# Paphiopedilum bellatulum



## Paul (Mar 14, 2012)

Second bloom, small piece of the mother plant that will also bloom soon.
Should be grown warm to hot.


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## Bob in Albany N.Y. (Mar 14, 2012)

Pretty good one that you have there.


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## NYEric (Mar 14, 2012)

Yes, thanks for posting.


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## Erythrone (Mar 14, 2012)

A very nice one.

So you grow bellatulum warm to hot? I was thinking it needs cooler temp than other Brachy.


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## Brabantia (Mar 14, 2012)

Waouh! Very nice flowering!!


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## W. Beetus (Mar 14, 2012)

Great looking bloom!


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## SlipperFan (Mar 14, 2012)

Lovely!


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## Stone (Mar 14, 2012)

Erythrone said:


> A very nice one.
> 
> So you grow bellatulum warm to hot? I was thinking it needs cooler temp than other Brachy.



Me too!


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## John M (Mar 14, 2012)

Very nice flower!:clap:




Erythrone said:


> So you grow bellatulum warm to hot? I was thinking it needs cooler temp than other Brachy.



That's what I thought as well!


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## vinhpicohp (Mar 14, 2012)

Very nice! thank you!


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## abax (Mar 15, 2012)

Oh my, one of my favorite Paphs. and it's lovely.


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## Paul (Mar 15, 2012)

Erythrone said:


> A very nice one.
> 
> So you grow bellatulum warm to hot? I was thinking it needs cooler temp than other Brachy.



average day temps in april seem to be about 38°C in nature... 100°F
Most of the year it is 30°C. SO no, definitely has to be grown hot. You will have bacteria problems and slow growth if growing too cool (nights can be cooler, 13-15°C is ok). But it thrives when grown warm and humid.


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## Kavanaru (Mar 15, 2012)

Erythrone said:


> A very nice one.
> 
> So you grow bellatulum warm to hot? I was thinking it needs cooler temp than other Brachy.



I also grow it warm to hot (with my Catasetinae) and grows like weed... my best growing Brachy!


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## Paul (Mar 15, 2012)

Kavanaru said:


> I also grow it warm to hot (with my Catasetinae) and grows like weed... my best growing Brachy!



That's exactly how you have to grow it!
Here I grow it too cool in winter, so I have trouble with it. No problem when I was growing indoor, warm, under lights. The new greenouse should be warmer.


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## Kavanaru (Mar 15, 2012)

the result of 3.5 years growing warm to hot... as I bought this plant it was a single mature growth with a very small new growth coming...




Paphiopedilum bellatulum by kavanaru, on Flickr


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## Justin (Mar 15, 2012)

whoah!!!! i grow them too and they are very vigorous for me. however i grow indoors under lights and my temps are intermediate.


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## Paphman910 (Mar 15, 2012)

Paul said:


> average day temps in april seem to be about 38°C in nature... 100°F
> Most of the year it is 30°C. SO no, definitely has to be grown hot. You will have bacteria problems and slow growth if growing too cool (nights can be cooler, 13-15°C is ok). But it thrives when grown warm and humid.



I agree totally! I was quite surprised that it grew really well in warm conditions considering a lot of literature suggest they can grow in cool condtions.

Paphman910


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## goldenrose (Mar 15, 2012)

:clap: :drool: :clap:


Erythrone said:


> A very nice one.
> 
> So you grow bellatulum warm to hot? I was thinking it needs cooler temp than other Brachy.


You're not alone guys! I guess it goes to show us if everything else is right, temp might not make the difference?


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## paphioboy (Mar 15, 2012)

Wowza! That's some bellatulum... Very nice... I find it odd that I have never seen multi-growth bellatulum here in shows or for sale, if it is so easy to grow under warm conditions...


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## wonderlen3000 (Mar 15, 2012)

goldenrose said:


> :clap: :drool: :clap:
> You're not alone guys! I guess it goes to show us if everything else is right, temp might not make the difference?



P. bellatulum in nature do grows from low to mid-elevations and can tolerate cooler winter/dry season. But I think because of the line breeding (bellatulum is a few of those specie that line breeded alot) the genes might change alot and now it can tolerate warm-hot.


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## wonderlen3000 (Mar 15, 2012)

Kavanaru said:


> the result of 3.5 years growing warm to hot... as I bought this plant it was a single mature growth with a very small new growth coming...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Wow...i never seem bellatulum that big in a clump. :clap::clap::clap:


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## Bob in Albany N.Y. (Mar 15, 2012)

I need to show that photo to my 20 or so in 2 inch pots. If I put them all together I don't think it will be as full as that pot. Good growing.


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## Kavanaru (Mar 15, 2012)

hehehe, thanks! I must admit it took a while to start growing, I had in S/H, which it did not like at all... almost lost it... I changed it to "standard" substrat, and after a while it became a weed... it is also in bloom almost most of the year... but it is during this season that it has the largest number of flowers... this year it seems to be 5 or 6 flowers at once...


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## Kavanaru (Mar 15, 2012)

hhhhmmmm.... question... I have never thought of breeding or selfing this plant... now that I have posted this picture, I have several people asking whether I will breed it because apparently the dorsal is "fantastic" for the species.... what do you think? I have not seen so many bellatulum f2f in oder to judge whether this is an outstanding clone... so far, I just happen to like it a lot...


here some older pictures of former blooms:



Paphiopedilum bellatulum by kavanaru, on Flickr



Paphiopedilum bellatulum  by kavanaru, on Flickr


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## Rick (Mar 15, 2012)

This was one of my first paphs and it was a boom or bust plant for about 6 years.

For a few years it would have anual fits of great growth followed by root loss. Then after a few years it seemed to be indistructable and got up to about 10 growths. After a couple years like that it started loosing growths to rot one at a time, refusing to put on new roots and blooming all the while.

No matter how often or in whatever mix it kept going down until loosing the whole thing.

I managed to get a compot of selfings of this plant, and they would do great in the compot, but after getting potted individually they would "lock up" and gradually die out.

This is all before I came up with the low-K theory. I picked up a new NBS seedling bellatulum from Sam, and after almost a year (in a basket) its growing fantasticly and may bloom this spring. My niveum has never been better too, and a small compot of godefroyae seedlings are growing very fast.

Everything would probably be considered Intermediate to warm temps in my GH, but I have the bellatulum at the lower light end compared to niveum and godefroyae at the bright end.

The belatulum is down by my sanderianum, supardii, and emersonii , while the niveum and godefroyae are under vandas and next to "cactus-paph" species like exul and druryii.


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## SlipperFan (Mar 15, 2012)

Those are really sweet!


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## Stone (Mar 16, 2012)

There must be different altitude vars. of bell. as in some areas it can apparently experience frost. Also the possibility of leuc. or godefroyae in the blood?


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## biothanasis (Mar 17, 2012)

splendid!!!


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## Rick (Mar 18, 2012)

Stone said:


> There must be different altitude vars. of bell. as in some areas it can apparently experience frost. Also the possibility of leuc. or godefroyae in the blood?



If humans and chimps share 99% of DNA then brachies must by 99.99% all the same based on how different the flowers/plant habit is.


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## eggshells (Mar 18, 2012)

goldenrose said:


> :clap: :drool: :clap:
> You're not alone guys! I guess it goes to show us if everything else is right, temp might not make the difference?



That's right. Even JPMC's armeniacum seems to prove this. Never gets below 16c and never gets a winter dry rest as the literature states and still quite grow and flower outstandingly. I guess they can adapt as long as you provide them with basic care.


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## cnycharles (Mar 18, 2012)

I think that line breeding removes some of the need for seasonally cold treatments. Where anything can survive, it's probably likely that plants that have code for allowing different temperatures to survive (or there are breeders sneaking pollen from other species onto their plants) are in cultivation


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## SlipperKing (Mar 18, 2012)

Kavanaru said:


> the result of 3.5 years growing warm to hot... as I bought this plant it was a single mature growth with a very small new growth coming...
> 
> OK, yours is a special clone Ramon! P.S. great flower
> 
> Paul, nice growing w3ith a nice bloom. First bloom? I've only had luck keeping this species alive by growing it S/H. Is yours in a mix?


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## Stone (Mar 18, 2012)

Rick said:


> If humans and chimps share 99% of DNA then brachies must by 99.99% all the same based on how different the flowers/plant habit is.



Maybe that 00.01% is the cold tolerance geneoke:


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## Erythrone (Mar 19, 2012)

Stone said:


> Maybe that 00.01% is the cold tolerance geneoke:



I agree!!!!!


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## Paul (Mar 20, 2012)

I give you average low/high temps in nature:

"cold" months: min 11°C max 33°C
hot months (spring): min 21°C max 37°C 

So, does someone still think it needs a cold season? lol


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## Erythrone (Mar 20, 2012)

But min 11 is not that hot...


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## Kavanaru (Mar 20, 2012)

Erythrone said:


> But min 11 is not that hot...



11 to 33C 

very variable, which makes me think that the species is very adaptable to both cool and hot winter... the question is at which temp it would perform better and at which it would survive without many issues...


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