My favorite plant is my first (well, my first non Home Depot plant). It's a Paphiopedilum primulinum v. purpurascens. I purchased it with one flowering growth and two nearly mature growths. It's not a very large plant, but had been potted in a 5" round, plastic pot w/ medium bark, perlite and charcoal. I seem to have trouble with this medium, though. It dries on top, but stays completely soaked, further down. It's my nature to be extremely curious and impulsive
The poor plant has been repotted 4 times before I settled on its current medium.
At the suggestion of another user (King of orchid growing
), I decided to do some reading on the plant's natural habits and culture. In nature, the plant grows on Sumatra, Indonesia, in limestone-hill forests, and on seaside, limestone cliffs. This taught me a bit about what I could do with the plant to make it more at home.
The plant's current, and likely permanent, home is in a 5" clear pot with marble chips with a (very) little bit of sphagnum and charcoal mixed in. The marble because I don't have much money (I'm a student) and marble chips were the cheapest version of limestone (it's just metamorphic limestone) I could find, at $3 for a 5 pound bag. The sphagnum, because seaside cliffs would, logically, be covered in moss and lichen (if only i could culture lichen). The charcoal, because I said so! Also, the fact that the plant can grow in either location makes me worry quite a bit less about giving it too much light.
So, anyways, it's been in it's new home about a month, now and has started a new growth that seems to be growing pretty quickly. It was a tiny white dot the size of a grain of sand about 4 days ago, and is now the size of a small sunflower seed. Also, the plant has dropped one flower, and opened another since the switch. The new flower seems more firm and a little bit larger than the previous 2 were. I water the plant about every 2 to 4 days. With the marble, there's very little risk of overwatering, and you'd be
surprised how long the stone stays moist (granted, i've been keeping the orchid room at about 80%+ humidity).
Anyways, I just thought it was kinda neat to try something different and see my plant reacting happily.
Paphiopedilum in alternative medium
And Tracy, I got the marble chips at Home Depot :-X I checked a couple stores and found some selling 5lb bags for 6 dollars and some for 2.50. Do you plan to look into potting in it?
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