Question to vanda growers with BLUE vandas

My new Ascda Princess Mikasa Blue just opened it's first flower and while it is quite beautiful, it is not a true blue I was hoping for but rather sort of pinkish/purplish blue.
I still like it, but am again on the hunt for truly BLUE vanda.
Owners of blue vandas, I need your help. If you have one that is truly blue (more like deep royal blue with no pink in the hue), please tell me her name.
There are many hybrid names that include word blue, plus I know there are many names without word blue that are still blue (V. Pachara Delight, V. Manuvadee). Search of them through google images returns mixed results from really blue to really purple.
I know that you cannot predict the bloom color of seedling cross and my best bet would be to buy one in flower from show (too long wait until April ). At this point I just want to find out from all the blue hybrids which ones more likely to have the color I want.

Also I really liked the shape and size of Robert's Delight blooms. Does it come in blue?
Thanks a lot.

[ingse]

Have you seen Vanda Blue Stick ?



Its not a perfect picture, but as you can see its "blue"

[tucker85]

There's a problem with searching the internet looking for a blue vanda. Vandas in the blue/violet spectrum almost always look more blue in photographs than they do in real life. I live in south Florida near some of the largest commercial vanda growing nurseries in the U.S. and I have yet to see a true blue vanda. I think you're going to need to settle on something that is not quite blue. Here are three of my favorites in that spectrum. I know they look blue in the picture, but they're actually more purple. The Vascostylis is the closest to being true blue in real life.

Ascda. Princess Mikasa 'Indigo'



V. Pachara Delight



Vascostylis Vinita Blue

[DelawareJim]

Originally Posted by tucker85

There's a problem with searching the internet looking for a blue vanda. Vandas in the blue/violet spectrum almost always look more blue in photographs than they do in real life. I live in south Florida near some of the largest commercial vanda growing nurseries in the U.S. and I have yet to see a true blue vanda. I think you're going to need to settle on something that is not quite blue. Here are three of my favorites in that spectrum. I know they look blue in the picture, but they're actually more purple. The Vascostylis is the closest to being true blue in real life.

There are no true blue flowers in nature. All "blues" are actually various shades of violet that appears blue because of how the cells reflect light. Also, there are no "blue" birds in nature either. They're all grey, but they appear blue because of how the light is reflected off the feathers. (Sorry; the "bluebird of happiness" is actually grey.)

In modern digital photography, "blue" flowers appear unnaturally blue because of a phenomenon called the "reverse Ageratum effect" where the digital sensors either perceive more blue than is seen by the human eye or because of over correction by the processor. This is in contrast to the old "Ageratum effect" from color film days where the effect is believed to be based on “an anomalous reflectance due to the fact that some pigments reflect infrared light that is picked up as red by the film“. This was first discovered while photographing Ageratums for the first colour seed catalogues.

Cheers.
Jim

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by DelawareJim

There are no true blue flowers in nature. All "blues" are actually various shades of violet that appears blue because of how the cells reflect light. (There are no "blue" birds in nature either. They're all grey, but they appear blue because of how the light is reflected off the feathers.)

Yes in birds and butterflies the blue appears through reflection or iridenscence, but when it comes to plants I disagree, blue does exist. It's a matter of plant pigments and plant chemistry. Anthocyanin pigments range from red to blue, and the flower pH will in part determine at which end of the range the color will be. Some Anthocyanins form complexes with elements such as iron, magnesium, cobalt or calcium and lead to more stable blue anthocyanins; ie. the true blues.

[DelawareJim]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Yes in birds and butterflies the blue appears through reflection or iridenscence, but when it comes to plants I disagree, blue does exist. It's a matter of plant pigments and plant chemistry. Anthocyanin pigments range from red to blue, and the flower pH will in part determine at which end of the range the color will be. Some Anthocyanins form complexes with elements such as iron, magnesium, cobalt or calcium and lead to more stable blue anthocyanins; ie. the true blues.

Yes, but the metalloanthocyanins rely on the degree of oxidation and pH for their blue expression, as you said. They act like litmus paper in their colour expression and the same plant or flower can appear less blue (more purple) at higher pH.

Hydrangeas are a perfect example; blue flowers in acidic conditions and pink flowers in alkaline conditions. By changing the pH with aluminium sulfate or lime you can change the colour of the flowers on the same plant from pink to blue, back to pink again, year to year.

Therefore, I do not believe they are truly blue flowers as the colour is not stable regardless of pH.

Cheers.
Jim

[Kali Hibiscus]

Originally Posted by DelawareJim

There are no true blue flowers in nature. All "blues" are actually various shades of violet that appears blue because of how the cells reflect light. Also, there are no "blue" birds in nature either. They're all grey, but they appear blue because of how the light is reflected off the feathers. (Sorry; the "bluebird of happiness" is actually grey.)

In modern digital photography, "blue" flowers appear unnaturally blue because of a phenomenon called the "reverse Ageratum effect" where the digital sensors either perceive more blue than is seen by the human eye or because of over correction by the processor. This is in contrast to the old "Ageratum effect" from color film days where the effect is believed to be based on “an anomalous reflectance due to the fact that some pigments reflect infrared light that is picked up as red by the film“. This was first discovered while photographing Ageratums for the first colour seed catalogues.

Cheers.
Jim

This is why I take my pictures in Raw format ( I have DSLR) and correct the color to what I saw with my own eyes. When I use my point in shoot camera the colors never are to true color.

In the hibiscus world they use the word blue but there are no true blue hibiscus. so are greyish with some purple pigment so it gives the appearance of blue.

Great info everybody! Thank you so much! Well, looks like I am starting a quest for all the "like blue" vandas .
I am going to look for blooming V. Tristar Blue or V.Patchara Delight at the show, which is only in April, sigh...
But to have some kind of action now I just ordered two vanda seedlings to join my little V. Bangkok Blue. They are V. Packchong Blue and V. Gordon Dillon Blue (although tag says "blue" in the last one, I could only find registered name V. Gordon Dillon).
I read that V.Packchong Blue can flower even on small plants...

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by orchideya

Great info everybody! Thank you so much! Well, looks like I am starting a quest for all the "like blue" vandas .
I am going to look for blooming V. Tristar Blue or V.Patchara Delight at the show, which is only in April, sigh...
But to have some kind of action now I just ordered two vanda seedlings to join my little V. Bangkok Blue. They are V. Packchong Blue and V. Gordon Dillon Blue (although tag says "blue" in the last one, I could only find registered name V. Gordon Dillon).
I read that V.Packchong Blue can flower even on small plants...

Wy are you concentrating only on vandas? Ascocendas bloom more often and usually have brighter colors than the vandas.

[Gage]

I agree with Tucker, I have yet to see a blue Vanda. When blue is in the name, or when someone describes an orchid as being "blue", unfortunately (from everything I have seen) that just means it's on the blue end of purple or lavender. I think it's very misleading.