I first saw Phalaenopsis gigantea variety alba (sometimes called variety decolorate) in lectures at International Phalaenopsis Alliance meetings about ten years ago. I knew I had to have one. If I only ever got to see it myself and that was it, I was still willing to sacrifice eating, I would run my car on fumes, and if there was a black market for toes, I might’ve cut off a toe to get a gigantea alba. Maybe.

In 2018 a vendor from Taiwan was speaking at an IPA meeting and had seedlings of a selfing of Phalaenopsis gigantea variety alba ‘Tai Wei’ growing in 3-inch nursery pots for $100. It took an additional 8 years for that to flower!

Phalaenopsis gigantea with alba on the right at Christmas 2025

Between that first seedling and the time it took to flower, availability increased and I was able to purchase more. Hopefully they are going to flower soon!

With the increased supply, more people acquired and began breeding them. The appeal of gigantea breeding is hopefully easy to see: round flowers with exotic spotting and a waxy sheen. Coupling these characteristics with breeding hybrids that are in the yellow and green spectrum doesn’t yield great results, likely producing just normally colored gigantea.

For me, initial positive results weren’t immediately realized. Most of the unbloomed seedlings I was excited to buy turned out not a prized alba but muddied reds. I had bought some gigantea primary hybrids using tetraspis and amboiensis var alba. These two primary hybrids, Gentleman Jack and David Lim, respectively are great hybrids in their own right but I wanted some new novel examples in order to skip ahead in my breeding plan.

Phalaenopsis David Lim (amboiensis alba x gigantea alba)

Pictured above is what all the seedlings of the David Lim looked like. It shouldn’t be any surprise that they weren’t alba. Even with a simpler genotype the progeny did not bloom as expected. I suspect that there is more than a single allele controlling pigmentation. Often there are clones available of gigantea alba hybrids. Clones give me what I want instead of having to grow out a population of seedlings and then looking for the special alba ones; the process I was going through hoping to flower something exceptional.

This summer while touring Taiwan’s Phalaenopsis greenhouses, I finally found a clone of David Lim alba named ‘F-10’ at Lioulin Orchids.

Phalaenopsis David Lim alba 'F-10'

I brought a couple home and will be excitedly watching them for a long time as they slowly develop their spikes and bloom for me this winter.

The hybrids of gigantea can be as exceptional as the species when grown into specimen-sized plants. The inflorescences are persistent and produce flowers terminally annually while growing additional inflorescence. They also have stately leaves true to their name. Below are some specimens growing in Taiwan. Some of the leaves were about 1 meter in length!

I’m excited to have some confirmed examples of gigantea type Phals that are in the yellow spectrum so I can continue breeding without shrugging my shoulders for years before they flower.