Paph Maudiae with two flowers
 

I can't really take credit for these. I bought it with one open flower and one bud in early July, but at least the bud didn't blast on me, and opened on Saturday.

I love this orchid and previously killed one and another has been clinging on rootless for 18+ months. I decided rather than wait to see if I could finally save the rootless one I would buy another, and I'm really enjoying it again. Let's hope I can avoid rotting this one's roots :crossfing

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8438/7...f21e74b961.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8442/7...4ac075f04f.jpg

I can't get enough of the green slippers -- Love the mints.
Very nice indeed :D

Yes I too love the albums and yours is very pretty Rosie. I really love Maudiae I have one as well. I am just wondering how you manage to get a tall spike as the the paphs that I have bloomed have had quite short spikes. Hmmm, am I doing something wrong?

Thanks Gloria and Susie,

Susie I'm not sure, my previous ones grew long spikes like this as well. I grew them in an east window behind a sheer curtain and tried stop them drying out completely (but then rotted the roots so don't take too much from that ;)).

Thanks Rosie. Maybe they do need more light. I'll have to see how the rest of them bloom out and if they are short as well I shall have to move them.

Lovely.

Kim

Beautiful!

Love it!!! This is really a stately flower with such clean lines, how could you not love it!

Beautiful Rosie! Great pictures too!

Thanks everyone,

Dave, "Stately" is a good description of what I like about these :)

Wonderful! I really need to get me a Maudiae alba (album?) since they are so very beautiful. Congrats on a real beaut. :biggrin:

These green/white flowers are my all time favorite, although I'm focusing on collecting nice vini color now. (of course, I'm open to buying more of green/white if I see nice one like yours :) ).

I love the refreshing and elegant look of these brightly colored flowers. And they are very easy grower/bloomer for me.

The thing is, all of my green maudiae will make one new growth at a time. so I have bought a bunch of them and place them close together. So when they are in bloom, it's stunning!
and they last for months and some of them bloom twice a year I've noticed.

Oh, one of my lawrencianum and citron mix developed two growth following division last year. I was so excited thinking I would finally get two flowers per plant. well, it skipped a season (that plant is the one that flowers twice a year) but now one of the two growths is sending up a spike. I hope the other one will follow shortly after. will see!

This is a picture from last fall when most of them were in bloom. I like the diversity of the flower forms.
The tallest one is my twice a year bloomer. :)

You mentioned you tend to kill paphs with root rot.
Is it in a moss??

I did lost one that was in a moss. I always wanted to repot it into more open mix, but I didn't care for that plant that much so I kind of neglected it. I kept delaying it and one day it looked like it stopped growing.
I took it out of the pot, and there it was with no living roots! I tried to save it, but it never made it.

I have mine all in fine bark mix or coconut husk chip mixed with hydroton, perlite and bunch other stuff.
I water at least twice a week, especially now that it is so hot.

How do you grow your paphs??
They say paphs need moisture more than other orchids, but if you have root rot issues, you can grow them on the dry side and they do alright. just not bone dry. :lol:

I grow them in bark. But just can't get the balance of watering right. I try to let them dry out just like I do with Phals, but with the ones that died when I took them out the pot I found the bark had not been drying as much as I thought.

I have two vini-colours in tiny tiny pots of bark. I'm pretty sure they are doing well as I can see the roots through the side. I think they need bigger pots now, one of them is straining the sides, but I'm worried to pot up because I don't want to end up with the same problem. I think this one might go in a smaller pot at some point so I can feel more confident about it.

Most of paphs that I bought came in straight bark mix and some came in straight sphagnum moss.
As bark gets old, the top surface on the pot may look dry but the toward the bottom where we don't see is usually pretty wet.
Lifting the pots and judging by the weight greatly help me decide when to water. Between watering, I do mist the top surface heavily if I see the some roots exposed.
Or I put some moss on top of the bark and mist daily. It seems to help drying out less severe.

Whatever mix they come in, I eventually repot them into a mix of coconut husk chips, perlite, hydroton, small charcoal. This mix keeps moist for quite long time while being very open and airy. My paphs seem to do well in it.

Beautiful! Those photographs are excellent.

if i could grow only one paph it would be my maudiae, claire de lune.....the crisp green of the albums is soo elegant and delightful!! enjoy your beautiful blossoms!!

Thanks everyone. This guy still has both flowers open and I'm enjoying them so much :)

Good for you! I hope yours all stay alive for many many years! :)

Two of my green/white maudiae are spiking at the moment. yay!

It is so pretty, I love the soft and elegant colors. And the leaves are gorgeous too.

Since I'm so new to the Paph genus and thus unable to tell when to water just by lifting the pots, I followed the great advice I got about using skewers in the pots. Now I've skewered (sounds, bad, doesn't it? ;) ) my entire Paph collection and so far it seems to work. :biggrin:

Love those "alba" forms. Beautiful.