Paphiopedilum helenae

[NEslipper]

I purchased this plant in bloom in 2020 from Paph Paradise, the cross is either 'Auxerois' x 'Gewurztraminer' AM/AOS or the reciprocal. The plant was from a group treated to induce ploidy conversion. The plant sulked in my conditions for ~2 years, it lost a bunch of leaves and just sort of sat there not doing anything. It lives in the same window next to my fairrieanum and charlesworthii, and this July all of a sudden it decided it was done sulking and sent out 3 new leads and 1 flower bud. I have to say, I'm quite pleased with this blooming, the colors are much more intense than on the first blooming. Not sure that there's any indication of ploidy differences, but Dave mentioned this breeding line is particularly compact, and indeed, the plant is quite small. I'm happy it seems to have finally settled it!

 

[emydura]

Gorgeous. I generally think the best clones of this species have the white halo.

 

[Guldal]

Nice, indeed!

 

[NEslipper]

Gorgeous. I generally think the best clones of this species have the white halo.

I agree, it really sets off the gold tones in the dorsal!

 

[Karp60]

Gorgeous shape!

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Congrats on bringing it back. I have many sulkies here lol,

 

[NEslipper]

Congrats on bringing it back. I have many sulkies here lol,

Good luck, the only thing I can think of that changed is that I’ve been giving it slightly more water than before. Still less than I give my other paphs, but more than it had been getting.

 

[Ozpaph]

growing well now

 

[lori.b]

Beautiful flower and the plant looks really well grown. Congrats! I wish mine hadn't decided to take the year off from blooming this year, lol.

 

[GuRu]

Congrats to flower this beauty....a P. helenae flower like painted from a picture book .

 

[NEslipper]

Here it is with my Paph. niveum, which has been putting on a great show this summer (LINK).

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Love them.
Esp the niveum!

 

[GuRu]

Two beauties together.

 

[Just1more]

A stunning photo of the two beauties

 

[Tom-DE]

Both are very nice.

 

[NEslipper]

Posting this a little late, but the helenae lasted slightly longer than 6 weeks. Seems like a long time for this species, perhaps the ploidy conversion was successful? Can anyone confirm if this is unusual for the species, or within the normal range?