Paph. fairrieanum, Easy?

[smartie2000]

....I'm trying to move into more phrags since I can bloom and grow them better. Except there is more variety in paphs and plus I keep getting tempted to buy more paphs.

I agree with the above. farrieanum is not easy. I bloomed one, unfortunately it didn't last for a second blooming. I might try again, buying from a plant grown from seed from someone that is not a greenhouse grower, similar to myself.

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

I was just checking all my plants today, to see what damage was wrought by the intense heat last week. While my phrags are a disaster, and I have lost all but one of my besseae's, the paphs are OK, and fairreanum is in very good shape, with only minor sunburn that actually occurred when it first went outside in April. Keeping my finger's crossed.............

 

[paphioboy]

According to Birk just about everything is easy to grow.

tigrinum - "This species is one of the easiest to grow and flower".
papuanum - "this species is an easy plant to grow and flower".
purpuratum - "this species is an easy plant to grow and flower".
hookerae - "this species is an easy plant to grow and flower".
armeniacum - "This is an easy species to cultivate".

I could go on and on. Most of us are obviously very poor growers. The book lacks credibility for this reason alone.

Having said that Birk is not alone on fairrianum and charlesworthii. Most other books have also said they are easy to grow. Certainly not my experience.

David

Easy is a relative thing Doesn't he live in a tropical place and grow everything in rocks, or am I mistaken?

 

[Rick]

Easy is a relative thing Doesn't he live in a tropical place and grow everything in rocks, or am I mistaken?

I'm not sure where Birk is today, but when he had his collection going, he was in Southern California. He has adventured and studied in the tropics a lot.

I don't know if he has personally cultured every species he writes about or quotes from other growers too.

He could have quoted from some of the best in California, Terry Root, Norito, ...... seems like everything is easy for those guys.

I guess if you can find at least one person who finds a species can turn into an un-stoppable weed should be able to do it for everyone else (its just a matter of finding out their secret).


I am reminded of when I was working the reptile house in Oklahoma. We wanted to maintain a collection of African Chameleons (notoriously difficult). We insisted on keeping several to a cage with a warm muggy atmosphere. They always died. I called around and found out that a handful of "little old ladies" in Southern California just left them loose on trees in their backyards and thrived. Also found a researcher in Texas who had thriving lizards kept one to a cage (no humidity control) with opaque dividers to keep the animals from seeing each other.

Turns out that these lizards prefer a dry Mediterranean climate (not humid rainforest) and the stress of living in close visual proximity is so great it makes them sick. So we opened up the cages to ventilate, and reduced the group size to very low density, and they became as easy as our local fence lizards. The species were not hard, we humans were hard headed to accommodate the lizards needs.

 

[goldenrose]

..... I guess you can for sure keep a Paph growing, but to get it to bloom is another story entirely ....

That's what caused me to give up my Paph and Phrag collection a few years ago in the first place .........they grew, but nothing bloomed ! I was tired of seeing "Green Houseplants" all over the place .....and no Flowers!

So I started buying Paphs "In Bud" which was great .....I got to see a Paph in flower. But suddenly realized that I was not able to get it to RE-BLOOM.
Sadly, I trashed my entire collection of Paphs and Phrags....

How terrible! Have you started building up your slipper collection again? We are great enablers here, you know!

:sob::sob::sob: now that you're here - don't do that again. The first step to getting a paph to rebloom is that in needs to be grown well, if you can accomplish that much, you shouldn't be that far to getting it to rebloom. Are you selecting plants that fit your growing conditions? Quite often it's thought if one has a GH, they can grow & bloom a much wider range of plants, I don't think that's always the case. A couple of months ago there were 2 members that brought in blooming hirsutissimums, both grew indoors underlights or supplemented with natural light & these plants bloomed like clockwork for them. For years I've been giving the chill - nothing! These 2 treat their's like warm growing esquirolei, which I think they really have, but I supposedly had one of these too & couldn't get it to bloom either! So it can & will happen with some plants but not an entire collection.

 

[NeoNJ]

:sob::sob::sob: now that you're here - don't do that again. The first step to getting a paph to rebloom is that in needs to be grown well, if you can accomplish that much, you shouldn't be that far to getting it to rebloom. Are you selecting plants that fit your growing conditions? Quite often it's thought if one has a GH, they can grow & bloom a much wider range of plants, I don't think that's always the case. A couple of months ago there were 2 members that brought in blooming hirsutissimums, both grew indoors underlights or supplemented with natural light & these plants bloomed like clockwork for them. For years I've been giving the chill - nothing! These 2 treat their's like warm growing esquirolei, which I think they really have, but I supposedly had one of these too & couldn't get it to bloom either! So it can & will happen with some plants but not an entire collection.

Back then, I had more Phrags than Paphs. Now I seem to have more Paphs than Phrags.....It took me forever to re-build my collection. The difference is now I have most of the Paphs under supplemental lighting, but a few of them (lowii, haynaldianum) in a SW windowsill so they get very bright afternoon sunlight. All the others grow in a SE windowsill with very bright Morning light with additional supplemental lighting. If anything I think the Paphs are getting to much light (I had to move a few of them to lower light levels).

I'm watching them carefully, as I don't want to lose them.