Oncidium Sharry Baby ‘Sweet Fragrance’

The mighty Sharry Baby, also known as the Chocolate Orchid because of it’s fragrance.  Although I still meet people who think orchids don’t have fragrances!  This to me was the Oncidium of the late 80’s and all of the 90’s and still extremely popular today just because it smells like chocolate.  The fragrance can become quite overpowering in a small space, even in the wide open spaces of a greenhouse you can be overcome by the fragrance.

It’s an easy grower and will quickly become a large plant that fills a 250mm pot.  The spikes are tall and whippy, needing staking or some type of trellis to support them.  Even plants in 105mm pots will put up a 1000 to 1200mm high spike.  The plant in the photo is growing in a 140mm pot and has 5 spikes tied up to 750mm high stakes, then the spike tips all held together by a plant clip to stop them flopping about.

The biggest draw back to Sharry Baby, particularly the Sweet Fragrance cultivar, is the leaf spotting (see Photo).  Other Sharry Baby cultivars like Red Fantasy tend to have cleaner foliage which makes me conclude that genetics plays a big part in the leaf spotting.  It’s not uncommon to see a perfectly healthy Sharry Baby growing and flowering profusely but the leaves covered in black spots.

Just recently I saw some superb specimens of variegated foliage Sharry Baby’s (see Photo).  Variegation is a common mutation in Oncidiums and will pop up from time to time in production batches, although I’m yet to see a variegated Sharry Baby in my nursery.

Today there are better Oncidium intergenerics like Oncidium Heaven Scent that are viable replacements to Sharry Baby, but nothing will beat Sharry Baby for that sweet smell of chocolate.