“Everybody doesn’t like something but nobody doesn’t like

The slogan may be somewhat old and, although it was originally used for Sara Lee cakes, it is still applicable to describe Phal. Sara Lee. Phal. Sara Lee has proven to be one of the great phals for injecting color onto a “dull” partner.

John Ewing. (No, not a character on TV’s Dallas. Actually, one of the great novelty phalaenopsis hybridizers.) He was active in phalaenopsis hybridizing in the ’70s and ’80s in California. The first 2 hybrids he registered were Cinnamon Candy and Desert Dawn, desert tones as the art shades were then called.

He was responsible for many other hybrids, some of the better-known being Red-Hot Chili, Summer Joy, Siren’s Song, Strawberry Sundae (one FCC), Crimson Cherub and Peachy Keen. Although Phal. Red-Hot Chili (Carnival x Tabasco Tex) was used by several people to breed red offspring, it is not the most famous – and probably most important – hybrid that he created. That place is reserved for Phal. Sara Lee, registered as a hybrid of Princess Lorraine and violacea, although the species parent was in all likelihood Phal. bellina (formerly Phal. violacea var. Borneo).

Phal. Princess Lorraine was produced by the Rod McLellan Co., a hybrid of Lady Ruby and Princess Kaiulani. According to the award descriptions, Lady Ruby was either white with stripes or pink, both with red in the lip. Bred to Princess Kaiulani, Lady Ruby would have produced heavy substance and intense color. Two of the 3 award descriptions of the awarded clones of Princess Lorraine speak of vibrant color in the center of the flower and heavy substance. Breeding Princess Lorraine then to amboinensis gives you a small flower that is not exceptionally floriferous but what color!

There is one AOS award to Sara Lee garnered by Roger Brown, an HCC of 79 pts. to the clone Lisa in 1982. There were 12 flowers on 3 branched inflorescences with a natural spread of 5.3 cm. The base color of the flowers was creamy white with concentric spotting and barring with rosy lavender becoming spots distally. Irene Dobkin had a great plant of this grex to which she gave the clonal name ‘Eye Dee’. This clone apparently was never available in North America but, at some point, it arrived in Taiwan, presumably through her Taiwanese agent, Liu Tuen-Shen. This clone is a counted tetraploid.

Sara Lee is a small intensely colored flower. Its offspring, especially those with intense color tend to be larger than Sara Lee but small nonetheless. However, Sara Lee contributes a great many good qualities such as near perfect shingling and flatness to its progeny.

John Ewing was the first person to register a Sara Lee hybrid. He presumably wanted to increase the flower count and bred it to Phal. stuartiana to produce Phal. Lil Johnson. One clone of Phal. Lil Johnson was awarded: ‘Classic’ received an 80-pt. Award of Merit from the AOS. The flowers had a natural spread of 6.9 cm with substance described as very heavy.

Dr. Azhar Mustafa made the second Sara Lee cross, using Phal. Deventeriana to produce  Phal. Sweet Revenge. Several plants of this grex were shown in New York on more than occasion and the hybrid ultimately received a well-deserved Award of Quality. In addition, 5 clones received AOS awards. Sizes ranged from 6.1 cm to approximately 7.0 cm for the others. There are 14 hybrids made with Sweet Revenge and several of these progeny have received AOS awards. The better plants branch readily and have great color. However, the shape of Sweet Revenge seems to dominate future generations.

In 1996, I was lucky enough to be in Taiwan visiting nurseries with Mr. Lin when we chanced upon the first flowering of Phal. Brother Sara Gold. Very similar to Phal. Sweet Revenge, mericlones of this grex are now a staple in Home Depot and Lowe’s, among others.  There are now 8 AOS flower quality awards where flower size ranged from 5.8 to 6.8 cm natural spread. There is also one CCM given to a plant with 41 flowers and 7 buds on 3 multi-branched inflorescences. Because of the wide distribution of this grex, there are already 26 hybrids registered with it as a parent and several second-generation hybrids.

Almost all of the first-generation hybrids of Brother Sara Gold have flowers that are smaller, and usually significantly smaller, than 3” (7.5 cm) natural spread. This small size seems to be a trait that is hard to breed out and seems linked to the interesting sunset colors produced. However, Sara Lee and many of its progeny produce perfectly flat flowers and near-perfect shingling, a definite plus in breeding. Sogo David ‘Ching Ruey’ is one of the best Brother Sara Gold hybrids with exceptional shape and color – and small size – inherited from Sara Lee.

Brother Supersonic (Sara Lee x Brother Purple) is the most awarded Sara Lee offspring with 17 quality awards and an Award of Quality. As far as size goes, the flowers range from 6.1 to 7.6 cm. natural spread with good flower count and near perfect shingling. Color does vary but people should realize that even the “solid color” flowers are actually just spotted flowers with such intense spotting that they look solid. There are 14 first-generation hybrids with Brother Supersonic, which include Bedford Super Fortune (x Fortune Buddha, as pod parent), Bedford Super Fancy (x Fancy Free – pictured on our home page) and Bedford Truly Super (x Super Stupid). The color pattern on some of the Bedford Super Fortune is incredible but the background color is usually white to cream despite the deep yellow color of the pod parent, Fortune Buddha. 

We were lucky to get several flasks of Brother Bedford (x Golden Sun ‘Ching Her#3’) when it was available. Many of the flowers are simply white with very attractive even magenta bars on the sepals and petals. The most colorful are a deep magenta. The flower count is good, the flowers are flat and the shingling is great. But they are small. I have bred with the best of these and will see how many generations it takes to get “large” flowers.

Brother Pepride (x Brother Passat) has 11 awarded cultivars. The color of these is among the darkest for Sara Lee hybrids, possibly because of the deep yellow color of Brother Passat. Sizes of the awarded plants range from 5.8 cm to 7.1 cm and there is only one registered hybrid to date. However, expect more colorful additions in the near future.

Brother Peterstar (x Brother Stage) also has colorful flowers, again possibly because of the deep yellow of Brother Stage. There are 2 awards to this grex as there are to Brother Max (x Tabasco Tex), which probably has the best color among Sara Lee offspring but which may be a triploid.

Sara Lee has added a new dimension of color to phals. When looking for sunset colors, all we need to know is that Sara Lee is in the background. However, in addition to these beautiful colors and color patterns, we have to expect a slight drawback – small size. How many generations will it take to breed larger flowers?