How Do Patterned Orchids Get Their Spots?

In a sea of vivid pinks, purples and yellows, white patterned Just Add Ice Orchids stand out like a leopard in a pride of lions. Huge white petals speckled with fuchsia spots, deep purple petals striped with lines of white, creamy yellow petals sprinkled with sunburst of red dots – patterned Just Add Ice Orchids garner attention not only for their unique beauty, but for the sheer surprise of discovering something so delightfully unexpected. We simply don’t expect to find a laughing trickster peeking from amid the orderly elegant stalks of a Phalaenopsis orchid display.

Are these unusual orchids nature’s attempt at a joke? Perhaps a freak twist of the genes that occurred when nature’s back was turned? While the development of a patterned orchid might seem like a happy accident, these fascinating hybrids actually result from cross-pollination. Many of the unique colors in which Phalaenopsis orchids and other orchid varieties are available today are the result of years, often decades, of careful hybridization through cross pollination.

Cross Pollination at Just Add Ice

The stunning salmon-colored orchids available from Just Add Ice Orchids are just one example of some of the gorgeous colors that have been created by cross-pollinating Phalaenopsis orchids of different colors.

Just Add Ice Orchids offers an amazing 60-to-70-color array of Phalaenopsis orchids in seven color categories: pink, salmon, white, purple, yellow, bi-color and unique. Click here to watch our greenhouse video and learn more about Just Add Ice Orchids.

Photo credit: thirteenthbat