Paphiopedilum helenae from Wenqing

[BrucherT]

Loving this baby. First bloom. Have had now four years? Very slow growing for me but otherwise seems happy. I love it. The laterals are flexed more forward than seems apparent in most photos, like it’s reaching to pick up a small child. I have been so envious of the beautiful helenae herein and now I can’t stop staring at my own.

For good measure, here are snapshots of my semiwaterculture Vanda coerulea blooming for the third time in this calendar year and Cymbidium Peter Fire Torch with 5 spikes from two bulbs, 87 buds (hell yes I counted!).

 

[cnycharles]

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Congrats Papa!

 

[NEslipper]

Great color! Mine just sits there….

 

[HorstP]

Interesting plant with a beautiful color.

 

[Guldal]

Bruch, very understandable that you can't pull your gaze away from such well formed, well coloured and harmonious beauty!

Last week I received a little shipment of plants from mrs. Perner - among them a helenae. Would count myself a happy man, if it blooms with features equal to your beauty's beauty!

 

[emydura]

Great colour. I always love the ones with the white dorsal.

 

[BrucherT]

Bruch, very understandable that you can't pull your gaze away from such well formed, well coloured and harmonious beauty!

Last week I received a little shipment of plants from mrs. Perner - among them a helenae. Would count myself a happy man, if it blooms with features equal to your beauty's beauty!

Aww WOW that is high praise for my little baby! I’m honored! It’s true, I gaze upon it every day! So afraid of dropping it.

My plant from Wenqing arrived nearly 4 years ago. I don’t know if the growth rates are normal or not? I water it often. I use First Rays stuff. From seeing the budding spike emerge from the leaves yo blooming was less than one month. That spike grew fast! But the plant has seemed terribly slow and at times I was sure it would never bloom. But it was definitely worth waiting for and yours will be too! I wish I had ordered a few. It’s an even more wonderful flower than I had dreamed. Now I’m still setting my cap for legal/ethical rungsuriyianum!

 

[BrucherT]

Great colour. I always love the ones with the white dorsal.

Me too and also the lemon-yellow ones and the albas.

 

[BrucherT]

Bruch, very understandable that you can't pull your gaze away from such well formed, well coloured and harmonious beauty!

Last week I received a little shipment of plants from mrs. Perner - among them a helenae. Would count myself a happy man, if it blooms with features equal to your beauty's beauty!

What else did you get? I’m overwhelmed right now and forewent the order this time.

 

[BrucherT]

Great color! Mine just sits there….

Mine did too, for going on 4 years! But it was worth it. Let’s see your plant? Tell its story?

 

[Just1more]

Sweet!!!

 

[Silverwhisp]

Very nice! Mine BS helenae from Wenqing took about 2 years to bloom, but only after I upended the media and switched to NZ tree fern fiber. For awhile, I was wondering if it’d ever bloom.

 

[Guldal]

What else did you get? I’m overwhelmed right now and forewent the order this time.

This time round I mainly ordered larger plants (L) and a division (div), as I thought more well established plants might have a lower mortality rate (i.e. during transportation and in my care! )... some of the plants were somewhat of a rarer kind, both factors contributing to the price - but what the heck. It's some time ago, that I dealt with mrs. Perner, and due to limitations with regard to space, I thought rather go for quality than quantity - and I assume that these pandemic years have put as much a strain on mrs. Perner's business, as they have on every other nursery owner I know of. And if we don't buy plants from them, we will be at risk, that next time we wan't to buy, there might be no one to buy from!

However, the loot was sll Paphs: aareanum L, concolor album (div), gratrixianum fma. daoense L, gratrixianum fma. guangdongense,
helenae select, henryanum fma christae L (and pricey ), hermanii L, insigne sanderianum L, New Vietenryanum L, wenshanense.

 

[BrucherT]

This time round I mainly ordered larger plants (L) and a division (div), as I thought more well established plants might have a lower mortality rate (i.e. during transportation and in my care! )... some of the plants were somewhat of a rarer kind, both factors contributing to the price - but what the heck. It's some time ago, that I dealt with mrs. Perner, and due to limitations with regard to space, I thought rather go for quality than quantity - and I assume that these pandemic years have put as much a strain on mrs. Perner's business, as they have on every other nursery owner I know of. And if we don't buy plants from them, we will be at risk, that next time we wan't to buy, there might be no one to buy from!

However, the loot was sll Paphs: aareanum L, concolor album (div), gratrixianum fma. daoense L, gratrixianum fma. guangdongense,
helenae select, henryanum fma christae L (and pricey ), hermanii L, insigne sanderianum L, New Vietenryanum L, wenshanense.

Ohhhh I have seen her fma christae stock and yes it’s pricey but among the best. Pretty we can be. I’m holding out for one from San from two plants he showed me he was crossing.

I didn’t see helenae select?

I mostly order her grass-leaved Cymbidiums. And they mostly die. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. Then again, I have two established C. quiebiense, 4 years on, which survived the weird progressive browning situation that I never understood and that all my Cymbidiums seem to suffer before they establish, IF they establish, and a kanran and a cyprifolium that are still going. The goeringii seemed ok all summer and then went to brown hell; still holding on to hope for it. Here’s the view from my sick bed (COVID booster yesterday knocked me down).

Anxious to see your helenae select!

 

[Guldal]

Anxious to see your helenae select!

So am I, so am I!

Beautyfull photo, beautifull flowers by the way!

I for my part have given up on Masdevalia, Cymbidium and the likes, as my only success in regard to these species, has consisted in killing them off, each and everyone!

 

[Guldal]

Ps. Wish for you to get better soon! After my last booster (as I had the virus in vivo last Nov/Dec I count my second vaccination round in June this year as my first booster session - took me 4 days just to get out of bed, so hope for you to experience a much speedier revovery!

 

[BrucherT]

Ps. Wish for you to get better soon! After my last booster (as I had the virus in vivo last Nov/Dec I count my second vaccination round in June this year as my first booster session - took me 4 days just to get out of bed, so hope for you to experience a much speedier revovery!

Whoa that’s awful! I feel lousy but not actually sick, I can tell the difference. The booster is apparently a half dose, even though it produces a strong reaction.

I sure understand. I have also given up on Masdevallia completely. Just not worth the inevitable destruction. But Cymbidium, I know I CAN do, if I can just get them to survive the settling in. I think it’s terrible that the grass-leaved Cymbidiums aren’t more widely grown here. Barely at all. And the information available even in this forum (at least one regular succeeds with them and is both devoted and generous with his explanations) has not really worked for me. My Cymbidium failures are among my most expensive BUT I have succeeded too. Have you tried LECA for them? I had a total lost cause Cymbidium, an Orchid Zone refugee that Dean Hung calls “Peachy Keen,” which I stuck into LECA, treated with First Rays potions and gave up on and now, 3 years later, it’s (fingers crossed) about yo open what look to be velvety orange flowers. Unlike Peter Torch Fire, it’s definitely a mini: leaves max out at 10 inches but the flowers look to be full size. Pics awaiting. Ray gave me hope when he described how he used to import hundreds of Jensoa Cymbidiums, stick them in LECA and says he never lost one. Would that be a possibility for you? Except for quiebiense, all my Cymbidiums go outdoors once night temps are consistently above 40°F and don’t come in until a night of 35°F. I still have one kanran, one cyperifolium (I’m spelling it both ways) and one probable-goner goeringii out there in this cold rain and they look pretty happy…What is your Cymbidium stumbling block?

 

[Guldal]

I think my growing conditions, i.e. a fifth floor appartment with a cooler extension on my backstairs landing.

 

[BrucherT]

Ok can you do western, southwestern or southern exposures?