Flower issue with maudiae type - stuck bloom?
 

I hope everyone's new year is going well. Mine is, for the most part, though I seem to have a problem with one of my paphs.

The flower bud had been big and plump from about mid-December, then finally - barely - started to open on Boxing Day. I've read that it can take a while for the flower to fully open up so perhaps I just need to be patient, but it's been exactly this opened since New Year's Eve and isn't progressing at all.

I've seen siblings of this plant in full bloom and none of them looked like mine, especially the reflexed petals - the others were fully extended and a bit longer than these. I was wondering if I did something wrong (culture [though it's been in the same spot at a consistent temp/humidity all through bud and spike], fertilization regime), if it's some sort of disease/pest that can cause it not to fully open, or maybe I just bought a dysfunctional plant that will always put out tight, closed little flowers.

I can provide more info or pictures if they would be helpful, so feel free to ask. Any advice or insight anyone can give me would be appreciated!

How about the watering?

It takes a decent hydrostatic pressure for flower segments to inflate.

Yes, how often are you watering? In that large chunked mix you might need to water every 2-3 days if temperatures are warm.

I've been watering at about the same frequency as I was during spike, every 5-6 days when the pot felt light and misting the top of the media with a spray bottle in between, kept at 65-70% humidity. I just gave her a good soak and I'll try every third day for a while to see if that helps her perk up.

It's probably not possible to overwater a Paph. in that sort of medium, so don't be concerned with that. As long as there is plenty of air at the roots they can stay very moist.

In that case, maybe I'll water it a few mornings in a row to see if it'll open up fully; but in any event, this is a good lesson to learn for my paph acmodotum that's in spike right now

Paphs like to stay damp. So you need to water them a LOT more freqeuntly than you would Phals or Catts. (or grow them in a much more moistiure-rentive medium, like small bark or sphagnum) They don't ever want to dry out.

The last 7 words in Roberta's post are KEY.

I've repotted all but two of my paphs and mixed a good bit of sphag into their media, so those two (including this one) were probably being underwatered relative to the rest

My experience is that Paph can take up to a week to open fully. Some just never open as fully as you would like.