Phrag Mountain Maid 'Elk #1'

[kman]

Flat, large, "award quality" flowers are not always the most beautiful. This one has been blooming sequentially for almost 4 months now. I love it, which is the most important factor.

(besseae v. flavum ‘Golden Rays’ x hirtzii ‘Lucho’)

Starts greenish:



and then goes to this glowing yellow with rose tones:



Growing in rockwool with a pot so mossy its difficult to pickup. Gets lotsa fertilizer in its water every day.

Enjoy!

 

[mrhappyrotter]

I have to say, I like it a lot!

I recently bloomed Phrag. hirtzii for the first time and it's now vying for the title of my favorite "green" Phrag species. So any hybrid involving hirtzii is going to get my attention!

I like the flowers on your Mountain Maid. I believe I've only ever seen the flavum version of this hybrid for sale. Part of me would love to see the outcome of making this cross with a standard besseae, but I'm also a huge fan of yellow flowers, so this definitely hits the spot.

One interesting feature of many hirtzii hybrids is that the lip color tends to deepen and saturate over time. So it's interesting that your photos appear to capture this phenomenon fairly well! I have a slight red-green color vision deficiency, so I don't notice a whole lot of difference in the background color and I can't really make out the change from green to yellow in these photos, but I can definitely see how the lip color matures.

I would love to see photos of the plant itself and especially the moss if you have time to photograph and post, I'd be grateful. No worries if that's asking too much, I know how it is!

 

[Paphluvr]

A subtle beauty!

 

[NYEric]

Yay besseae hybrids! Thanks for sharing. Maybe we need to feed a little more.

 

[Skoester]

Flat, large, "award quality" flowers are not always the most beautiful. This one has been blooming sequentially for almost 4 months now. I love it, which is the most important factor.

(besseae v. flavum ‘Golden Rays’ x hirtzii ‘Lucho’)

Starts greenish:

View attachment 49601

and then goes to this glowing yellow with rose tones:

View attachment 49600

Growing in rockwool with a pot so mossy its difficult to pickup. Gets lotsa fertilizer in its water every day.

Enjoy!

Gorgeous! I’ve been looking for a nice Mountain Maid for some time. If you ever have a division you’d be open to parting with, I’m interested.

 

[kman]

Moss pot:

 

[orchidlife]

Wow!!
Note to self...add mountain maid to want list...lol

 

[SunsetChris]

I am adding Mountain Maid to my “want list!” She is beautiful!

 

[SunsetChris]

Flat, large, "award quality" flowers are not always the most beautiful. This one has been blooming sequentially for almost 4 months now. I love it, which is the most important factor.

(besseae v. flavum ‘Golden Rays’ x hirtzii ‘Lucho’)

Starts greenish:

View attachment 49601

and then goes to this glowing yellow with rose tones:

View attachment 49600

Growing in rockwool with a pot so mossy its difficult to pickup. Gets lotsa fertilizer in its water every day.

Enjoy!

Just curious, I recently repotted some of my Phrags and Paphs in rockwool. What fertilizer do you use?

Flat, large, "award quality" flowers are not always the most beautiful. This one has been blooming sequentially for almost 4 months now. I love it, which is the most important factor.

(besseae v. flavum ‘Golden Rays’ x hirtzii ‘Lucho’)

Starts greenish:

View attachment 49601

and then goes to this glowing yellow with rose tones:

View attachment 49600

Growing in rockwool with a pot so mossy its difficult to pickup. Gets lotsa fertilizer in its water every day.

Enjoy!

 

[kman]

Just curious, I recently repotted some of my Phrags and Paphs in rockwool. What fertilizer do you use?

15-5-15 CalMag at 125 PPM N plus urea at 100 PPM N as a constant feed. Once a week or so I do a 600 PPM N urea plus a yucca based surfactant foliar feed in the early morning. High light and high air movement.

 

[Heather]

Is it fragrant? I had one back 20 years ago that had a sicky sweet fragrance. Not really pleasant but interesting….

 

[PhilaGardener]

Really nice blossom!

 

[kman]

No fragrance that I can identify. I'll try at the start and end of a day, just in case.