Breeding for Red Phalaenopsis Part 2

Breeding for Red Phalaenopsis Part 2 - Phal. Malibu Imp

The first article of the series examined the contributions made to red breeding by phal. George Vasquez (violacea x Luedde-violacea). In this article we will take a brief look at the contributions made by another phal. Luedde-violacea hybrid, phal. Malibu Imp.

Registered in 1977 by Arthur Freed Orchids Inc., phal. Malibu Imp is the result of crossing the species phal. amboinensis with phal. Luedde-violacea. To date, phal. Malibu Imp has received 15 awards from the American Orchid Society (AOS) which attests to the quality of the cross. Some of the clones from the cross are yellow with varying degrees of red markings while some are solid red. It seems only natural that the good solid red clones have been the most useful in red breeding.

The table below shows the success that has been obtained in breeding reds using phal. Malibu Imp as a parent. What is not apparent from the table is that most of the listed hybrids are relatively recent developments with half of them being registered by John Martin within the last four years.

Figure 1
Awarded Red Progeny of phal. Malibu Imp

American Orchid Society Awards	HCC	AM	FCC
Parentage
x Fire-Engine Red = Red Galaxy	1
x Fire-Water = Liberty Hill	2
x George Vasquez = Zuma Garnet	2	2
x Golden Pride = Imp's Pride		2
x Heart's Desire = Breko Impheart	1
x Imp's Pride = Gottabe Red	1
x Malibu Girl = Laura's Valentine		2
x Red-Hot Chili = Red Hot Imp	2	5
x Spirit House = Franz Liszt		1
x venosa = Venimp		1
x Zauberrot = Julia Wilson		1

Total	8	14

Deserving of special mention is Phal. Zuma Garnet, being the product of Phal.
Malibu Imp and the subject of the first article in this series, Phal. George Vasquez. This thoughtful cross was registered in 1984 by Zuma Canyon and, as might be expected, is proving to be a useful breeder of reds.

Also, worth examining is phal. Red Hot Imp which was registered in 1992 by John Martin. As the table indicates, this is the most successful of the red Malibu Imp hybrids to date. In the parent phal. Red Hot Chili, we again find phal. George Vasquez at work. Phal. Red Hot Chili was registered in 1982 by John Ewing Orchids Inc. and consists of Carnival x Tabasco Tex. As you may recall from the first article of this series, phal. Tabasco Tex is the cross of Princess Kaiulani x George Vasquez.

The point of singling out these two hybrids is twofold. It continues to emphasize the value of phal. George Vasquez in breeding reds and demonstrates the difficulty of categorizing red breeding lines. For example, should phal. Zuma Garnet and its progeny be primarily attributed to the George Vasquez breeding line or to that of Malibu Imp? In either case, as we have seen in this series, it is very difficult to escape a phal. Luedde-violacea background, when discussing good modern red phals.