resistant ones, just to breed it out and hopefully get varieties without that blacknose. So I've been to the supermarket and I'm thinking oh no, this is our variety.

Lara Brindisi:

Oh, because it has all of the dots on the spadex.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

So I see that and I'm thinking, oh, it's showing, so yeah. So it happens that I'm thinking, oh, and I sometimes visit the wholesalers and I'm like, oh no, it's anthrax, no season. But we know that. But sometimes it might be just a tiny band, maybe some people don't notice it, but because we do screen for resistance, it bothers me.

Lara Brindisi:

Yeah, it's hard to be a perfectionist and a plant breeder.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Yeah, and we also look at flower shape, the stem length oh, this is a funny story for an anthrax, we used to think stem length would be adequate and then the designers were telling us no, we need a longer stem, because if you're going to make hand-tight bookcase, then a longer stem is needed. You can always make it shorter. It's time to consuming to extend the stem length. And I didn't realize this until I had a workshop with the designers. This was when I think it was 20, either 2016 or 2017. The growers decided because the growers were working with floral designers and they thought, oh, it would be good to collect as all, so the breeder knows what the designer wants.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

In this workshop. So one of the projects we had two projects One was to make a vase arrangement for events and the other one was to make a bouquet. And so we had to make a bouquet and it was a hand-tight and the flower I had was one of our releases and I said, oh, it's too short. It's difficult to make a hand-tight bouquet the stem length long enough. And that's when the designer told us and that's why we want longer stems. As a breeder, if you're not designing, it's like I'm focusing on our yield, disease resistance and stem length, of course, but realizing how important it was when it wasn't high up our list Now it means we really try and see how long the stems are.

Lara Brindisi:

Wow, yeah, so that's a really unique part, I guess, of working with cut flowers. Who is your consumer? Is it the person buying it at the grocery store, or is it the designer who's going to be buying it and incorporating it into their floral arrangements?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Exactly yes, and before we, until now, we do a lot of our field testing, our advanced selection testing at commercial growers' fields. So ever since I started the program, our focus was okay, we need that Disease resistance. We need healthy, virally growing plants, yield of six flowers per plant per year, and this is for anthermium. And so we were focusing primarily on what the growers' needs were, not realizing there's a thing called flower conformation or like how the anthermium flower appears. So in anthermium breeding we make the seedlings, so we hybridize. It takes about six months for the fruits to mature and then it takes about 18 months to get the seedling to first flower if we're lucky, 18 months to two years and then we'll look at it, for at first we'll look at the color and then there are changes in flower shape as the flowers mature, so there's like a juvenility period, and then, if it looks interesting, maybe at the third flower or so, I'll take a look and I'll take a photo and then I'll send it to our advisory team of growers and designers and I'll say this is what I'm looking at, clone or not. To clone Is cloning. To multiply enough plant materials for testing will take about three years. So I don't want to waste my three years on something they don't want.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

We've had experiences in the past where we released a variety and then we're thinking, oh, there's no market acceptance for this, I don't see it in the market. So that was mainly because we were thinking of what we wanted. So I'm just realizing who is the one, like Lara mentioned, who is the one actually buying and who drives the market. That I thought was interesting because we did account maybe a few years ago and we said, okay, these are all the varieties we released. How many of them were made an impact commercially? Not everything did, and we found out one of them. One of our releases in the 90s was this white and therm with a red nose and it was playfully called Rudolph Rudolph the Red Nose and Thorium.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

But it's not in commercial use and from the designer's viewpoint, they don't like contrasting colors the spade and the spadex. If there's too much contrast, it's hard to work with. So they are telling us yeah. So they're telling us, oh, not too much contrast. So I had one selection a few years ago. I thought, oh, this is so cool. And then they go oh, there's too much contrast, so that didn't get cloned, but it on the side, I'll use it. Maybe I'll use it as a breeding parent, but saving us that time by knowing what is acceptable really makes a difference.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

So we have this advisory team of designers and just last week I took a picture of something I thought was interesting and I post the question clone or not to clone? I give them the flower measurements, I take a picture of the plant to show how long the stem is, because space length and width and the stem length. I sent it to the group and then they said oh, the color looks nice, the spadex or the nose does not contrast with the space, so it's easier to work with. And so now the question we got from the grower is what's the yield? He said we'll monitor that, but in the meantime we will keep an eye for when the leaf is ready and we can start cloning and testing. So to me it makes it a lot easier knowing what we're going to put into. Advanced selection is already desirable by the market.

Lara Brindisi:

That's great, that you have a team of consultants that you could ask is this a go or not? Especially because when you're breeding plants and you're looking at I don't know thousands and thousands of plants, you look for the things that are different, right, Because that's exciting to you as someone who's been literally seeing it all. But then to have someone tell you actually is really valuable information, Because I think you had said this to us in the pre-interview session, but that you are looking for flowers that are the star of the show and they don't necessarily have to be.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Yes, that's right, lara. At first we were thinking in terms of, oh, it has to be this perfect flower that will win awards at the plant shows, have awards, right? So we were thinking in terms of that instead of the utility and how well the flowers can combine with other cut flowers, for instance. One instance that the advisory team was very helpful was we had this.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

It was like a muddy color, and usually, when you like, we've been trained to look for clean colors, not muddy colors. And then they said to me oh no, this is really good, we like these brownish, grayish tones because you can go either way. And so that made me open my eyes and look at trade magazines and other flower catalogs and see what are the other colors that we have to be working with. So now I realize and like you mentioned, that we don't have to be the star, we have to play. Well, it's an all-star game. So it made me realize belatedly, and it made me realize when you go to a flower shop, for instance, it's not just one flower in an arrangement. Many times, even the supermarket bouquets are a combination.

Lara Brindisi:

And that's hard too, because you have to predict trends right Like if next year everyone's going to be buying blush tones for their wedding you want to be prepared for that and because it's a very long breeding cycle we're talking about 14 years to develop an Ethereum variety.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

We try to have every color we can have possible. That's in testing and try to realize what are really the main colors. We had a breeding. We had a project on trying to genetically engineer a blue and cerium. One of my graduate students did that but when you really think about it, there's not really a huge demand. So it's good for science, it's definitely good for science, but it's not going to be the top seller. It has a specific market and I was thinking about that because I was at the wholesalers this past weekend and I saw the blue carnations they called fancy carnations and that those are the genetically engineered carnations Quite expensive, but there was only one bucket of it, whereas the whites, pinks and greens have buckets and buckets of that. So we have to temper what the market needs, what the demands are and our quest for science and realizing that sometimes the challenging blue flower it's great science, but it's not going to be the top seller.

Sam Humphrey:

That's amazing. I didn't realize. 14 years, really, that's like I can't even fathom this, because I've been in science for what like seven, six, seven years, because I'm still a relatively young student. That's incredible dedication as well. Do you have any recent cultivars that you're really excited about?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Yes, we just had two red varieties that we released. I haven't done the official Fort Science publication, but we released it to the floral designers, the American Institute for Floral Design, so they are heart-shaped. The Cathie Ruloda is a nice heart-shaped antherium. Like red, doesn't get too big, and the namesake, a designer herself, cathie Ruloda, said that oh, this is an everyday type of arrangement, I can sell this. So that was pretty good to hear that that size is what they're looking for. It doesn't get really large, but it's really a pretty red one. And then we have Phil Ruloda, which is what we call an obaque. An obaque antherium has green with another color, so it's a dark red with green. It can get large over, sometimes over 12 inches in length. So we have some antheriums that are called exhibition size, so they can be about 12, 14 inches in length. Wow.

Lara Brindisi:

Are those the ones that you enter for awards and trade shows?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Well, I think if it were to enter a plant show, that would be something that would be worth looking at. But for the Society of American Cut Flower competition, I think it's not just a size but other attributes glossiness, stem length and so on, and how well it's grown too. Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, moma, had vase and in that vase was an antherium. They were like three stamps and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, that's tropic line, one of our releases. So it's just, it's like you see your products in non floral, not in the trade magazine, but in everyday or artworks, art museums and whatnot and you see it being used and it's really amazing to see that and then makes me humbled and think what else can we do? What will be the next one?

Lara Brindisi:

Yeah, Well, and you have another recently released, or it was released in 2015,. Right, you won an award in 2021, maui.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Oh, yes, that's Maui, the red obaque. I've seen it when I saw it on display at the Society of American Florist I think it was in the magazine for first at Delft in floral management and then I was at the AIFT Symposium in Las Vegas and they have the Cut Flower competition. There is this on display to see the flowers that I was part of the breeding team. I mean, breeding is always a team effort, right, it's, there's the hybridizer, but then even selection takes a whole team, and then you have your growers who test it out for you, yeah, and then you have the plant pathologist who tell you what's wrong with it.

Lara Brindisi:

Yeah, it's definitely a strong team of people. You also mentioned that this is an obaque flower. Can you clarify what that is or what that means?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Yes, obaque means it's green with some other color, so Maui is red with green and that won an award in 2015. And what's really nice is I go to the market whether it's supermarket or the wholesaler and then I see Maui in the buckets and I'm thinking I know that we also have another pink obaque that also won an award. It's called Kapoho Velo and it was awarded. We released it in 2021. As a breeder, to see your product on the cover of Hort Science was really, really satisfying. I was just so shocked when I received the email from the editorial board asking if they could use those end theorems for the cover of Hort Science. And what was interesting was I was going up for tenure and the Hort Science issue came. I think it was either August or September and our dosiers were submitted in October, so I had look a variety, made it to the front page Perfect timing.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

That was perfect timing. It was just an incredible experience and I thought that was very touching to see those varieties on the cover and those were taken from pictures of, I think, when we were still testing. So to see those pictures in, I mean, those plants in the field. And many times I tell our growers you know, you do a much better job growing in the field than we do in our greenhouses. What are we looking at? A few pots. We're not testing a whole scale, because we're looking at new seedlings, we're looking at new selections and they're growing at least 200. Now it's initially we send out 200 plants for them to test in tissue culture, so they'll grow it out and flower it and then, if there's something interesting, we are informed that they want to test it on a larger scale. So we'll scale up to 500 or 1,000 because that's the best way to check for marketability.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

I had a grower telling me oh, with 200 plants I can't even make a full box because they don't mature all at the same time. So that was another educational. You know, learning as you go, and I think, as a breeder, we always yeah, I'm sure you can relate to this You're always tweaking as you go along, and so to have that flexibility I think is really important that as we go along we realize, oh, we can't always look at 200, because then they can't test how well it ships, because I can't even make a full box and I'm thinking, oh okay, then we won't get our data right away. So yeah, it's been. I learned from the breeders, I learned from the designers, I learned from my it's lifelong learning and things that I thought worked before. I realized, uh-oh, we have to tweak things a little bit. So course correction is always great.

Sam Humphrey:

A lot of learning, but it sounds so rewarding, like when you describe those moments of even just seeing it in a magazine like I. That sounds just so beautiful and I'm sure you haven't always like anticipated that you would be this amazing breeder who's publishing and like has the cover of Hort Science and everything. I would like to get a little bit into your background. When did you first become interested in tropical flowers? Were you always interested in orchids and antheriums?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Well, yes, I grew up in the Philippines and my mom was on a hobbyist, so she had orchids, so we had orchids at home and we also had antheriums at home, but she had more orchids than antheriums when I was growing up. So I have a picture when I was really young and I'm trying to touch a Phalaenopsis orchid and I think she's holding me back. So when I do my talks about how I got into flowers, it's because I was exposed at a very young age to flowers and then during summer my mom would help me. Help. It's like help, can you wash pots? I started by washing pots, then it became helping her propagating some dendrobiums and other orchids, and then it became and the other thing that she my mom also was an officer in the Orchid Society in our hometown and so she was the secretary and she'd make me address all the meeting announcements, because our penmanship looked very similar. This was before email.

Lara Brindisi:

So you had a hand write all of the letters.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

I had to hand write it and sometimes I'd sign for her. So she gives me a pile of letters. So I got to know the members by name and then when she would bring me to the Orchid Society meetings I could match the name and the face because I've written their names and addresses on a monthly basis pretty much, and so that was really great. So she, even though I was not an official member of the Orchid Society, she made me tag along, which I appreciate. It really exposed me to other tropical plants because I would go with her when the Orchid Society had field trips so I'd look into people's gardens, other nurseries, and that was just fascinating. I also had my parents had a friend I think I was in first grade or I was really young, and our friend of ours was do, our family friend, was doing her dissertation on orchids. So one Sunday after church she, my dad dropped her off at the lab and she invited us in and I saw the lab. It was nice, sterile, because it was tissue culture, and then bottles and bottles of little things and I thought, oh, they're growing in bottles and that stuck with me. I just thought that was so fascinating. So I thought, oh, I think I want to do orchids.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

And then, coupled with my mom's interest in orchids and fast forward, by the time I was in college oh actually in high school I knew already I wanted to major in horticulture. Breeding was still. I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to go breeding but I knew I was interested in genetics because in high school biology, the segregation and it was just fascinating. And I remember I told my biology teacher that Hardy Weinberg population and how phenotypes are, that was just very fascinating. So I think that was early on. I was interested but not quite sure if I really wanted to become a breeder. But I knew I wanted to do orchids. So I ended up in that same lab where I saw those tiny plants in flask when I was what? Seven, eight years old. I ended up doing my undergrad pieces under the same advice.

Lara Brindisi:

So then how did you take that interest and travel to Hawaii and get your master's and PhD?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

So my advisor undergraduate advisor was writing a book on Philippine orchids. Her name was Dr Helen Valmayor and she did her doctorate at the University of Florida. Her graduate advisor was at the University of Hawaii and there was Dr Yoneo Sagawa and there was another orchid breeder by the name of Dr Haruyuki Kame Motel, so there were two orchid breeders at the university at the time. And so I told my advisor I think I want to apply at the University of Hawaii to do graduate work, because at the orchid shows many of the orchid hybrids that were coming in were brought in from Hawaii. So I'm thinking maybe Hawaii is the place to be, so that's where I should be going. And she goes oh yeah, and so she was writing a book and this was in 1983, 84. Actually she was writing it while I was doing my thesis, and so the book was published, I believe in 1983. And 1984, she was going to Orchid Conferences to talk about her book and promote her book. So she went to Japan where she this was October of 1984, I believe. I had already applied to the University of Hawaii but I didn't have an assistantship at that time. But I said no matter what, I'll go and then figure my way out after a semester or two and see maybe I can get a teaching assistantship, maybe I can get a GPA graduate research assistantship. At the conference in Japan she met Dr Kame Moro who said that he had an assistantship available. And so she came back and she said I spoke to Dr Kame Moro, he has an assistantship available. He will write to you. I want you to respond right away Because he already had an excellent reputation as an orchid breeder and a theorem breeder and his focus was on cytogenetics and polyploidy breeding. So by January 1985, I found my way to Hawaii with an assistantship offer from Dr Kame Moro and I've stayed there since and I learned so much from him I'm his last PhD student, so that was so meaningful.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

We co-wrote a book on breeding orchids in Hawaii and that was, I remember, what he said. I helped him also with breeding and serums in Hawaii book and he said maybe I should have made you co-author. But I said that's OK, I learned so much. And he said that by writing the book and helping him with a book that's his way of teaching without actually spoon feeding me, because I had to help him type, help him do that.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

I think I did the indexing for breeding and serums in Hawaii. I did the indexing so I had to read everything, not only help him with a manuscript, but also index that. So I've read it multiple times and then be part of the editing process. So I learned so much of the history just by working on the books on the answer and the endropium books so I thought that was the greatest gift because he made me work to get the information and it stuck. So when there's items that I need to look back on, I know exactly I think it's in this book, it's this chapter and this is where I look back and get that information. So that was pretty cool.

Lara Brindisi:

Yeah, there's nothing like writing content that makes you have to learn it better than just reading it. Yeah, and so your passion just emanates from you about orchids. Do you have any advice for helping others find out their passions?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

I had an interesting conversation with my daughter how to find your passion. What can you do without? Basically, is there anything that if we take it away from you, it would absolutely be devastating? She says it would kill you if you don't have this and I said I can't imagine my life without plants. It doesn't matter if it's orchids and thorium, african violets, ferns, vegetables. If I had a life devoid of plants I would die. I would. It would be so, you think, in terms of what if something was taken away from you? What is that thing that you can't live without? I think that would be the best way to find your passion. And yes, when she told me that, she said oh, I can see it in your face. When she told me, what if I took away your plants?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

I didn't realize she could read my face that well and I was FaceTiming with her last week and I was in the greenhouse and she goes mama, you look so happy with your plants and I thought this is my normal face. She said, no, you're different when you're with and I guess, because I don't see myself, she sees it. She goes because I was telling her oh, this is the one we're looking at right now, yeah, she had helped me before, so for orchids you can save the polinja. So she had helped me before and she said so I'd give her and we save the polinja for future hybridization work. And she knows how to take the pollen out, the polinja, which is a mass of pollen in orchids Normally there's two for dendrobium. And then I've instructed her OK, you flip, remove that pollen cap, take out all the polinja, stick it into a gel cap and label it with this.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

So she knew the parents. She goes oh mom, when are you bringing K404-2? And I told her you have to put the parent, without the name, where it came from. It's useless. And you have to put the date so I know when to. So she helped me. I think she was like, and she had small hands, she was like second grade, she'd hang out with me in the lab, so she'd be doing that. And she said, oh, I'm depolynizing. And the graduate assistant in our lab thought that was a real word. I said, no, she made it up depolynizing and I'm thinking it's more like emasculation, but not really. She's doing pollen storage basically. But she enjoyed that. So that was the daughter who helped me define how to find my passion.

Sam Humphrey:

That's so sweet. So you had a second grade plant breeder alongside you. That's amazing.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

She enjoyed it, though. I used to drag her to plant shows with me and she thought those were cool and fascinating. And now, by the time I could teach her how to count for viable embryos, she decided to do other things. I was thinking, OK, after removing the pollen, maybe I can have her count viable embryos, but it's gratifying that my family appreciates the work I do and enjoys flowers, also enjoys plants. Very supportive.

Lara Brindisi:

OK, I have a question for the audience, especially because I get asked so many times how to keep orchids and plants in general alive. So do you have any tips for the audience about how they could keep their orchids and antheriums alive?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

OK, To keep plants alive, one of the let me backtrack here. Keeping plants alive can be challenging. We know that and I've done one thing I've done more than one thing actually to keep killing them. But one thing I realized is that overwatering is easy to do and we think by giving more water it's like giving more love. Right. Overwatering or controlling the amount of water can kill your plant or will kill your plant if you overdo it. I've purchased because depending on the plant medium. So definitely lifting that pot to see how heavy it is will help determine how much water the plant needs or whether it needs it. At the time I killed many orchids by overwatering. I said that's it. I'm not keeping it in my house, I'll bring it to the greenhouse where we have automatic sprinklers, because sometimes I forget to water and then I'd overcompensate. I've killed roses. That way too, I go. I forgot.

Lara Brindisi:

I'm sure this is very reassuring for people to be hearing that we have an expert in orchids and Anthorium that's accidentally killing their plants.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Yes, I've killed my plants. I bought a potted Anthorium and then I brought it home. I didn't control the thrips in a timely manner. I didn't scout enough. I'm thinking, wait, this looks like thrips damage. I started snipping away the leaves and then I snip, snip, snip, and then there's not enough leaves. I'm thinking this is exactly what I tell my students we leave X number of leaves on the plant so the plant can continue to grow. But then I didn't control the thrips. I ended up killing my Anthorium.

Sam Humphrey:

Wait. How many leaves is that? I need to know.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Three leaves usually is what we leave. At least it should have one. But for potted Anthorium you want to keep the leaves, but don't as much as possible. We had a colleague of mine did some work where they cut Anthorium. They said if you go less than three leaves then there's not enough photosynthesis happening and you'll get decreased yield or decreased quality. Even with my potted Anthoriums I tried to keep three but I tried to keep as much as possible, just because it's a potted plant and you need that foliage to make it look attractive.

Sam Humphrey:

Okay, this is really useful because after seeing these pictures of these Anthoriums you've bred at home gorgeous they are I'm just only going to have Anthoriums from now on. So, thank you, I will make sure to keep them in the video. They last really long.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

That's another thing. Anthoriums last really long, so long that you might have to dust it. Yes, the tropical plants in general, most of them will last way over a week. Anthoriums, when we do our evaluations, at least 21 days. So with the ones that have the pink and green, the oboque on the Anthoriums, it can be a month or more. When we were doing some evaluations it was like 57 days. I'm thinking 57 days, that's really long.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

And that's without the cytokine and treatment, because our commercial cut flower growers do a benzene adenine dip as a packing house operation. So they'll dip. Because early on one of our colleagues, one of our professors and his grad students figured out by doing cytokine and dip you can prolong the life of Anthorium because the quote, unquote flower is actually a modified leaf and so the cytokine and treatment prolongs the life. Not every. There's obviously there's a genetic component to this, not every. There won't always be a difference, significant difference, between the cytokine and dip and the untreated, but for instances or for lines that respond, it could be doubling the vase life. So you pretty much you can extend the vase. The vase life is pretty long.

Sam Humphrey:

It's amazing.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Three weeks two to three weeks, I would say would be acceptable, and if you get me on that, that's really a plus.

Lara Brindisi:

Great. So if anyone is interested in your research and wants to get in touch with you about your program, how is the best way to do that?

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

Oh, so you can email me. My email address is amore. At hawaiiedu, I have an Instagram which I period. I don't post as much, but you can contact me on Instagram. It's tessie underscore amore. I don't post as much. I should be posting, but I also have linked in and it's under Teresita Amore.

Lara Brindisi:

Okay, great. Thank you so much for a wonderful interview, oh thank you.

Sam Humphrey:

This was fantastic. You're also like so colorful in your descriptions and stories. It's perfect.

Dr. Teresita D. Amore:

That passion oh thank you so much.

Sam Humphrey:

To find some of Dr Teresita Amore's research, check out Court Science, which is one of the open source peer-reviewed journals published by the American Society for Horticultural Science. These papers include some gorgeous antherian photos too. Links to these articles will be provided in the show notes.

Lara Brindisi:

She also has several videos on YouTube through the Hawaii Florida Culture and Nursery Association, and I'll be posting pictures of the flowers we discussed in this episode on my Instagram, which you can find using the handle at the plant PhD Sam. If people want to follow your work, what's the best way?

Sam Humphrey:

You can find me on LinkedIn at Samson Humphrey, and if you'd like more information about the American Society for Horticultural Science in general, you can go to ashhsorg forward slash.

Lara Brindisi:

Thanks for joining us. Stay tuned for the next episode. Ashs podcasts are made possible by member dues and volunteerism. Please go to ashhsorg to learn more. If you are not already a member of ASHS, we invite you to join us. Ashs is a not-for-profit and your donations are tax deductible. This episode was hosted by Sam Humphrey and Laura Bernese. Special thanks to our audio engineer, alex Fraser, our research team, lena Wilson and Andrew Komatz, our ASHS support team, sarah Powell and Sally Murphy, and our musician, john Clark.