Paph chamberlianum West Sumatra

[Suri85]

One of the first genus that made me fall in love with orchids is Paphiopedilum. As a university student in Australia, I bought a blooming sized villosum and spicerianum from an Australian breeder at an orchid fair and managed to bloomed it.



When I moved back to Jakarta, unfortunately those two plants didn't suit the hot, humid lowland of Jakarta and died immediately. Also found out that Paphiopedilums are one of the hardest orchids to grow in Jakarta. It made me avoid Paphs for a long time, but some friends have successes with them, so it motivated me to try again.



As a tryout I bid this one from an auction and got it for US$ 7.00 (it's the opening bid, no one else bid for it). The plant has 3growths and a spike with a bloom.







This is the second bloom from the same spike.

[PaphLover]

Oooooohhhhh! It's lovely.

[PaphMadMan]

Good choice. It should do much better in your climate than villosum and spicerianum. If you can keep it happy a mature Paph chamberlainianum will almost always be in bloom. I had one spike that produced about one flower a month for almost 3 years. It would have gone on, but I cut the spike because it was getting too long, and the plant had 2 other spikes in bloom too.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Gorgeous.

[estación seca]

Great photo of a beautiful flower.