# In your opinion.....



## Marco (Jun 25, 2006)

...What is are the three most difficult paph species to cultivate and why?


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## Jmoney (Jun 25, 2006)

the three most EXPENSIVE ones in your collection. sorry, but that's the @#%^@$ truth. :/


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## Heather (Jun 25, 2006)

Jason has a good point. And he's right - which means I can discuss just one (since I have three of them!) 

*randsii*

(This would be my less than scientific reason why...)
First, it is impossible to find due to the fact that it is impossible to propigate as it is impossible to self it, and there aren't enough sizeable plants for any one person to have more than one blooming at once in order to get a sib cross. (Brian - did you have any luck at all trying to pollinate yours when it was nearly finished blooming?)

I've heard it is fairly picky about acidic conditions as well. I have no idea if my three babies are going to survive. They cause me much anxiety. 
Because of all of the above, it is exhorbitantly priced, of course!
It all really stinks, cause it soooo beautiful!! Wah!!


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## Marco (Jun 25, 2006)

Jmoney said:


> the three most EXPENSIVE ones in your collection. sorry, but that's the @#%^@$ truth. :/



I only have one species it's a Phil. Alba. oke: And soon a Roth seedling.

If you're talking about the hybrids. Great! . I definately know how to pick them.  Maybe I really shouldn't cut off those flowers now, if I ever get them to bloom!


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## Mahon (Jun 25, 2006)

Well, I think it depends on conditions and media. 

Paph. malipoense is a very hard to grow species. I say this because it gets bud blast very easy. Needs lots of water, lots of shade, and LOTS of time. A very tempermental species. If it doesn't like coniditions, it will either morph into an ugly flower or blast its blooms. 

Paph. micranthum is also a very tempermental one. It needs quite a bit of water, but much less than Paph. malipoense. The plants grow on or near stream banks, and shaded under adjacent growing plants. This species also needs a larger pot, though it is super-compact. The plants produces stolons that will end up everywhere. 

I personally have troubles with Paph. bellatum. I now have a large plant, but I can't get it to even kick up a blooming sheath. Maybe it is just retarded, and I need to get a new one, not sure, but it is way overdue on blooming. 

After a while of growing Paph. malioense and Paph. micranthum (along with other hard to grow species Paph. armeniacum, Paph. kolopakingii, and Paph. rothschildianum, and others), they get very acustomed to your conditions. Sometimes, they will just be alive, and not perform or do anything. Sometimes, you get lucky.

-Pat


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Jun 25, 2006)

Well, we have to differentiate here between difficult to grow and difficult to bloom.....very different situations. Way back in 1986 or so, Ned Nash had a great series of articles in the AOS Bulletin about growing paphs, including "difficult" paphs, and I still find his ideas correct. For example, bellatulum is a very difficult paph to keep alive for long...but while its alive, it is very easy to at least get into spike...I find that the alba form spikes as easily as the normal form but the normal form is less prone to blasting. malipoense is certainly difficult to bloom...but I have had plants live for many years with me...without ever even thinking of setting a bud.
Multiflorals, as Nash said, are easy to grow....but difficult to bloom...especially roth and its crosses (I have only gotten St. Swithin to bloom, of all my "roths"..)
I have a philipinense that has never bloomed in the 15+ years I have had it...although it is multigrowth...(actually, it spiked as a single division when I first got it, and a squirrel knocked it over and broke off the spike...). Then again, difficult paphs can have the difficulty bred out of them...like delanatii. On the other hand, paphs like armeniacum and micranthum were very easy to grow, at least armeniacum was...in the original imported plants...they were stoloniferous, growing like crazy, and even if they kicked the bucket they produced enough offspring to carry on. Now, there are newer seed-grown clones that are "easy" to bloom...well, maybe they are easier to bloom (no luck yet for me... but they have lost the stoloniferous trait...so when a piece dies, it is dead...and you don't have spare pieces.....its a trade-off...easy to bloom? Easy to grow? Most of the time you can't have both...........Take care, Eric


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## Marco (Jun 25, 2006)

Eric - That definately is most interesting! 

Thanks for the post.


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## Jon in SW Ohio (Jun 25, 2006)

If you have the room, temps, humidity, and air flow, most are easy to grow as long as you keep them repotted often. Brachys can be problematic as they rot easily compared to other subgenera, and Parvis a little too.

IMHO the hardest plants to keep alive are the ones you get awarded. It's like the kiss of death. I almost wonder if the judging teams carry little bottles of weed killer in their pocketsoke: 
If you get a plant awarded, make sure you give a piece to a friend so when yours dies you can still get a piece of it back.

Jon
________
Honda Accord History


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## adiaphane (Jun 25, 2006)

For me, it's my malipoense. It was beautiful when I first got it, but then my cat thought it would be lovely to play with. It recovered okay, but after putting out a new leaf, it has done nothing the last year. I am very sad about this... I love green flowers... maybe I should get a few more.


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## Heather (Jun 25, 2006)

Too true - malipoense is a little ***** of a plant, if you ask me. 

(can I say that??)


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## littlefrog (Jun 26, 2006)

Never had much problem with malipoense... Fairrieanum, on the other hand, all die. They bloom, then they die a year or so later after lingering pain and nausea.

For some reason I have trouble growing niveum and bellatulum as well, although that never stopped me from trying. And yes, I keep them drier than the other paphs...


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## Darin (Jun 26, 2006)

> For some reason I have trouble growing niveum and bellatulum as well, although that never stopped me from trying. And yes, I keep them drier than the other paphs...


 
Rob,

I have had success growing (not blooming yet) bellatulum seedlings in deep clay pots in a wardian case with constant humidity in the low 80% range. While I keep the media drier, they really seem to respond to the extra humidity.

Darin


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## Mycorrhizae (Jun 26, 2006)

If experience is directly proportionate to the number of plants killed, then much of my experience comes from killing _Paph. sangii _and _Paph. randsii_. Several times. (Well - only once for each plant, of course) For me, the best way to enjoy these two species is in someone else's collection.

As for _Paph. bellatulum_, I have had outstanding results growing in clay pots under lights. The plants become massive and get so large that eventually the leaves completely block any water from getting into the pot. BUT - if these same plants are put out on the bench in natural light with the rest of the paphs, growth slows, new leaves mature at smaller sizes than older leaves, and the plant eventually dwindles to nothing. To concur with Eric's recollection of the Ned Nash article - they do indeed bloom all the way to the DIMP pile.


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## kentuckiense (Jun 26, 2006)

I'm constantly paranoid that I'm going to rot my bellatulum f. album and my complex brachy.


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## Heather (Jun 26, 2006)

Mycorrhizae said:


> If experience is directly proportionate to the number of plants killed, then much of my experience comes from killing _Paph. randsii_.



Exxxcellent! 

Any advice??


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## couscous74 (Jun 26, 2006)

Mycorrhizae said:


> If experience is directly proportionate to the number of plants killed, then ....



For me, it's henryanum.

Haven't killed a brachy yet <knock on wood> So far, they seem to like my conditions. Warm all year round and they get a chance to dry out.


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## kentuckiense (Jun 26, 2006)

couscous74 said:


> and they get a chance to dry out.


I just moved them closer to the fan.


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## Mycorrhizae (Jun 26, 2006)

Heather said:


> Exxxcellent!
> 
> Any advice??




Buy a book and look at the pictures.


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## Heather (Jun 26, 2006)

*randsii*



Mycorrhizae said:


> Buy a book and look at the pictures.



Ha! 
That's not really funny you know....


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## Rick (Jun 27, 2006)

I think the south pacific Barbata (hookerae, sangii, wentworthii, mastersianum, papuanum) have some of the worst reputations for dying. I've gone through more purpuratum than I would like too. This group as a whole has very thin leaves and have problems with low humidity and airflow. 

The parvis, armeniacum and micranthum would probably rate just behind the above. Aside from regular bud blasting my malipoense grows very well for me.


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## bench72 (Jun 28, 2006)

hmmm... sounds like I am the only one who kills insigne's... :sob:


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Jun 28, 2006)

Oh yes...I forgot about the other barbata...I have killed sangii, mastersianum, purpuratum, hookerae,violascens and "papuanum" (really just a violescens...) They are all difficult to grow, and some like violescens are very slow...but as with brachy's, I have found that purpuratum, mastersianum and violascens are easy to bloom while they are alive. And yes, the same goes for fairreanum...charlesworthii just likes to die on me without gracing me with even a blasted bud. Take care, Eric


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## Billie (Jul 8, 2006)

*i find reflowering some speices hard*

ones like malipoense bellatulum tadd's fairrieanum-sometimes they have a new growth coming when they flower -but it just stops then after flowering very slow if at all to take off again sometimes they just die .:sob: it is true they usually are the most expensive ones -- but one learns by ones mistakes -now i try to buy 2 seedlings (little ones cost less ) .
billie


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## Rick (Jul 8, 2006)

Eric Muehlbauer said:


> Oh yes...I forgot about the other barbata...I have killed sangii, mastersianum, purpuratum, hookerae,violascens and "papuanum" (really just a violescens...) They are all difficult to grow, and some like violescens are very slow...but as with brachy's, I have found that purpuratum, mastersianum and violascens are easy to bloom while they are alive. And yes, the same goes for fairreanum...charlesworthii just likes to die on me without gracing me with even a blasted bud. Take care, Eric



Ya... The purpuratum bloomed very easily, but generally wiped out after protracted winter problems. Between these and various pluerothalids is where I got the impetus to monitor and regulate humidity.

Also most paphs seem tolerable of allot of different potting mixes, but some of these difficult barbata seem to be showing a strong preference to bark and moss combos rather than CHC mixes for me.


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## paphreek (Jul 9, 2006)

Fairrieanums seem to be the most difficult for me to grow. Occasionally one plant will grow nicely for a year or two and even bloom, but then it starts a slow decline and eventually dies.


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