These are dyed - basically white phals grown in medium that contains some sort of stuff that tints the flowers blue. Not unsimilar to the blue dendrobiums, blue roses, or blue carnations you can find at any flower store (these are dyed after they are cut, and are placed in water with blue food colouring which the flower takes up). Subsequent spikes will bloom out white. Based upon current technology, orchids cannot be crossed with anything outside of the orchid family. Hope this is informative...personally I don't care much for these, and I suspect that watering your typical white phal with water containing blue food colouring will produce a similar result.

I also forgot to mention - their website says these phals are not hybridized...this is probably a false claim. Unless they are using pure-bred phal. amabalis, aphrodite or any of the other white phal species, these plants are indeed a product of hybridization. I know this isn't what they meant, but I find this kind of false advertising irritating.

Just wondering.....as you do in the peanut gallery.....

There are some crosses of Vanda coerulea x Phalaenopis registered by the RHS.
One with amabilis is called Blue Horizon. Vanda coerulea blue or wishy washy
purplish, mauvish blue?

Arthur this is not a cross with another member of the family, this is dyed, butt ugly, irridescent blue phal. My grocery had a bunch for $29.99 and the next week they were all gone.

Brooke

Ugly dyed things that will bloom out next year a regular old NOID white.

THANK YOU, Brooke and smwboxer!

I am fortunate - I have not seen one.

--Stitz--

I know it was a dyed orchid, i was just surmising that with a lot of breeding, selection, discarding and lots of time that it might be possible to produce a true blue "Phal".

Agree with the "bu-tuggly", but my husband thought it was cool to have an orchid the same color as his Corvette, so he bought it for himself for his own birthday! (He didn't know that I had already passed on them when I saw them a few weeks ago.)

Here you go.
{{gwi:159828}}

I saw them for first time today at Pike's. They looked strange to me and I assumed they were dyed. I was picking through their recently reduced price options and came across a mystique that was done flowering. It was reduced. As I was examining it closely for signs of health, my digging fingers came away with blue smudges like a leaky ink pen. It had gloppy splotches on some stems and leaves.

I think I cried a little inside. Now I'm going to be paranoid that every interesting orchid I see in future is dyed! Just like those painted aquarium fish. So sad.

I found two orchids - a mini cattleya and a miltonia - for reduced price. I was going to purchase them, but the line was long and by the time I got to the register, the cashier wouldn't ring me up. She kept wandering around the store trying to find tape for a previous customer. It's OK, though. A gnat landed on one of the orchids. She probably saved me from rot hiding deep in those black plastic pots.

Just received one as a gift from a very knowldgeable orchid friend. She gave it to me with a smile and said it reminded her of Easter Eggs. "Tacky" was the word she used, I have to agree.

Interestingly the roots and media look normal, I would have expected some blue.

Oh well, a nice and healthy NOID white next year.

Bob

SCAM!
Saw them at Home Depot and thought they looked very unnatural but intriguing. Almost something out of Avatar I just wished they would glow in the dark. At first I thought it was some joke of genetic engineering until I saw an injection site at the lower segment of the spike with dark blue dye that stained my thumb readily. I turned away right away not able to comprehend how this type of scam is tolerated or it being labeled the first blue Phal in the world through a "patented process".

Now that you mention it, I see the injection sight on my spike also.

Mine is labeled: Blue Mystique Single Orchid, from Masterpeice Flower Company, Byron Center, MI. and I think it is precious ;-) You know, if they develop a few more pastels they can try and replace Easter Eggs!

Bob

The spike is injected w/ dye. I can't find the url where this is shown (my work PC history probably has it), but you can easily see the large injection site in the spike.

I know, DH proudly bought me one =:O

I have a couple of the Blue Mystique Orchids grown by Silver vase. One I won from the company and one I purchased at Home depot. I very much enjoyed the unique look to them while they were in bloom and I am sure they will re-bloom white. There are clearly "injection sites" near the base of each blooming stem stained with very dark blue dye.

There are some (gag) on e-bay for Only $59.99 each plus $30 something shipping .what a deal lolol
IMHO they have a major case of the ugly's and the listing says nothing about them being dyed . Gin

Yikes, dyed blue phals. I don't know what's worse: fake phals made from plastic and fabric or these dyed blue phals.

Just got back this afternoon from Hausermann's in Villa Park. They had some of these for sale there and they were more than happy to tell everyone how it's done. Using a small needled syringe, inject blue food coloring into the base of the spike of any white phal. within a week or two prior to the bud opening (depending on how much color you want--veiny or within the whole petal). Patented-process my [you know what]. This is not patented--not even patentable, and it's just a fad. It's very much the same thing that's done with carnations, et.al. Prior art is not patentable in any country.

However, Hausermann's had some unique insight into the process too--they have also injected spikes with black dye, which then ends up producing multi-colored petals. Interesting that the plant separates out the color of black dye into multiple colored petals.

Thanks, tpleiman.
The black sounds really cool!

I work at a garden center, and my manager, who does the ordering, recently heard of a blue phalaenopsis and is seeing what she can do to get them...I KNOW its this that she's thinking of. I nearly had a heart attack!

Was trying to remember the science project I did in high school that would explain the black dye separating. Just came to me---chromatography.
It was a fun process. Would load tall glass titre tubes with different powders like talc. The test substance would be dissloved in some liquid medium. When it traveled through the glass tube, it's components would separate out into different bands. Each band could be separated and then you could test the components in each band to find the content.
It could also be done on coffee filters. The substance would make concentric rings on the paper filter which could be cut apart and tested.
Sounds like the phals act like the wicking mechanism. How about watering with a mixture of pure food coloring a few weeks before blooms open??? Might try it next spring just for the fun of it.
Now to find a white phal to sacrifice---hey, I could use my husband's blue one!!!! It is supposed to be white next year anyway, right?

Here is what I found out about turning white orchids blue
here is my you tube on the subject.

http://youtu.be/ygtvrhhZof8

Skip Rasmussen

This post was edited by Ras4852 on Mon, Apr 15, 13 at 8:24