The Schlumbergera and Rhipsalidopsis website says:
"this is the first commercial yellow produced. Cobbia spent years solating the yellow factor(s).
The plant is not an easy breeder and may be a triploid (3n). Growers have bred from it and produced viable seed. 1982."
Michel Combernoux says on his website:
"A huge step in new hybrids creation was achieved when creating S.X ‘Gold Charm’, the first pure yellow blooming Schlumbergera.
(That is, when it is grown in a temperature constantly over 15°C ; otherwise, the pure yellow color is mixed with pinkish zones ;
besides, as the below photograph shows it, this is a very beautiful mixture).
Between the moment when the hybridizer and producer Cobia (from the United States) had the idea to carry out this creation and the year when the plant was marketed on the US market,
15 years of patient and thorough research had gone by.
The success appeared all the more delicate since, before "Gold Charm", the yellow color didn't exist for any Schlumbergera.
The closest to this yellow shade, were Schlumbergera with orange-coloured blooms.
So, the main idea was to favour the yellow colour genetic material (contained in the orange colour) to the detriment of the red colour genetic material
(also present in orange colour). In practice, pollinations were made with orange-coloured blooming Schlumbergera, and 50.000 resulting seeds were harvested,
sown, and the plants were grown until they bloomed. Among all these plants, one appeared which had a pure yellow bloom. But, unfortunately,
this plant was weak and the vegetative aspect was commercially unacceptable.
It was therefore decided to cross this plant with white blooming and with vigorous growth Schlumbergera. This crossing produced one fruit containing 200 seeds which were sown,
and the plants were once more grown until they bloomed for assessment. Among 150 plants which had yellow flowers, only one was selected !"
The Plant Patent (USPP5104, September 13th 1983) says:
"The Christmas Cactus varieties on the market have blooms which vary in color from one variety to the next as is evident from the current U.S. patent art. However,
no Christmas Cacti that are found in the marketplace are known by the inventors to provide a bloom which could be called a yellow bloom in the every day
vernacular of the marketplace. Accordingly a general objective of the invention has been to develop a variety of the Cactaceae Family that has a generally "yellow' colored
bloom. The objectives of the invention have been fully realized by the development of the new plant variety hereinafter described in detail. The new plant variety
was developed in a nursery located at Winter Garden, Fla., as a hybrid secured by cross pollinating the flower of a plant specimen of a research variety developed by
the inventors and characterized by a white bloom with pollen from a plant specimen of yet another research variety that is characterized by what may be considered
as an off colored generally "yellow' bloom."
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