Paphiopedilum after bloom.

I was wondering what happens with paph after bloom. Does spent fan die away or stays there to support new growth?
Here is Paphiopedilum armeniacum II about 4 months after blooming.



The old growth is still fresh and new runners started producing the leaves. I doubt any of the new growths will be ready to bloom next year, so it will be a long wait for the next flower.
Unfortunately my other plant didn't survive. Blasted bud rotted whole plant down to the base.

And now in full bloom

Micranthum pouch grew much bigger and now looks weirdly inflated. I like it.




Side view:



Armeniacum unwrapped its petals some more:



Side view:



And shot of my happy parvi couple together:



Wondering if micranthums pouch is still growing...

Two paphiopedilums are almost blooming

Well, the flowers are not opened completely yet, but of course I could not wait.
They are Paph. micranthum II and Paph. armeniacum II.
My first surprise was - how much the armeniacums flower is larger than micranthums. I never actually see them pictured together and for some reason assumed that micranthum bloom should be larger. It appears not:



Another surprise - how fast the micranthum bud developed comparing to armeniacum. I mean the time from discovering the bud and todays status.
Here is the micranthum as of today:



I am sure that petals will unwrap much more, but not sure if pouch will grow any larger. I like how delicately intricate the middle part is on micranthum, armeniacums is much simpler and bulkier(todays picture too):



To see the real shape of the blooms I would have to wait until the flowers will open completely, probably next weekend. So this was just a preview.

Developing pouches

I can definitely see a nice and full pouch on Paphiopedilum armeniacum II now:



It looks like it is wrapped into petals around. Wondering how long before they will unfold. The color is nice and bright yellow already...

Paphiopedilum micranthum bud started to show some pink color and veining and pouch is rounding too:



This one has shorter spike and bud is nodding down more. Would be nice to have them both in bloom together.

Paphiopedilum armeniacum II

Paph. armeniacum is really taking its time, I don't even check on it every day, seems like it doesn't change much:



Well, I must admit, there is some progress, when compared to the last update, but I thought it will be fully open by this time.




The spike grew enormously long and leggy and not exactly straight. I wonder if I should have moved it into brighter spot, so it wouldn't follow the light.

Paph armeniacum II

A week passed and there is not much changes to the actual bud, but the spike sure got much taller.
The picture is sort of clumzy because I wanted to see the full length of the spike:



Although maybe it did get a bit fuller and plump, or maybe it is just a wishful thinking. Just like watched kettle that never boils.






I think I will do the next update in two weeks...

Paph armeniacum II bud

I have this pathetic habit of posting almost weekly progress of any spike or bud that is currently developing on my orchids. I understand that posting progress will not speed the process, but here it is again.
Paphiopedilum armeniacum II bud - the spike didn't grow any taller much, but bud shell uncovered a bit of petals. They are greenish instead of yellow, but I guess it wll change in a while.

Paph. armeniacum II bud progress

The bud is still alive and growing:



I am trying to keep it from drying out completely which is hard as I am afraid to overwater it at the same time. Just want to keep the bud from blasting and not sure how long it is before the flower comes out.

While looking for information and pictures about paphiopedilums I came across this blog with great paph pictures:
http://fatmama-paphs.blogspot.com/

Paph. armeniacum

Bad news and good news.
The bad one - emerging bud on Paph armeniacum is now definitely dead. It looks brown and feels too soft:




The good one - Paph. armeniacum II bud is growing well:




I am not sure what happened to the first one. They both are in the same location, same chc media, clay pots. The number II is larger , so the pot is bigger and my suspision is that maybe small pot doesn't hold enough moisture and I should have watered it more often.
The second and most likely possibility - I got water on the bud when misting the plant and it rotted. Sob...Sob...

Paphiopedilum armeniacum

I have two plants of this parvisepalum specie. First one is growing a bud and has three offshots:




The number II is blooming sized too. It also has several new growths:



Both of them are potted into clay pots with coconut husk chips and seem to like it.