Specific Paph/Phrag Care

[Nepenthesis]

I've kept paphs before, though it was a few years ago. Since then, I set up a greenhouse with proper heating and cooling equipment (50F night, 80F day). In it I grow Nepenthes, AKA tropical pitcher plants.

Lately I've been very intrigued by paphs and phrags, especially ones with usual marking / petal shapes / sizes. I've been eBay stalking the paph and phrag sections for the past week or two and today I came across a few and bought them since they had no bids on them.

List of what I bought...

- Paph rothschildianum 'Raye' x Paph rothschildianum 'Chester Hills' AM/AOS
- Paph moquettianum 'Pine Knot' x self
- Sanderianum 'Dark Beauty' x Sanderianum 'Newberry Tresses'
- Phrag. caudatum var. sanderae x Phrag. Majestic Tresses

All I remember are basics... I remember paphs like to be moist but not wet and phrags like more water. Maybe some more experienced folks can help me with some questions...

1. Upon receiving the plants in the mail, should I repot immediately or wait and give them a few months to adjust to my growing conditions?
2. All of the plants I bought were listed as 15"+, 16 and 16"+ leaf spans. Only one, the moquettianum, was listed as blooming size. In ideal conditions, how long might it take for them to bloom in their season?
3. Are there any great websites that list natural elevation/location/climate for species of paphs and phrags? I'm interested in knowing the temperature range they can tolerate.

[billc]

Hello and welcome.
If I get a plant from someone I don't know I knock it out of the pot to check the roots. Paphs don't seem to mind.
My roth generally blooms at 16-18 in. leaf span. I don't really know about the sandie but I seem to remember someone saying the LS needs to be about 20 in. Some one who grows phrags will hopefully chime in.
Here's a pretty good site for climate info:
Paphiopedilum Data Sheets

Good Luck!

Bill

[jeremyinsf]

Sanderianum does NOT like to be re-potted a lot, so I would think about it before changing pots or pulling it to look at the roots.

moquettianum with enough light and regular, light feedings is considered an easier bloomer.

Once phrags get going they can really take off. Lots of light, easy on the feeding, and this cross probably doesn't want to be kept very wet like some other phrags do, but it will still want plenty of water.

Have fun with them! The site Bill gave you has tons of information. I reference it all the time.

You can also check out Jay's Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia - P

[Nepenthesis]

Originally Posted by billc

Hello and welcome.
If I get a plant from someone I don't know I knock it out of the pot to check the roots. Paphs don't seem to mind.
My roth generally blooms at 16-18 in. leaf span. I don't really know about the sandie but I seem to remember someone saying the LS needs to be about 20 in. Some one who grows phrags will hopefully chime in.
Here's a pretty good site for climate info:

Good Luck!

Bill

Thanks!

That raises another question... I remember the paphs I had didn't grow quickly. How many leaves per months do paphs usually put out?

Originally Posted by jeremyinsf

Sanderianum does NOT like to be re-potted a lot, so I would think about it before changing pots or pulling it to look at the roots.

moquettianum with enough light and regular, light feedings is considered an easier bloomer.

Once phrags get going they can really take off. Lots of light, easy on the feeding, and this cross probably doesn't want to be kept very wet like some other phrags do, but it will still want plenty of water.

Have fun with them! The site Bill gave you has tons of information. I reference it all the time.

You can also check out

Thanks for the site! I took a look at the one you linked to and the one Bill linked to and they're both helpful to me.

I guess I won't worry about repotting for a few months then. That helps a lot.

[naoki]

They are probably from Carter and Holmes? I have P. rothschildianum and P. sanderianum from the same crossing. They seem to grow well with lots of root growths. My condition is probably a bit cooler than the optimal for these species, but they produced about 4-6 leaves over a year. This is probably a lower rate because it took for a while to get them acclimated. Both of them started 2nd growths, so I'm guessing that they may become the flowering size in 2-4 more years (or am I too optimistic?).

In nature, the day time temp is around 80-84F, night temp of 60F (roth) and 70F (sandy). There isn't much seasonal variation. If you can grow pitcher plants, you have enough humidity for these Paphs.

If you are relatively new to Paphs, here is a couple additional info:

Slipper Articles
Dr. Tanaka's Paphiopedilum ( Paph ) world, orchids, The Paph's world�@“c’†�@—˜“T
Slippertalk Orchid Forum- The best slipper orchid forum for paph, phrag and other lady slipper orchid discussion! - Powered by vBulletin

[MrHappyRotter]

As a general rule of thumb, I repot almost all my plants soon after purchase. There are several reasons, I won't list them all, but at the top of the list: it allows me to see how healthy the roots are, whether the potting mix is broken down, I can inspect for pests (snails) and it gets the plant into my mix, which I'm most familiar with.

But, there are exceptions. Some species are very sensitive to repotting, and it can really set them back. I believe sanderianum is considered to be a bit finicky. Also, if I purchase a paph or phrag in bloom, I'll usually wait until it's done flowering before I repot. There's also a period of time from about late October to mid/late December that I usually don't repot, since the days are getting shorter and a lot of plants are going semi-dormant or at least slowing down for the winter.

Many phrags prefer wet feet, to the point of standing in a small amount of fresh water at all times. The exceptions are those in the caudatum group and/or hybrids with heavy caudatum influence (i.e. those with long petals). So, in this case, your plants should be kept fairly moist at all times, but should be allowed to dry out a bit between waterings and it's not recommended that you let them sit in water. They might be able to tolerate it for short periods, especially in the summer, but sitting water will eventually cause issues.

It's hard to say how long it will take before the phrag is large enough to bloom. I'd say on average, for most seedlings I've purchased other than those which were newly out of a compot, it's been somewhere between 1 - 3 years before they first bloom. Phrags generally grow and mature faster than paphs (by leaps and bounds in some cases), so you've got that going for you.

In terms of temps, ideally your phrags should be keep between 55 F - 80 F. But in truth, they are pretty tolerant of temps outside of that, particularly for short periods of time, if they are acclimated and you adjust your other cultural parameters appropriately.

I am mostly speaking from anecdotal evidence, but my phrags have weathered some temperature extremes in years past with few issues. Summers here can be quite hot, so 100+F is not uncommon. When it gets hot, the phrags get moved into slightly shadier conditions and I increase watering (unless nature's taking care of that for me). The worst that seems to happen is leaf tip dieback gets a bit worse and the besseae hybrids' flowers come out pale in color and/or are more likely to be deformed. In the fall, I sometimes (out of necessity and/or carelessness) have left the plants out longer than I should have, so there have been years when the last of the phrags were exposed to lows in the low to mid 40s. In fact, I think one year I even had a few plants get nipped when temps dropped into the upper 30's unexpectedly. The low temps never killed anything, at worst it caused some damage to the foliage. But, the cold temps were only for short periods of time (a night or two).