Name that Paph.. . hint: Slivraar glavc x phil
 

The label from previous owner was barely legible and reads something like “Paph. Slivraar glave x phil.” Unfortunately, I could not find a good match on the Internet. Could it be a Silvara? Leaf span of mature plant is about 17". Thanks in advance if anyone can verify it with "glave x phil."

"phil" is likely Paphiopedilum philippinense. "glave" makes me wonder about Paphiopedilium glaucophyllum. I'm not familiar with Paph hybrids but other here are.

Could the first named be Silvara Yard? A Mukoyama hybrid.

My guess would be Paph Shireen (glaucophyllum x philippinense). The leaves and description look appropriate for that cross, but I suspect we won't know for sure unless/until it blooms.

Here come the flowers... .
 

I had this Paph for over 5 years, and all it did was producing more new growths. The previous owner (also in Ohio) gave up on it for the same reason.

An OrchidBoard member from NM, Optimist, got a division of this Paph earlier this year. With her Midas touch, she was able to get it to bloom in just a few months. Optimist was kind enough to send me pictures of the flowers. She suggested that the flowers have the features of typical Paph. Philippinense.

So, thanks to Optimist, we have made a giant step forward to identify this this mysterious Paph.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ture12787.html

That would be Paphiopedilum Shireen.

Given that the tag said (what you interpreted as) glavc x phil or glave x phil, which was almost certainly meant to be glauc x phil (shorthand for glaucophyllum x philippinense) and the Slivraar is very likely a misinterpretation of Shireen, in association with the flower photo that clearly demonstrates this is a cocholopetalum hybrid crossed to a multifloral, I think the ID is fairly certain here.

MrHappyRotter, You've got it!!! I couldn't make sense out of the "aa" in "Slivraar." "Shireen" is a perfect fit. Thanks!

By golly, that is it! The sort of chartreuse green behind the purple-brown bars on the dorsal sepal, the very warted and twisted petals, and a kind of pinkish pouch.

It really is nice. The care I gave it was basically throwing it in the backyard and spray it with a hose every morning. (We have very hard water here, so I am thinking the suspended minerals in the water must have helped. The division that bloomed was outside (shadecloth), in only lecca (edit: sorry, it also had mixed in wood planting mix) and had daily waterings, It now has 3 more growths. The division that did not have a spike was in typical "better grow" potting soil, and it has no growths. (Figures, right? I will be repotting that one into lecca).

I am having great success with paphiopedilums in semi-hydro. I think these will be repotted for the winter.

The nice things about this plant is that it is fairly compact and the flowers (4 of them but the last one the bud was not fully formed) were on a stocky stem, about 1 foot long so no real worry about an ultra long stem to break. The flowers last a lot longer than some paphs.

Nice. Thanks for the ID!

Now you have heard the successful story from Optimist. One thing intriguing to me is that some subtle difference can be the determining factor of whether one gets just a healthy plant or one that would also bloom.

So, for those who are curious about it too, here is how I kept the same orchid happy but never bloom for years. I potted the same Paph with a mixture of lava rocks and pine bark. It was watered with rain water and occasionally fed with some fertilizer. I used tap water on it only last winter. It was kept under trees in growing season (50-90°F) and in subbasement in winter (52°F). The plant was always exposed to some sunlight.

First I thought a much warmer climate in NM could also be a trigger, but Optimist has a division that didn't bloom. Yes.. we all wish that orchids can just tell us why sometimes they would have a change of heart... :)

Pen, I tend to think that the reason that it bloomed was hard water.

Just to add to that, the Huntington Botanical Gardens in southern California has one of the premier Paph collections, and those are watered with well water (high calcium, fairly high dissolved solids, relatively high pH from the calcium bicarbonate) They have the facilities to give each type of orchid whatever it wants, and Paphs love the hard water. Phrags want RO, but not the Paphs.

Good to know that, and it does make sense as tap water contains minerals not present in rain water. I use rain water to avoid salt accumulation as often mentioned in books. However, I don't think commercial growers would use rain water either. Thank you both!

Actually, you might go farther into the analysis.
The Ogallala Aquifer (where my town gets its water) is a carbonate-rock aquifer, and Ohio gets its groundwater from alluvial-glacial sources.

My idea, in this case, would be to re-mineralize the water, perhaps use rock dust? Calcium-magnesium for aqua gardening? Etc?

Also, is the Salt "sodium chloride"? There are many kinds of salts, including calcium carbonate and magnesium.

Centrum tablets.. .
 

As calcium supplement for orchid, sprinkling some crushed egg shells into the pot is what I did. However, I noticed that most orchid roots like to cling onto lava rocks instead of the egg shell. I read somewhere that Ca in egg shell is not "released" easily. Sprinkling some crushed Centrum tablets onto your favorite orchids might not be a bad idea.. :roll:

For those interested, below is a table of the mineral contents of some lava rocks. BTW, I believe some of the chemical formula, e.g., Na2O, are not the actual forms of those minerals in the rock. I wish the phosphorus level could be higher for better flowering (?).

Even those Paphs seeming to grow on rocks mostly grow on a layer of decaying leaf mold on the rocks. Microorganisms in the leaf mold may be able to dissolve rock with acids they produce, in order to make rock minerals more available, which makes any excess more available to the plants.

Egg shells contain calcium tightly bound in protein complexes. They evolved to be almost impervious to bacterial and fungal attack. The calcium is only released when the calcium-binding protein is metabolized by soil microorganisms. The fact that chips of egg shell can last for many years in moist potting soil shows this hardly occurs at all. I believe egg shells provide next to no supplemental calcium when used in potting mixes, despite what people have been doing for hundreds of years.

Calcium solubility in water is strongly affected by pH of the water. You will get a bigger bank for your buck by adjusting the pH of your calcium-containing water to the range 6-7, rather than adding more calcium.

Most plants actively block calcium uptake through the roots, except at the collar just behind the root tip. Excess calcium leads to minerals precipitating inside the plant. Teleologically one can think of it as a mechanism for taking up calcium only when the plant is in active growth. I don't know whether this is true about orchid roots.

Here is an interesting article, Planting in rocks, roots constantly wet, high mineral calcium (limestone) similar to what I was doing (it seems). https://staugorchidsociety.org/PDF/2...inLavaRock.pdf

Read this and tell me if you think powdered dolomite lime might be good to use.