Four praestans plants that I keep

[hardy]

Eric, I'm now in that dangerous phase... where there's the impulse to keep on buying. Awww. That's very useful warning, very apt timing too! Thanks

 

[wojtek]

I can wait when my praestans will have first bloom

 

[NYEric]

Just ignore the urge to buy, they'll never run out of those, it'll be there tomorrow... The plants that that has cost me!

 

[paphioboy]

Eric, I'm now in that dangerous phase... where there's the impulse to keep on buying. Awww. That's very useful warning, very apt timing too! Thanks

I'll help you. Just ship some of your praestans to me...

 

[hardy]

Paphioboy, I'd happily let out a division If I could get it reach you legally

Thanks for your advice Eric. That's true, those good stuff will still be there tomorrow, and probably will be cheaper too! It's just that new, better stuff will keep on coming to tempt us, hehe

 

[Rick]

I'm having problems getting the pictures to open, so can't wait to see this great stuff.

What do mean by "tropical highland setting".

Can you give us some numbers for temps, humidity, light levels?

Can you give us some specifics on where they came from?

 

[hardy]

Hi Rick, yes, sometimes villagephotos won't load, when the file traffic is busy.

To answer your question, my hometown has an altitude of about 600 m, and is located on the lower slopes of a 3000-m mountain. Max-min temp range is 29/13, but mostly intermediate much of the time, averaging around 25/20 degress day/night. Light level is quite low, while humidity is high. I never measured light level and humidity but my cattleyas and vandas suffer when grown together with the paphs. While phals, bulbophyllums and african violets can grow very well.

All these praestans plants were wild-collected from Western Papua. I don't know the exact locations but according to the nurseries I got them from, #1 and #2 is from a coastal area (labeled praestans 'red'), #3 is from a higher altitude and simply labeled praestans, and #4 is a lowland inland species (labeled glanduliferum actually).

 

[Rick]

pictures opened up today, and very impressive Hardy!!

There is a fair amount of variation between these plants, but the high elevation plant is not as dark as the flowers called "wilhelminea" that I've seen.

This is very good information concerning collection sites. As more different collected praetans from Papau NG are flowered it looks like there is a much variation as for philippinense in the Philippines.

 

[Pete]

good comparison rick, with the P. philippinense. i agree.