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Surprised that chilling made it bloom - mine bloom every year, never go below 50, and are blooming right now with daily temps of ~100 in their location. Yours needed other stresses apparently! :)

For decades I've grown these as P. concolor v. khanburii

Any 'trix' to growing and blooming Paph. gratrixianum? Have a gratrixianum/christensonianum that had 4 growths in bloom when I bought it but only 1 flower this year. Thanks

Additional information from Lance Birk's The Paphiopedilum Grower's Manual - in brief it's wet summers and dry winters: https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-SchVmsS/0/090c03a5/O/i-SchVmsS.jpg Confirmed this in conversations with Verghese (Peter) Mammen many years ago.

Another vote for growing them bright - mine blooms right next to blooming Catts and Dens, in bark mix.

When you shoot macro images, the depth of the focus area gets reduced to millimeters or less. Parts of the flowers are in focus but the depth of field means all of the image is not in focus.

First hangianum I bloomed years ago was a 7.5" flower blooming in a 4" pot. Made me think of 'Audrey' in Little Shop Of Horrors. :) BTW - the first hangianums available in the US were huge flowers with average to mediocre shape. Recent hangianums have better shape but smaller size IMO.

I have no problem growing and blooming Charles, although my flowers seem to be small compared to what I see blooming in cooler climates. Has anyone else noticed a green 'mask' at the base of the dorsal (green on back, just dark on front) on some Charles? The ones from OZ seem to have this on...

We've had 'cool' mornings lately - I will survey again mid-morning when it gets 75-80 degrees. And again, everyone's sense of smell is different and there are some orchids I can't smell at all (especially a certain Lycaste that everyone else can smell).

Yes. See above. :) Over the years I've decided that smells are like colors: tell 10 people to describe the same smell/color and you will get at least 4-5 different answers. I think hangianum and it's hybrids smell like my grandmother's cold cream. Everyone I know has their own answer to that...

Very similar, that one I consider the 'best of the bunch' but IMO none have been a 'keeper'.

SK & HP & Dr.Ee - everybody's nose is different but to my nose the most fragrant one smelled like what I call 'green apple', kind of like Neofinetia falcata. I've been around tons of roses but don't really know what 'rose' smells like, or what people are referring to when they say 'rose'. :)

FWIW - I smelled 15 thaianums (from different sources) at 8:15am this morning and only 2 of the 15 were fragrant. Will try again in a couple of hours to see if anything changed. :)

gego & Dr.Leslie - I guess the petals perked up after the flowers were fully open D'OH. Yes they have the tooth on front of pouch. Sorry for the lousy photo, just a quick cellphone grab pic.

Are horizontal petals the norm for this species, or are they just desirable? The ones I've bloomed (all from same flask) all have drooping petals, 45 degrees or more.

Have tried them from several sources and they all hate my neck of the woods (SE US).

One difference I've noticed between hookerae and volonteanum is that I can grow and bloom hookerae - I have had volonteanums for 10 years that have never gotten bigger than 3" across and never bloom.

Gorgeous hookerae!! :) Again, if you use black fabric as a background, black velvet or even a black t-shirt, you won't get the glare in the background. https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-mxkHRj5/0/6b054714/O/i-mxkHRj5.jpg

FWIW - here's a 'regular' Phal. lobbii var. flava:

Hi Mike: FWIW I find that the staminode shape and pattern, and the distinctive 'cold cream/soap' smell makes it easy to identify hangianum hybrids. Some of the confusion comes from foreign dealers labeling hangianum hybrids as emersonii hybrids to dodge potential legality problems in the past...