Leo Schordje
wilted blossom
Meet the grand-daddy of many of the the liemianum now around in the USA.
Paph liemianum 'Orchid Loft' AM/AOS
This is a division of the original clone from Cryder, back in the 1970's it was one of the few & the best liemianum in US and divisions of the original traded at fairly high prices at the time. Most likely Cryder got it as a jungle collected plant. Fortunately it was a good seed producer, and today liemianum is quite common and inexpensive. These seedlings were not produced by me, I don't get into this story until 1994, when I bought a division from Arnie Klehm. Because blooming size liemianum were not common at the time, and CITES had already stopped importation of collected stock, I paid almost a week's wages for this division back in 1994 from Klehm.
Shortly after I bought it, I experimented with new potting mix that was the fad of the year, Rock-Wool. Failure to thrive would be an understatement. The kiss of death is to put a few plants in a different mix, and then forget and water them on the same schedule as the majority of the collection. I set this plant back to a mere fragment of a plant in a 2 inch pot. When I realized how bad of shape the plant was in, I repotted it back into the tried and true bark-charcol-perlite mix that I know and understand how to use. (I'm certain there are those who can grow well in Rock Wool, I am not one of them) It took many years to get 'Orchid Loft' back up to a nice single growth plant in a 3 inch pot, then I had a serious mealy bug infestation and it was back to a fragment in a 2 inch pot. This week, it is finally in a 4 inch pot with one blooming growth and two robust, healthy new leads, 16 years after I bought it. This is the first time I have seen this plant in bloom! And it is a lovely, well balanced liemianum at that. I am sure when the plant gets larger, it will put out larger blooms, but it still is a good quality liemianum.
For the taxonomically inclined, two of the diagnostics for liemianum are the red-brown markings on the undersides of the leaves and the definite dark brown hairs along the leaf edges, especially near the crown of the plant.
Paph liemianum 'Orchid Loft' AM/AOS
This is a division of the original clone from Cryder, back in the 1970's it was one of the few & the best liemianum in US and divisions of the original traded at fairly high prices at the time. Most likely Cryder got it as a jungle collected plant. Fortunately it was a good seed producer, and today liemianum is quite common and inexpensive. These seedlings were not produced by me, I don't get into this story until 1994, when I bought a division from Arnie Klehm. Because blooming size liemianum were not common at the time, and CITES had already stopped importation of collected stock, I paid almost a week's wages for this division back in 1994 from Klehm.
Shortly after I bought it, I experimented with new potting mix that was the fad of the year, Rock-Wool. Failure to thrive would be an understatement. The kiss of death is to put a few plants in a different mix, and then forget and water them on the same schedule as the majority of the collection. I set this plant back to a mere fragment of a plant in a 2 inch pot. When I realized how bad of shape the plant was in, I repotted it back into the tried and true bark-charcol-perlite mix that I know and understand how to use. (I'm certain there are those who can grow well in Rock Wool, I am not one of them) It took many years to get 'Orchid Loft' back up to a nice single growth plant in a 3 inch pot, then I had a serious mealy bug infestation and it was back to a fragment in a 2 inch pot. This week, it is finally in a 4 inch pot with one blooming growth and two robust, healthy new leads, 16 years after I bought it. This is the first time I have seen this plant in bloom! And it is a lovely, well balanced liemianum at that. I am sure when the plant gets larger, it will put out larger blooms, but it still is a good quality liemianum.
For the taxonomically inclined, two of the diagnostics for liemianum are the red-brown markings on the undersides of the leaves and the definite dark brown hairs along the leaf edges, especially near the crown of the plant.
Arggh! It is mainly a hobby, but my hobby business model, such as it is, works like this;
