Nice! Go to slipperorchids.info under the Paph page and look in the "sigmatopetalum" section. Most anything listed under there should be very similar and easy. Some I can think of are Paph. venustum, wardii, callosum, & urbanianum.

The tops of the dorsal were about to touch the lights so about 10 inches or so away.

I grow under a light stand bought at gardener's supply. The lights are as far away from the plants as they can be just because of the height of the plants, however as long as the leaves are an inch or two away from the light i've had no trouble, only when things touch the lights.

---------- Post added at 01:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:25 PM ----------

What a great bloom. Did it only just open? Mine opened more flat like yours but the dorsal reflexed at the corners. Yours is also quite a bit darker whereas mine gets near white at the tips of the sepals.

I love the variety in paphs :)

---------- Post added at 01:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:27 PM ----------

There are at lest 9 growths. 3 previously bloomed, 3 in bloom now.

Yes, it had just opened its flower when I took the picture. I just wanted to show the whole plant (it's so much smaller than yours!) and I never took another picture of the entire plant when the flower had reflexed properly.

It's quite dark, a brownish, vine red colour, that I'm very fond of. I love the contrast between the white dorsal and the dark flower. It's very striking. :nod:

I'll show mine the pictures of yours, so that it gets inspired to grow even bigger. :biggrin:

Here's the flower fully opened, as you can see, the dorsal reflexes quite a bit.

Beautiful flower, and a very fine looking plant!

have you found that it is a free flowering plant then? i have read on other forums that they only bloom in the spring, which in that case is what is holding me back from purchasing one. I love the coloring so much.


AWESOME PLANT btw.... you must have a remarkable green thumb

great plant! looks very stout and healthy, you must be doing right! very nice display of beautiful flowers!

I'm taking the liberty of answering your question, if that's alright with you?

In the wild, it seems their flowering peak is between Sept-Oct, so it seems phillygrower's purpuratum is right on schedule. Mine flowers during summer, so it mustn't have gotten the memo...

Here you can read a bit more about Paph. purpuratum: purpuratum.

Third bloom open
 

The last flower opened and now I have three nice flowers. The last is a little smaller than the rest but just as pretty. :biggrin:

Gorgeous :goodjob