A tale of two cities

[Don I]

I apologize for using the urban in urbanianum to make a joke.
I received a plant in May 2014 that was supposed to be Paph. purpuratum. When it flowered the fallowing March it became apparent that it wasn't. It was P. urbanianum. It was a plant that was on my wish list. The problem was I had just ordered an urbanianum from another vendor. The other thing was I haven't done very well with the barbatum, lawrenceanum type of plants so when the supposed purpuratum was growing well and going to flower I was pretty happy.
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The supposed to be purpuratum Paph. urbanianum. It is reddish because of my photo ability or lack of ability. Now I know why a lot of the pictures in books showed plants with reddish lateral petals.
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This is the supposed to be urbanianum Paph. urbanianum. Flowered Jan.27/17
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This is this years flowering plant. They both flowered pretty quickly and they are both good growers. There is nothing like growing well that can help take the sting out and make a plant more endearing.
Don

 

[abax]

The colors are striking in both photos. Hey, it bloomed.
My urban. has been going down for months!

 

[troy]

Nice blooming!! I'm not a big fan of barbituate types, but yours is nice

 

[Ozpaph]

I'd be happy with either

 

[Wendy]

Yep, I'd take either too!

 

[Spaph]

I had the same thing happen to me and my plants must have been from the same batch as yours as we are both in Canada, from two different sources what was supposed to be purpuratum turned out urbanianum!

 

[PaphMadMan]

... I'm not a big fan of barbituate types...

Is that an auto-correct error, or a deliberate comment on the addictive nature of orchids?

 

[troy]

Lol.. orchids are addictive, no harm intended, just saying the 2 examples here are very nice

 

[SlipperFan]

Very nice.

 

[Don I]

I had the same thing happen to me and my plants must have been from the same batch as yours as we are both in Canada, from two different sources what was supposed to be purpuratum turned out urbanianum!

It doesn't seem to be that uncommon unfortunately if you buy seedlings. I've always been treated well if I let them know, but if you say I bought this plant from you 3 years ago and it's not what I ordered here's a picture. I feel like I'm the one that might be pulling a fast one. So sometimes I just bite the bullet.
Don