Spiking in Two Years!

[NYCorchidman]

Three of my paphs, two complex and one fair-maud type, are spiking in two years and I am just beyond excited!!!!

I was not too fond of these two complex (one green and one large spotted) and was about to toss them thinking I am not able to provide them enough cooling to set buds.

I mean keeping something that does not flower for two years for me? never happened before

Plants grew nicely and I thought I would give them until this winter just in case.

Well, good thing I did because they are coming into bloom apparently without "cooling".

Now I have more confidence in having complex paphs around. I have four or five other complex paphs. Two of them are what I hope to see in bloom again.
The other three, I don't really care, but I would like to see if they would bloom for me.

Now I have one green complex, Stone Lovely, that won't flower for me for over two years. I'm still hanging on to it, and I am surprised I am keeping it for such a long time without seeing any blooms.

The last one, a cross between Maudiae alba (I am being lazy to type in a looooong name) and fairrieanum, is finally spiking again. I was determined to keep this one because I really liked the flower ( I picked one among many of the same cross and all of them looked quite different in shape and color so this one is quite special to me).

It has been fun to see it grow without flowers for two years because it grew so fast, adding five new fans to the single mature growth I bought two years ago. What's even better, I think I see two other fans are about to send up a spike. it could be just my imagination though.

[SJF]

Great growing!

[Ferns Daddy]

Great job !

[17&growing]

congrats

[NYCorchidman]

Thank you!

[RosieC]

My complex paphs seem to take about 2 years to mature new fans, so when there is only one fan growing at a time that can be 2 years between flowering. They can be frustrating

[NYCorchidman]

Rosie, how long have you been growing yours? and what color are they?

I read somewhere that under lower than ideal light condition, these can grow slower than they should (it also said 10 months is th average for afan to mature) and thus flower less often. Then, again, I highly doubt the content whoever wrote that because I believe I grow my paphs in highest possible light, and 10 months for a fan to mature is not correct.

Now, the first one pictured above, which is a very large spotted complex, is sending up a second spike on a younger growth. The first spike, which is still very low, is growing out of a growth that is about 18 months old and has five leaves.
This second spike is coming out of a growth that is about 6 months old. then there is a brand new growth that started earlier in the summer.

This is not the only paph I have that exhibit such behavior. MY wild guess is that for some reason, certain paphs flower for the first time when they reach from seedling size to a mature size. then they will take some time off from flowering but focus on making growths before flowering again.
Then once they are of certain size, they will bloom more on a regular basis.

I am yet to see how correct this guess is in the coming years.

Another thing about the culture on these complex paphs...the slight chilling to initiate flower initiation.
Some say they need this lower temperature to form flower bud and some say it is needed to reach the largest flower size and best coloring.

I have no clue. I know that my stone lovely does not bloom even after I followed the advice of sticking the whole plant in the fridge (under 40 F, like 7 C or even lower) for one month last fall. It has been growing nicely though. quite frustrating with that one. If slapping helped them flower.

Now, both this spotted complex and the green complex are making spikes without any "chilling". Well, it has been quite hot actually.

so I'm really confused about all the stuff I read and heard.

[RosieC]

My oldest paph was bought in Feb 2009, it's a complex unknown hybrid.

When I bought it there was just one fan and one spike. But it then started multiple new growths, and then further growths before those were mature. Each growth takes about 2 years to mature but since then it's usually had several at different stages so flowers more often (though still only about once a year, with multiple spikes).



My Maudiae types take a similar time. I have a couple of vini colour ones from December 2009. They were bought potted together but leaf patterning, flower shape & growth habit are very different.

One grows only one fan at a time, as that nears maturity another starts and get's going as the previous one flowers. It flowered in 2009, 2011 and has a spike now.

The second has many growths at once. It currently has 6 growths at different stages of development (and an older one that has already flowered). It seems to flower roughly annually however I get the impression the fans take longer than two years to mature, otherwise I should have had more than one flowering each year by now... but it's harder to keep track with a multi-growth paph.

I'm not sure about my green maudiae types, I had two which unfortunately died over the last couple of years, but I have bought a replacement for them, but the old ones didn't rebloom for me in the time I had them.

My other paphs are newer and have not yet re-bloomed for me but their fans still seem to be growing so I don't believe they are ready yet.

I've never given the ones that have rebloomed a cool down period. I hadn't realised that was needed for Paphs.

[NYCorchidman]

Those are some beautiful flowers! My spotted complex has a basically the same flower except it is more of a round shape than yours.
At least you get a multiple flowers every other year.
I think my spotted one is shooting up two spikes this time, so I am really excited.

The maudiae types are mostly from the lower elevation in the tropical Asian countries, so they do not need cool down to flower. Actually cool down below 15C is probably not good for them.

Main backbone of the complex paphs are insigne, spicerianum and villosum, and I believe all these are from high elevation with very cool winter.

Now, modern complex paphs are indeed very complex, so they may just flower but I read that they flower better (color and size) under coolest possible winter or cooling is needed to flower.
Apparently yours and mine both flower without such treatment. My Stone Lovely is still a question and I do not know why it won't flower for me.
It could be just one of those "difficult" plants.

I find complex hybrids very vigorous. I 'm actually quite surprised. The main issue, other than the hefty price, I have with them is that most of them are rather too big for me.
There are so many color forms I would love to have, but I have to save up a lot of money to buy just one nice complex paph.

Now back to maudiae type, the first one I bought was a cross between Lawrenceanum and Hsinying Citron. Probably truly very close to the "original" maudiae, which is a cross between callosum and lawrenceanum.
It has been a wonderful plant. It flowers about two to three times a year for me. The thing is it would not form a clump. A single flower at a time,,,until now.
The old fans on this particular paph will stay green for a long time, so over time, the plant looks like a clump but only adding one new fan at a time, hence producing one flower at a time.
Three years ago, I divided the plant into two, leaving four growths on each piece.
The half with a leading growth flowered normally after the division while the "older" half stunted for a while.
Then after a long while, it finally sent up a new fan and it took almost one full year to flower.
Early this year, this older half started two new fans, breaking out of its norm, which is great for me.
I am expecting to see two flowers at a time now. and hopefully the plant will come back to normal flowering schedule of two, three times a year blooming.

I have grown many "maudiae type" paphs, and most of them seem to be a fast grower & frequent bloomer.
The I have some exceptions. I guess this has to do with what is in the breeding background as well as individual plant habit.

I just got a whole bunch of new maudiae types this year. I am yet to find out their growth & flowering pattern.

Do you have a name for your "maudiae" paph?
and how do you grow yours? I think in general maudiae paphs are really easy to grow and flower.
and they have beautiful leaves to enjoy all year round.
I love them!

[RosieC]

My Maudiae was sold to me as Maudiae. Not sure if it's the original cross though because there seems to some places that sell various 'Maudiae' with different properties (red ones, green ones, sequential ones etc) and I assume they are not real Maudiae. I bought mine from a place that just had the one and tagged it as Maudiae but I still have that level of doubt because it is a name used quite freely for this type.

I had problems getting the watering right on my first ones (also just tagged as Maudiae) and rotted the roots. I'm trying to grow this one in Leca (straight, not S/H).

I grow it with my Phals, yet to find out if I'll find this one easier and if I can get the watering right.