The story of a small Paph

[Hoppy]

First contact...

I have been watching you all from afar for a year now.
Studying you all. Quietly learning.
Not feeling I had anything to add...

Back in December 2015, I received a small, unlabelled single fan of a slipper orchid. It was a ‘going away present’ from a patient named Fred when I was moving 1000 km from Sydney to regional Victoria.
The only plants that moved with me were the little orchid and my double gloxinias.
Winter of 2016, the orchid and the gloxinias sat at my Mum’s house, cold and wet under shade cloth west of Melbourne as my rental had no suitable area for any plants.

Summer 2017, I moved to a more suitable home and took the little Paph (still only a single fan), and the surviving gloxinias to their new home. That winter, due to the cold, they all moved to the bathroom.
The Paph put up a single spike and revealed itself to be Paphiopedilum insigne.

I was smitten. I didn’t know I even liked slipper orchids. I thought they were weird, difficult and boring, only putting up 1 flower was nothing to get excited about. How wrong I was.

Beginning of 2018, I bought a few plants from Nicky Zurcher. P Pepperpuddle was in bud when I bought it and the floodgates opened...

 

[fibre]

Welcome! And thanks for your little story!
It would be nice to see a photo of your Paph. Pepperpuddle in the photo section

 

[NYEric]

Welcome from NYC!

 

[Hoppy]

Sorry, fibre, I did not take a photo of Pepperpuddle last year.It appears in low bud at the moment this year so there may be another opportunity shortly.
Thank you, for the Replies and Likes fibre, Edward Steeley and NYEric.

Here is a photo of my little Paph insigne now. It’s come a long way since the poor bedraggled little single fan September 2016. Excited to have 3 buds close to opening.

 

[Hoppy]

Oops, sorry Edward Seeley. Stupid predictive text changed your spelling.

 

[eds]

Oops, sorry Edward Seeley. Stupid predictive text changed your spelling.

No problem - been called worse.

Ed

 

[Guldal]

Hi there - and welcome to the Forum!

Good growing on the insigne!

Kind regards from The Northern Hemisphere,
Jens, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

[GuRu]

Hello and welcome from Germany.

.............Here is a photo of my little Paph insigne now. It’s come a long way since the poor bedraggled little single fan September 2016. Excited to have 3 buds close to opening.

It's looking really good now and fortunately you friend gave you the right one to survive your cool/cold growing conditions during winter 2016.

 

[NYEric]

Nice, thanks for sharing.

 

[Don I]

Welcome from Canada.
Don

 

[Rachel Killcare]

Hi from NSW. I love Nickys slippers I always buy as many as I can afford when he comes to our annual orchid show at Mingara on the central coast. They are always so well grown, unlike ebay which is hit or miss on orchid quality, though greenthumb1959 and lushgreen77 are both excellent. It’s difficult to find a wide variety of slippers at reasonable prices in Australia I have found especially phrags.

 

[NYEric]

Import from Europe for you may be good for Phrags but labels may be an issue.

 

[abax]

Welcome from Kentucky. That Paph. looks
fine!

 

[Duck Slipper]

Good story....insigne looks great!
Welcome from West Kentucky!

 

[BrucherT]

Sorry, fibre, I did not take a photo of Pepperpuddle last year.It appears in low bud at the moment this year so there may be another opportunity shortly.
Thank you, for the Replies and Likes fibre, Edward Steeley and NYEric.

Here is a photo of my little Paph insigne now. It’s come a long way since the poor bedraggled little single fan September 2016. Excited to have 3 buds close to opening.

I adore this story!!!

 

[NYEric]

I recommend taking photos of all the blooms you can, just for a record. I don't take or post a lot of photos because we have a bunch of small blooming species and the phone-photos are a waste of time.

 

[BrucherT]

I recommend taking photos of all the blooms you can, just for a record. I don't take or post a lot of photos because we have a bunch of small blooming species and the phone-photos are a waste of time.

Funny...I’m just seeing this moment as I’m racing to SlipperTalk to post fresh phone photos of my first ever roth bloom, feeling that my photos (taken with an iPhone 11 Pro) are woeful, an insult to the magnificence miraculously unfurling in my loving room. Oh well, we do our best. I love seeing every photo of every plant in here.

 

[southernbelle]

Funny...I’m just seeing this moment as I’m racing to SlipperTalk to post fresh phone photos of my first ever roth bloom, feeling that my photos (taken with an iPhone 11 Pro) are woeful, an insult to the magnificence miraculously unfurling in my loving room. Oh well, we do our best. I love seeing every photo of every plant in here.

I recommend taking photos of all the blooms you can, just for a record. I don't take or post a lot of photos because we have a bunch of small blooming species and the phone-photos are a waste of time.

I take all of my photos with an iPhone X. I find if I use a black background and a natural daylight bulb for the lighting, the pictures are pretty darn good. Colors are very true.

 

[richgarrison]

I take all of my photos with an iPhone X. I find if I use a black background and a natural daylight bulb for the lighting, the pictures are pretty darn good. Colors are very true.

that all sounds simple except in practice in my greenhouse... do you have a permanent rig setup, where you bring your plant in, set it in front of your black background with a daylight bulb, and snap the photos? what kind of fixture is your daylight bulb in? Would you mind snapping a picture of a typical setup? i truly would like to take good pictures for myself if nothing else.... just need a jump start on some ideas.

 

[southernbelle]

that all sounds simple except in practice in my greenhouse... do you have a permanent rig setup, where you bring your plant in, set it in front of your black background with a daylight bulb, and snap the photos? what kind of fixture is your daylight bulb in? Would you mind snapping a picture of a typical setup? i truly would like to take good pictures for myself if nothing else.... just need a jump start on some ideas.

You are going to laugh at how primitive the set up is... I hung a drop light from a rafter (in my basement) with a 75 watt daylight bulb in it. I’ve hung a large black piece of cloth on a metal shelving storage system, small table in front (with a black 5 gal bucket upside down on top of orchid is small). Distance between light and table is several feet. There are other regular incandescent light fixtures in the room but not really close. You sort of have to play with the height of the light vs the orchid and the distance back and also the angle of your shot to have no glare/shadow. The only editing I do with a pic is to sometimes lighten or darken it a touch and crop. Not home now so can’t take a pic. My grow room is in the basement, so this is not inconvenient. Basically anywhere you can hang a large black cloth and a light, you could do it.