Phalaenopsis Journal First Quarter Vol. 21(3) 2012 | Page 22

probably more things that I didn’t know than what I did
know; but not quite wise enough to realize just how much I
really didn’t know. So, I blazed forward with passion for my
new project propelled forward by the unending energy of a
young man in his 20’s. As I said earlier, naïve would be the
best description of my early thoughts on what was going
to be involved with successfully creating coerulea hybrids.
By 2004, I was well into Phase I with an ever growing col-
lection of coerulea Phalaenopsis. The process of building
up my collection of stud plants was an arduous task. Just
getting a single coerulea form of any given species and/or
hybrid at that time was very difficult. I needed to acquire
multiple cultivars of each coerulea species and hybrid, at
least to the extent that they existed to make sure I had a
wide range of genetic material to work with. After a great
deal of searching and networking with other growers I was
starting to hit critical mass with my collection, and I be-
gan working on creating both foundation and test crosses.
I was now ready to begin some of Phase II and being overly
confident that I would be successful, I felt it was important
to create a recognizable brand to represent my work. So I
created the concept of Sapphire Dragon Orchids to be the
public face of my hybrids and research… that did not yet
exist. Yep, you read it right, nothing but a brand and a plan.
Don’t feel badly if that made you cringe: I winced with one
eye half open while writing it.
I had been warned multiple times by other experienced
hybridizers that coerulea breeding was a dead end. Previ-
ous efforts at creating blue phals were built on only two
coerulea forms: standard coerulea P. violacea and standard
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coerulea Dor. pulcherrima. Combined they made the pri-
mary hybrid Kenneth Schubert which is still to this day the
most common commercially available coerulea Phalae-
nopsis. Most attempts by other hybridizers to create more
complex coerulea phals failed. Little Blue Bird and Fire
Cracker were the only other documented coerulea hybrids
back when I started. The original coerulea Fire Cracker
had some horrible ploidy problems, so while its color was
really great, it was almost impossible to breed with. I very
quickly experienced this frustration firsthand.
I was going down some different paths, so I thought, with
my crosses in the hopes that I would not be repeating pre-
vious mistakes. Well my first round of “coerulea” hybrids
resulted in more failures than successes producing mostly
magenta flowers much to my dismay. Then there were the
Taiwanese hybridizers registering crosses no more than
6-9 months before I would bloom the same cross that fur-
ther added to the frustration. Early on, the only cross that
bloomed out coerulea was a cross between two different
cultivars of Phal. equestris var. cyanochilus. Even most of
the coerulea pulcherrimas crossed with other coerulea
pulcherrimas were blooming out magenta. A couple of
years in and my plan was not going so well.
I was extensively using P. equestris var. cyanochilus, Dtps.
Kenneth Schubert, Dtps. Purple Martin, Dor. pulcherrima
var. coerulea, Phal. violacea var. coerulea, P. tetraspsis, and
P. aphrodite in my crosses. Originally I believed P. tetraspis
was going to be a great parent for carrying coerulea pig-
ments. Dtps. Sapphire Tetramartin (Purple Martin × tet-
rapsis), Dtps. Yaphon Bluepis, and Phal. Taida Sunshine
Dtps. Peter Blue Sky var. coerulea Phal. Penang Jewel var. indigo
(Dtps. Siam Treasure × Dor. pulcherrima ‘Little Blue’) (P. Penang Violacea var. alba × violacea ‘Pacific Rendezvous’)
First Quarter, Vol. 21(3) 2012 - Phalaenopsis