Two new micranthums

Here are two blooming sized micranthums that I got from trading my seedlings in. One of them has nice clean foliage and haven't bloomed yet. I already had two micranthums before and one of those is still alive, so this one will be Paphiopedilum micranthum III:



The other one had attempted the bud, but it dried out. Foliage has some damage, but there is a new fan growing out under the leaves, so when it is mature - plant will look nicer. Paphiopedilum micranthum IV:

Paphiopedilum stonei

Paphiopedilum stonei seedling came from Le Paradis des Orchidees in Montreal, full name is Paph. stonei 'Crown' x sib



It is my second attempt to grow stonei. First one was a flask from Orchid Inn, it wasn't very successful. Hopefully this seedling will survive.
I lives in small tank together with phals and warmth loving paph seedlings...

Updated vietnamense bloom pictures

Here are the pictures of my blooming vietnamense in the daylight.
It is not as bluish as it looked in previous post:



Plant picture:

Paphiopedilum callosum deflasked

Maudae type species that is supposed to be easy to grow and bloom. Paphiopedilum callosum x sib.



I counted 35 plantlets. Some of them have yellowing leaves at the bottom. Since they are bottom leaves - I will not worry about it for now.

Paphiopedilum Paul Parks deflasked

Sanderianum primary hybrid - Paphiopedilum Paul Parks. Hopefully more vigorous than my sanderianum seedlings.
Cross is sanderianum 'Lady in Red' x adductum var. anitum 'Ace' AM/AOS.



There are about 26 seedlings, all pretty uniform in size. I didn't bother with small protocorm-sized plantlets, just threw them away.

Paphiopedilum Harold Koopowitz deflasked

Another parvi hybrid that came yesterday in flask.
Paphiopedilum Harold Koopowitz - rothschildianum 'Gigantic Dorsal' x malipoense 'Sam's Choice' FCC/AOS.



About 30 seedlings. One was large enough to go to the individual pot, I think. Hope it will be ok...

Paphiopedilum Carolyn Butcher deflasked

Sometime in winter I pre-ordered bunch of paphiopedilum flasks from Orchid Inn USA. Received them yesterday.
Here is the first one I deflasked- Paphiopedilum Carolyn Butcher:



The cross is Fanaticum 'SVO Chunky Monkey' AM/AOS x delenatii 'SVO VII' AM/AOS. There are 27 seedlings in total, couple were clearly bullies with large roots, so I potted them separately. Bottom right pot has two plantlets that are actually connected by long runner.

Paph. Dollgoldi

Here is my new purchase from Montreal show. paphiopedilum Dollgoldi = rothshildianum x armeniacum.



I didn't pre-order it, and just pick it out from the sales table. From what I see plant didn't bloom yet, but has two nearly mature growth and two additional little runners. I think it looks cool.

Paphiopedilum henryanum

New paph arrived today in the mail. I purchased Paph. henryanum from a member of SlipperTalk forum.
Plant looks gorgeous, 8 growths, spotless leaves.
It came barerooted, I mixed some fir bark with perlite and charcoal and added few river rocks to pot new henryanum.
Here it is in all its glory:



I placed henry in the larger tank beside my new phrags. Hope he will like brighter light and occasional slight breeze from the fan:

Repotting paphs, again.

It became a real necessity because I noticed that I am rotting the roots in the Shultz bark mix they were currently growing. Of course most of them still have bunch of roots but comparing to the repotting pictures of plants when they got here - the root systems decreased quite significantly. It is all barks fault because I can never tell if it is dry or wet.
I would like to grow them in pure moss, but apparently paphs don't do good in sphagnum for the long run.
So, with help of knowledgeable folks on th Slipper Talk forum I created my own mix that has no bark whatsoever and contains the following ingredients: leca(clay pellets), chopped sphagnum moss, chc, perlite, chrcoal and coarse sand.
Here is how it looks like:



I really hope this will work.

Repotted paphs in the new media:

Paphiopedilum sanderianum

Seedling of Paph. sanderianum that I have since April:



Here is the picture of it when purchased.
Since then it put up some growth and is still alive. Although the growing is very slow and I have no idea how many more years is it away from blooming.
I noticed some growing root tips in the pot:



That's a good sign.

Paph. Prince Edward of York

Here is my newly purchased Prince Edward already repotted:



Nice and healthy leaves, roots had some peeling but there are still plenty of firm ones left. I knew it was blooming sized but after less than a week after getting it - I noticed the bud start on the larger fan.
Of course I noticed it after repotting and was worried that stress of tepotting would affect the bud development. Another week passed and bud looks fine and growing:



Can't wait for the bloom.

I noticed that all three of my paph hybrids are the rothschildianum primary crosses, it was not intentional, but now I am thinking maybe I should continue along this line...

Paphiopedilum purpuratum

This is a new fan growing on Paphiopedilum purpuratum.



Main plant was having some rot problems from the beginning where I was cutting brown piece of the leaf then the edge would get brown again, I would cut more, it'd get brown more. I was ready to throw away the whole thing when I noticed a small nubbing of new fan. Now it grew to this size, so I decided to log the plant in.
Here are the remains of the main plant - two brown pieces:



There are also two more new green entities(future fans or roots, I don't know yet) down at the base, they prevent me from trying to cut off the old brown pieces.

Now, the new fan has some brown edging on the bottom leaf too, so I might still end up throwing the whole thing away, but not just yet.

Paphiopedilum Fanaticum

I bought this Paph back in spring but forgot to log it in.
It is still alive and growing, althiugh lost couple of bottom leaves and looks kind of short.



Together with Paph. Fanaticum I also bought Paph. Magic Lanthern. I didnt forget to log that one in, but today I removed it from the list. The brown patch at the bottom was rot that was spreading to each next leaf until none was left.

Paphiopedilum Delrosi 'Murray'

Paphiopedilum Delrosi is  a cross between Paph rothschildianum and delenatii.
My plant is a division of  this particular plant and there is a story of the name 'Murray'.



It is nice, that I can see what the blooms will look like, but of course it is many years before I might get it.

Paphiopedilum bellatulum

I think it is in full bloom now and will not open more. I staked the spike with the skewer so the flower is not squished down.

Paphiopedilum Lady Isabel

I really like Paphiopedilum stonei, but it is rather hard to find it of a good blooming size. Paph. Lady Isabel is a cross between stonei and rothschildianum. It is quite beautiful too. I got it from Piping Rock Orchids at the show.
There are two fans and it does look like blooming sized plant.
Of course I re-potted it right away to check the roots, because it came in the black plastic pot.
Here is what was inside the pot:



All cleaned up with media soaking beside and a new clear plastic pot waiting:



I liked the conditions of the roots, they have few new growing tips and there was no rotted parts to trim. I didn't bother to uncurl them because old media did wash out easy and I didn't want to disturb the roots too much.



Here is Paph. Lady Isabel potted into new pot. Our tiles are 13 inch wide.

Paphiopedilum Fumi's Delight

Paph. Fumi's delight is a cross between micranthum and armeniacum. It is a small seedling that came from Clouds Orchids. Unpotted it demonstrated quite healthy roots:

I potted it back into slightly smaller pot:

Paphopedilum bellatulum

Paphiopedilum bellatulum blooms. Although I am not sure if it is fully opened yet, or will progress some more.




Flower close up:



Plant from the side:

Rotted bud and opening bud

Well, I sort of expected this to happen, because I sprayed miticide all over my paphs including the buds. Bellatulum and malipoense are a bit further ahead and buds already came out on the longer spikes - they are fine. Paph emersonii bud was still very low and probably got too much miticide in the base.
Here is the result - rotting bud:



It is very disappointing considering how long it takes for a new growth to mature enough to flower. I think I will never see its flowers. :(

Bellatulum was sprayed too but it didn't matter for the bud. It is starting to open now. Probably tomorrow or the day after it will be in full bloom. This is just a preview (looks kind of funny, doesn't it?):