Phalaenopsis in a rainbow of colors

Purple Blacks - Ever Spring Light Crown 3 was the first to achieve this color. I did not expect this color to be achieved so quickly and was amazed at two Ever Spring Prince clones of Black Swan and Amigo at the 16th WOC in Vancouver in May 1999. This was achieved through the breeding of a mutated Golden Peoker 'Brother' mericlone called 'BL' which was bred to a dark purple called Taisuco Beauty. An increase in the size of these flowers is being attempted using them with larger dark purples and the results may be known in Taiwan next year. There are many other good clones like 'YN' HCC/AOS. Alisun clones and Ever Spring Fairy 'Tokai' FCC is one recent one when Golden Peoker 'ES' the first mutation was bred to a white Taisuco Kochdian which produced a spray of white flowers with completely random blotches on every flower. There are some hybrids being bred with this line and it would be difficult to predict the outcome but one line is to get to a near black flower. This line being fertile has blown open the boundaries of phalaenopsis breeding even for the large rounder reds.

Multi-Floras - This is a line breeding involving compact plants with a short spike with many branches producing a profusion of lflowers. So far apart from Brother Oconee, a red to purple, Little Emperor 'Lee' and a yellow and Mahogany Leopard, a stripe, the rest have been basically white. I have also seen a couple of multi-floral reds too but these are rare. There is much more work to do for this breeding line.

Whites - Although standard whites have been bred for a very long time, large round white which is over 5 inch and overlapped with no midrib on a well spaced and cascading spike is extremely rare. However with Mount Kaala 'Elegance' AM/AOS and Japanese whites like Yukimai, we are getting some better quality whites. The recent Taisuco Kochdian crosses have produced some of the largest whites to date achieving 5.5 inch round flowers. However, Sussex Pearl 'Cooksbridge' AM/RHS produced the most flowers to date, thirty-six 4.75 inch flowers.

Spots - The first incredible almost solid spot is Liu Neng Dow `Paiho Red Raven' AM/AOS and although the most the most intensely blotched has smallish flowers. Ho's French Fantasia is a fantastic new generation standard spot. It combines all the qualities of whites but with intense spotting/blotching. Recently Leopard Prince which is a Ho's French Fantasia hybrid have produced considerably improved spots with deep pink/purple background.