Paph lowii blooming!

[Lagoon]

Kerstin,
You have a beautiful lowii. The shape is wonderful

[tuvoc]

Really nice lowii! I wish mine would do something.

Kim

[rdlsreno]

That is a nicely colored Paph. lowii!

Ramon

[snow]

great job on growing that wonderfull lowii.
it has taken it,s time. or is this normal for this species?

[Bob c]

Very nice.

[VandaFan]

Originally Posted by Kerstin C

Hey all, my Paph lowii started putting up a spike earlier this year. There are now three out of four flowers open and there may be a fifth. It's too early to tell. This is one of my favorites!

Hi Kerstin,
Very beautiful and elegant. Congratulations.
Is it possible that you share with us culture info you apply to your lowii?
I also have a lowii at home. It grows so slowly and does not rebloom. I haven't been able to find consistent information on the web re: light (is it the same as phalaenopsis or brighter?), temperature, and water (always keep roots wet or wait until almost dry before watering?). Even orchid vendors gave me different opinions.

Vandafan

[tabobong]

very very nice tks for sharing

[gixrj18]

Originally Posted by VandaFan

Hi Kerstin,
Very beautiful and elegant. Congratulations.
Is it possible that you share with us culture info you apply to your lowii?
I also have a lowii at home. It grows so slowly and does not rebloom. I haven't been able to find consistent information on the web re: light (is it the same as phalaenopsis or brighter?), temperature, and water (always keep roots wet or wait until almost dry before watering?). Even orchid vendors gave me different opinions.

Vandafan

Multi-floral Paphs (such as lowii) tend to prefer more light than your average Paph. or Phal.. I keep my multi-floral Paphs in Cattleya light, and they seem to like it.

[VandaFan]

Originally Posted by gixrj18

Multi-floral Paphs (such as lowii) tend to prefer more light than your average Paph. or Phal.. I keep my multi-floral Paphs in Cattleya light, and they seem to like it.

Thanks, Jasen.
I will give it more light. Hope that it will do better.
I've been more successful with paph Bernice (Philippinense x Lowii). The flowers (shape, colors) and flower stem are very identical to lowii but Bernice seems to grow and bloom faster.

Vandafan

[Kerstin C]

Here's a belated reply regarding how I treat my Paph lowii. I basically treat all my orchids the same, but the Phals are in a corner that gets little to no direct light.

I live in a cold climate, but it does get into the 80s and sometimes 90s in the summer. The humidity is almost always low, which is a challenge. I keep all my orchids in the corner of the living room next to a window which faces southeast. This light is filtered by tall pine trees which grow two lots over from us. These trees aren't right next to the house. The light is very bright and is sometimes direct. The orchids also get late afternoon light coming through a southwest-facing window. In the fall I have to move some of my smaller orchids out of this afternoon light.

Our house experiences wide swings in temperature year-round. We don't use heat in the summer even thought the nighttime temperatures sometimes drop to freezing. In the winter the house rarely gets above 65 degrees and is usually around 61 or 62 degrees during the day and in the low 50s at night. Most of my orchids grow really slowly in the winter. Paph lowii and my other orchids usually get a 1/4-strength fertilizer with every watering. I water once a week and use Max Sea 14-18-14 acid fertilizer, Max Sea 16-16-16, or 1/2 strength fish emulsion. They seem to love the fish emulsion the most. I put them outside to water them so it doesn't stink up the house too much.

I have let Paph lowii go a bit dry, but it does not seem to like it! In this dry climate, once a week works very well, but I bet my orchids might like once every four or five days even better. The leaves of Paph lowii are light green, which shows it's getting a lot of light.

Hope this helps.