New Paph Advice

[rving87]

I'm adding my first paphs to my collection

a) Paph Delenati
b) Paph. Macabre X Paph. Holdenii
c) Paphiopedilum Gary Romagna (St.Swithin X Rothschildianum)

Knowledgable people, kindly request your inputs on care and blooming behavior.

Thanks,

[estación seca]

The first is a species, the second a complex hybrid and the third a multifloral hybrid. During the growing season they all want to be evenly moist without drying out. They also need air at the roots. Constantly moist medium breaks down more rapidly, so people tend to repot them every 2 years if in bark. Any medium used for other orchids works with Paphs.

The complex hybrids are fine with Phalaenopsis light conditions - low. When they get bigger - and they do get BIG - multiflorals can take near Cattleya light.

Very low amounts of fertilizer are better for Paphs. I heard Brandon Tam, curator of orchids at the Huntington Gardens, say he uses calcium nitrate at 10 parts per million nitrogen with almost every watering. They have different kinds of roots than other orchids and are easy to burn with salts. Roots are brown and fuzzy.

I haven't grown delenattii. You can use the Search feature in the top menu to find how others here grow them. Also if you do an Advanced Search with " DVOS " as the term and my partial username " estaci " you will find the lecture notes I took when Brandon spoke to our society on Paphs. You can use my full username but the accented O isn't on a lot of keyboards, and the partial username search works well.

[rving87]

Estacion,

Thanks a ton! Those notes were sooo detailed, and gave me a lot of ideas on how to set up in my conditions, including media, location and watering.

The video of my green pets that the other member had posted on that thread about the Huntington garden was also superb. Thanks a lot!

In hindsight, after going through your notes, a lot of the care seems elementary and basic. I thought I had understood what benign neglect meant, but am realising that I'm just scratching the surface of the level of Zen patience required

[Fairorchids]

a & b = Phalaenopsis level light (or shade).

c requires same light level as Cattleya. BUT, once it sets a bud, you have to move it to the lower light of a & b (to get the spike to stretch).