Vanda Kulwadee Fragrance from Tetraploid Orchid Garden has won the grand champion title at the Taiwan International Orchid Show.
About the Show
The Taiwan International Orchid Show and Floral Technology Exhibition opened on February 27 at the Houbi Flower Innovation Park in Tainan. The event attracted participants from 30 countries and featured exhibitors and buyers on site. Organizers used the latest technologies, including AI applications that combined famous artworks with orchid displays to create a diverse and immersive viewing experience. The show was held in four main exhibition zones, showcasing the latest orchid varieties alongside technological innovations.
Why the Win Matters
The grand champion Vanda Kulwadee Fragrance stood out for its strong growth vigor and ornamental value, which the judges described as unmatched. Its flower spikes were abundant and clearly layered, with deep red wine velvet-like coloration combined with thick, glossy texture, creating strong visual impact. The plant displayed an upright leaf posture and a powerful, coiled root system, balancing grandeur with delicate detail. Judges called it a benchmark work of the year, reflecting high cultivation skill and line stability.
Other Category Winners
In addition to the grand champion, four category champions were named. In the Cattleya alliance group, Du’s Orchid Garden won with a white-flowered Cattleya that had four large blooms on one stem, featuring snow-white petals with light purple edges on the lip, earning both the group championship and a gold medal. In the Paphiopedilum group, Haoji Orchid Garden took top honors with a multifloral type derived from the Paphiopedilum Mount Toro albino line, praised for its flower count uniformity and genetic purity. In the Phalaenopsis group, Kolon International Biotech Co., Ltd. won with a yellow-green flowered moth orchid that combined the excellent flower form of “Taiwan Grandma” with the bluish-green hue of Phal. Heliodor, producing up to ten flower spikes with nearly a hundred flowers blooming at once, showing high consistency for a mass-produced line. In the other alliance group, Wu Wen-bin won with a white-flowered Rhynchostylis gigantea line, noted for its densely packed, naturally drooping flower spikes, snow-white color appearing translucent in light, thick leaves, and sturdy growth habit that exemplified the fox tail orchid’s characteristic extension.
Looking Ahead
The Tainan City government said the award-winning plants represent Taiwan’s excellence in orchid breeding and reflect the close integration of variety improvement and market demand. Through the international orchid show stage, Taiwan has once again demonstrated its soft power and competitiveness as the “Orchid Kingdom.” The winning plants are currently on display at the Agricultural Department’s Flower Innovation Park in Houbi, Tainan, and the public is welcome to visit and view them.
Transaction Forecast
Organizers estimate that transaction values at the 2026 Taiwan International Orchid Show and Floral Technology Exhibition will surpass NT$1.2 billion, with Deputy Agriculture Minister Hu Chung-yi stating the figure should be double last year’s and that total transaction value over the next three to five years could exceed NT$20 billion.
Official Statements
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che noted the event’s overlap with the Taiwan Lantern Festival in Chiayi creates a favorable opportunity for visitors to view orchids in Tainan during the day and attend the lantern festival at night, while also highlighting that reduced U.S. tariffs to 15% enhance the global competitiveness of Taiwanese orchids due to both tariff advantages and high flower quality.
Sources
Based on: nownews.com · english.ftvnews.com.tw. Written and checked by the Orkpedia editors.