My Paphs of subg. Sigmatopetalum in 2024

[GuRu]

The year starts with a surprise ... the Paph wardii 'Dark Warrior' wich was I expeting to flower .... was a mislabeled plant and came out as Paph. venustum.
Sh** and mistakes may happen and happen.....But there wasn't much diappointment because I like P. venustum a lot and the situation is as it is.
Paph. venustum

 

[Duck Slipper]

And a nice Venustum too!

 

[big923cattleya]

You win some and you lose some.
I think that you won!

 

[SelectOrchids]

That's kind of epidemic in Europe for many species, unfortunately I have fun because it uncovers a huge scam going on...

Most of the 'breeders' and 'growers' do buy extra cheap plants from 2 sources in Germany. They then put their nursery tag, with their 'parentage and pedigree' on those generic 'species'. Looked a good deal to pay a seedling 0.6 eur in flask ( yes that's the price those were sold, and many more...)

Now they are 'outed' because several different pedigree of many species by several different nurseries turn out to be the same mistake hybrid or wrongly named species... Many of those flasks turned out, like urbanianum, 'superbiens', 'argus', to be crosses of those species x Maudiae or x callosum, which allows to make very cheap, fast growing seedlings in flask, and match the 0.6 eur price point...

One thing, though I am sometimes pessimistic, it is not even sure it is a 100% pure venustum. It might be a backcross, or something along the line, like Varuna x venustum... It looks 100% venustum, but it is really unsure, knowing from where those come from.

 

[SelectOrchids]

From the same source through different resellers. Left are the hybrids sold as urbanianum in Europe, right a real one. Note that the hybrids will be sold by the sellers as 'their own breeding with zeir own motherplants, fantastic and guaranteed'. When some bloomed out as the hybrid, they were sold as ' sp. nova', including at the Dresde Orchid Show...

 

[GuRu]

Paph. hennisianum
Next one of my Paphs of subg. Sigmatopetalum is flowering now. Last flower was in May 2022 but this time the flower stem seems to be double size tall than the last time .

 

[Ozpaph]

really nice photos

 

[Mafate]

Hi Rudolf, wow, it’s my turn to compliment you on these very beautiful plants, very nicely photographed. Did you use stacking method?

 

[GuRu]

Hi Rudolf, wow, it’s my turn to compliment you on these very beautiful plants, very nicely photographed. Did you use stacking method?

Thanks a lot for your compliments, Sylvain.
As to your question, I'm no friend of staking flower spikes and I try to avoid it as often as possible. But sometimes and exceptional it's necessary to help a flower spike growing upwards respectively support a long stem (like the one of my P. hennisianum) not to bend down too much while taking the photo(s).

 

[Djthomp28]

Beautifully captured!

 

[JustinR]

beautiful plant and photos, very elegant

 

[Mafate]

Thanks a lot for your compliments, Sylvain.
As to your question, I'm no friend of staking flower spikes and I try to avoid it as often as possible. But sometimes and exceptional it's necessary to help a flower spike growing upwards respectively support a long stem (like the one of my P. hennisianum) not to bend down too much while taking the photo(s).

Hi Rudolf, sorry there is a misunderstanding: when I said "stacking", I was talking about photography! The method which consists of taking several photos of the same subject by changing the sharpness zone for each of them and then assembling them to obtain only one photo in the end where all the zones are sharp. Your photos are very nice and I was wondering if you had used this method.

 

[GuRu]

Oops Sylvain, this was my fault. I mixed up stacking with staking ... If you can read properly you clearly will have an advantage.
Due to your hint I looked up if one of my photo editor offers this option and yes it does. But so far I didn't use it ... so far all my photos here in ST are based on only one single shot, no assembling.
I read in the past about this issue, but forgot it later on. Maybe I will give it a try next time when I will take photos. So far, I use only from time to time the HDR function of my photo editor to create HDR images for the background dia show of my desk top computer.

 

[GuRu]

Last time when I thought to flower Paph. barbatum it was a mislabeled plant. This time the plant I bought one year ago is flowering as what has been written on the tag....
Paph. barbatum

 

[GuRu]

Paph. purpuratum has been always one of my favorite one among Paphs .... you may se why.

 

[Tom-DE]

Nice one, Rudolf, how do you grow your purpuratum? temperature, watering/moisture level, growing mix... Thank you.

 

[Justin]

Fantastic Paph flowers and excellent photos!

 

[GuRu]

Nice one, Rudolf, how do you grow your purpuratum? temperature, watering/moisture level, growing mix... Thank you.

Tom, sorry but I cant serve to you with exact dates. I'm an indoor grower I'm unable to give my plants different conditions and all my plants have to adapt up to a certain degree my conditions. I grow them only in different rooms :
- Subg. Polyantha - in the living room behind west facing windows
- Subg. Paphiopedilum - the smaller ones in the kitchen behind an east facing window (henryanum, charlesworthii etc.)
- the bigger ones in the dining room behind a west facing window ( villosum, insigne, hirsutissimum etc.) in winter this room si slightly cooler.
- Subg. Sigmatopetalum - here in my study/computer room (also P. purpuratum)
I reported here about my inorganic potting medium already before ... but after some reported here about good success with rockwool cubes in the past I also gave it a try with some plants. P. purpuratum is one of them.
I water all my Paphs every mor or less 3 weeks ..... even 4 weeks are possible. This helps me to travel from time to time without the need of help of other persons to care about my plants.

 

[GuRu]

Thanks a lot, Justin and I think I can give the same prais back to you.

 

[Tom-DE]

Thank you, Rodolf. I killed one purpuratum many years ago (maybe 25 yrs ago), and I am going to give it another try since I am addicted to small Paphs again, especially species.
You only water your plants every 3 weeks, that is great. I might try the rockwool cube someday also.