West Coast Phalaenopsis Breeding Trends

West Coast Phalaenopsis Breeding Trends, A Look to the Future

Our presentation today will take a look to the past at some of the historic, benchmark hybrids created on the West Coast, that have made great strides in improving Phalaenopsis. Many of these are still being used today and still creating exciting new crosses. From there, we will look to the recent past to see some great hybrids that are now being used as parents, as well as their progeny. We will also incorporate the present to see what some of today's hybridizers from the West are working on. Combining the greats of the past, along with the exciting new hybrids that are being made now, will give us a great perspective to the future of West Coast Phalaenopsis breeding.

The West Coast has always had a rich heritage of fine Phalaenopsis breeding. From the Santa Cruz area Shafer's Tropical Garden's was well known for their White Phals. For instance, Phal Juanita 'Fascination' HCC/AOS was in the background of over 7,000 hybrids. Desert tones were another breeding line that Shafer's were at the leading edge for the time. Phal. Cinnamon Sugar 'Southwood' HCC/AOS is a fine example of early art shade breeding. Also from the Monterey Bay area, John Ewing was at the forefront of Novelty Phalaenopsis breeding with hybrids such as Summer Joy and King Kamehameha. At the end of John's breeding career came the cross of California Sunset, which had a high percentage of outstanding individuals. About the same time frame, significant breakthroughs were also being made in Novelty Phal. breeding coming from Southern California. In 1979, Irene Dobkin made a cross of the species gigantea to the famous Golden Sands 'Canary' FCC/AOS. Phal. Liu Tuen-shen would prove to be a significant parent of the future. In 1983, Stewarts registered the famous red, Spirit House. This cultivar's bright tomato red color is still commercially valuable today. From Santa Barbara, Rex Smith was beginning to realize the value of Deventeriana 'Treva' AM/AOS and its subsequent crossing to the species. Phal. Sweet Memory and Phal. Orchid World would become some of the most famous novelty hybrids ever. Within a generation, the magic of Deventeriana would continue with Phal. Zuma Aussie Delight made by Zuma Canyon Orchids.

In the late 1980's Woody Carlson and Frank Hughes, both renown West Coast breeders in their own right, worked together and made the cross of Phal. Sand Pebbles. The clone 'Echo Valley' HCC/AOS would prove to be a fine stud, as we will learn a bit later. Long before, and long aftermost of the above breeders started and finished their careers, Herb Hager quietly and unassumingly was laying the groundwork with many benchmark hybrids. Phal. Brazilian Glow would be a tremendous striped parent. Dtps. Autumn Leaves, made by Woody Carlson, but used extensively by Herb, was a striped yellow cross that would become the foundation of a whole breeding line. Phal. Be Glad, an outstanding multifloral, would be the basis for the "Sweethearts" of today. Dtps. Murray Spencer, showed credence that Herb's talents showed now boundaries. These crosses, and many more, would be the tools for todays breeders for years to come. We are still experiencing the wonders of Herb's breeding even after his passing. We'll explore more of these a bit later.

Picking up the torch from work of these great teachers, and the tools that they left us, we'll start our next phase of the program by touring the West from the south to the north to see what breeders are working on now. You will notice as we go along, that many of the hybrids that we see are not made by large nurseries. Many of todays outstanding novelty hybrids are being made by smaller growers. It might just be that the smaller growers do not have to worry about the crop economics to the extent that the larger growers do, and can concentrate on the crosses that are less productive in terms of numbers, while the larger growers need to look more to the pot plant type of breeding.

Our tour will begin in a most unlikely climate to find Orchids, a place more closely associated with Cacti, the desert of Arizona. Eric Goo, of Phoenix Orchids, learned the lessons of his predecessors work with Deventeriana well. In his early hybridizing, he made a series of hybrids by backcrossing Deventeriana to many of its hybrids. These have all turned out to be wonderful hybrids themselves. Phal. Julie Goo is certainly an improvement to its parent Phal. Nancy Gordon. Another of these such crosses Phal. Arizona Amber (Deventeriana X Golden Gift) received a coveted Award of Quality from the AOS. Eric's growing are is quite small, therefore he has consciously decided to work only on yellow and red Phalaenopsis. Phal. Phoenix Sunrise, while not a backcross, uses the highly patterned Phal. Class President from Hausermann's breeding, to achieve an improvement and a stepping stone. Eric has also exploited the great red Phalaenopsis Mahalo from Carmela Orchids. Phalaenopsis Rainbow's End, a cross also made and registered by Sky Island Orchids, clearly shows the best characteristics of both parents. When crossing Mahalo to the deep plum colored hybrid Zuma Garnet, Phal. Ben Goo is derived. Eric crossed Mahalo with the tomato red Cherokee Chief and derived Donna Goo. This hybrid has a more true red coloration with less of the blue in its pigmentation. More recently, Eric has crossed Mahalo to Phal. Rainbow's End with the resulting unnamed hybrid showing superb, round shape and great blotches of red color. Phalaenopsis Spirit House X Red Devil is another example of Eric's most recent work. Solid tomato red with excellent shape give rise to this cross's improvement. However, maybe Eric's best cross to date is Phal. Mary Tauscher-Goo. Its parents are Andalusia X Zuma Garnet. This cross exhibited tremendous consistency and quality considering the extremely few plants that were in the population, and just received an Award of Quality this past summer.

We will now cross the border into Southern California and to the south coast from San Diego up through the L.A basin. Phalaenopsis Buena Cerise Sparks, bred by Gallup and Stribling and registered by Nick LeJune, exhibits great crisp color patterning on flat flowers of heavy substance. This hybrid is now being used considerably in further hybridization. More recently another cross bred also by Nick Lejune, Buena Lemon Brite, is receiving attention in the judging room. Here we see strong influence from Deventeriana as its Grand parent. Phal. Cathy Fogarty, bred by Bill Fogarty, shows intense art shade color from its Golden Buddha parent. Further breeding may give rise to stronger colored reds to art shades with terrific shape and size. A new stepping stone for the multifloral breeding line is Phal. Long Little Girl. This cross, registered by Long Ngo by an unknown originator, is Carmela's Pixie X amboinensis. This hybrid will be a strong tool in breeding more red into multifloral hybrids.

Moving up the Coast, we will stop at Zuma Canyon. Zuma Canyon Orchids has been a breeder and producer of noteworthy Phalaenopsis for many years. Their cross of Zuma Pixie is a tremendous multifloral, exhibiting great quantities of flowers on short branched spikes. Further hybridizing with this cross is showing it to be another wonderful tool for fabulous multiflorals. Another outstanding compact hybrid is Malibu Elf. This cross is just another example of Zuma Canyon's ability to produce compact Phalaenopsis hybrids that are noteworthy.

We will now move up the Coast further to the Monterey Bay area, where we'll take a good look at the final legacy of Herb Hager. We will be looking at some of his last great hybrids to see where they may take us. Herb made an outstanding sib crossing of the species equestris, creating a superior dark colored race. In multiflorals, Herb set the pace. Here he remade a cross, Phal. Riverbend's Pink Pearls, originated by Riverbend Orchids, with terrific results in consistency. Another multifloral which is proving it's own as a parent is Dawn Treader. Phal. Joyful also was a benchmark cross in the "Sweetheart" line of breeding. One of Herb's final multiforal crosses is Phal. First Dance. This hybrid started flowering last winter and shows promise of continuing Herb's tradition of fine multifloral breeding.

When it comes to yellow Phalaenopsis, Herb's breeding lines were distinctive. Phalaenopsis Golden Sparkle integrates the bright lemon color from the species venosa. Dtps. Autumn Sun, which is Dtps. Prospector's Dream X Dtps. Autumn Leaves, gave rise to many superb clear yellow clones, that are now being used to impart clear lemon yellows to its hybrids by breeders around the globe. Herb used Dtps. Autumn Leaves to improve the quality of yellow stripes with the cross Dtps. Living Gold. Vivid stripes on strong yellow flowers with extremely heavy substance were consistant results of this cross. Another successful cross using Autumn Leaves is Dtps. Bronze Idol. In a different line of yellow breeding, Phal Golden Imp is another excellent attempt at yellow stripes from Herb. It now is being used as a parent and is yielding more high quality seedlings. Phal. Eacher Hartout again used Golden Buddha to create a hybrid with lovely art shade color and well shaped flowers. One of Herb's last crosses in the art shade color range was Phal. Cinnamon Gold. Excellent, round star shaped flowers, on strongly branching spikes will give breeders another tool to continue to improve this line of Phalaenopsis breeding.

A terrific red cross, Phal. Ember, which is Mahalo 'Carmela Orchids' FCC/AOS X George Vasquez 'Eureka' FCC/AOS, was made simultaneously by two hybridizers. Both Zuma Canyon Orchids and J. Frank Hughes made the cross using the same parents, with Zuma being first to the RHS. There were many fantastic red clones from the cross. Several growers have had success breeding with Ember and the results are beginning to prove that it will be successful as a parent of more quality reds.

Just over the hill from the Orchid Zone, as the crow flies, is our nursery. It is small in terms of square feet to many of the nurseries that we have heard from. However, having the good fortune to have our seedlings marketed by a larger nursery has enable us to make and have available large populations to select from. A standard pink cross, named after my mother, Rosamond Collins, has showed itself as a consistently fine pink hybrid. It's use as a parent will continue to improve the quality of pink hybrids. Dtps. Spanish Bay, with it's parents coming from both the Monterey Bay and Southern California, has turned out to be a super vigorous cross in terms of flowering. It seems as though plants are never out of bloom with great branching spikes of well shaped, blush pink flowers. Phal. Exotic Sands uses Phal. Sand Pebbles as a parent combined with the great stripe from Hawaii, Phal. Exotic Network. This has given the cross consistently great shape, with excellent color. An F2 generation, just starting to flower is continuing to show these wonderful qualities. Phalaenopsis Early Bird, another Sand Pebbles hybrid by In The Pink, is extremely vigorous and blooms throughout the year with grand branching spikes of finely stippled lavender. It has the uncanny knack of being able to breed with just about anything that it is crossed with. We should see some excellent shaped, large novelties among its progeny. Phal Stellar Gold, a cross of Liu Tuen-shen X Golden Wish, has proven to carry on the vigor from both of it's parents. These plants are tremendously vigorous and free flowering with good shape and flower count. One of my favorite crosses to date has been Phal. Rare Vintage. This cross of Sweet Memory X George Vasquez yielded flowers of terrific color and shape. The first making of the cross yielded just about 50 seedlings. We have been fortunate to have four plants awarded so far from the cross.

Moving a bit further North, into the Livermore Valley, we'll stop at Orchids Orinda to look at a cross named Phal. Evelyn Bell. It has as its parents, Sands Whim and Whitestone, and is a very nice cross in the clear yellow range with large round flowers. Dr. Maynard Michel is continuing to pursue this line to improve large, clear yellow Phalaenopsis.

Up into the Sierra foothills we'll now stop at Gold Country Orchids. While primarily known for their innovative miniature Cattleya hybridizing, they have been working well on their own as well as with us cooperatively to create noteworthy Phalaenopsis hybrids. Phal. Wild Legend combines the exotic patterning from Phal. Carmela's Wild Thing with extreme strong stripes of Phal. Hawaiian Legend. The results are vigorous plants that exhibit "wild" patterning in its flowers. When considering large standard striped flowers, Dtps. Pacific Legend has turned out to be one of the best we have seen in recent to date. It's combination of Dtps. Fiesta Pacifica and Hawaiian Legend has yielded extremely uniform, high quality stripes. Another cross of note from Gold Country Orchids is Phal. Glad Dawn. It is one of the most consistent crosses that I have seen in terms of quality. Its parents are Phal. Dawn Treader and the great Be Glad. We will be seeing many awards to this grex in the very near future.

A quick jump across the Pacific to the "Islands" is where we will look at our final two hybrids. Both coming from Carmela Orchids. Phal. Neon Spots, a cross of Carmela's Spots X Neon Stripes has intense coloration that will certainly be useful in future crosses. Last but certainly not least, a great yellow striped cross, Dtps. Kelsie Takasaki. With both parents, Dtps Autumn Leaves and Phal. Bonnie Vasquez outstanding in their own right, this cross was a sure bet for quality. It received a coveted Award of Quality from the AOS. The jury is still out on whether this cross will breed. But if it does, you can be assured of a quantum leap in yellow striped hybrids.

As you can see, the breeders of the past have left today's breeders with a great arsenal of plants to breed with. I think that you will agree that the West Coast breeders are also using these tools in a most effective fashion. No doubt, the West has a bright look to the future in Phalaenopsis breeding.