At the moment, this is my only slipper orchid. It was an in-bloom, but discounted ($5) grocery store find, purchased 4 + years ago. Two others purchased at about the same time are no longer with me.
This one grew a little bit, but not well, losing leaves slightly slower than growing new ones. I repotted 2 or 3 times in conventional bark-based and sphagnum-based media, it was never really happy.
A year ago, I researched photos of slippers growing in the wild and also looked at some old orchid books to come up with a better growing medium. 'Leaf mould' and 'grit' seemed to be components of many mixes in the old books. I settled on a mix made of the broken-down pine/hardwood leaf litter from my back yard, including a bit of the mineral soil mixed in (and worm castings); very coarse angular sand from a nearby stream; medium fir bark and charcoal; and < 5% crushed eggshell. Styrofoam chips at the base of the pot to improve drainage, plastic pot. The improvement was rapid, the plant rapidly added more leaves that were also sturdy, and suddenly showed signs of wanting to bloom this past fall. Here it is:
Another orchid at my desk: Paphiopedilum Hilo Jewel x Paph. fairrieanum 'Greenhorn'
Threaded Mode
