After 11 years...Paph. Dollgoldii

[Jon in SW Ohio]

As I mentioned in another thread, I bought this plant as a fresh out of compot seedling in June of 1997. There's another 10 or so plants from this compot floating around our local society, and as far as I know this is the first one to bloom. It just opened today and is still a little green, but I'm guessing over the next few days it will darken up with yellow like other armeniacum hybrids (my camera settings didn't really catch all the yellow either). It's a shame the form isn't better, but maybe when it blooms again 10 years from now it will be better since it's just a first bloom seedling

As far as culture...this plant has seen it all since I got it just a couple years after I started growing orchids. For the last couple years it's been in my standard mix of Hydroton clay balls in an AirCone pot. The plants all sit in large trays of water about an inch deep, so it's basically growing hydroponically without the fertilizer.

For size reference, it's in a 4" AirCone pot

 

[John D.]

Takes patience but worth the wait. Congratulations

 

[Elena]

Gosh 11 years, you are one patient man Good job!

 

[paphjoint]

Very Nice - good job

 

[rdlsreno]

Nice one! Worth the wait!


Ramon

 

[vandaalex]

congratulations!!!

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

It is lovely! Your patience has been well rewarded.

 

[shakkai]

Wow! I hope I don't have to wait that long to see some of my seedlings bloom! I don't know if I can be that patient... great job! Nice first bloom.

 

[SlipperFan]

Not bad. The pouch is a little punched in, but otherwise not bad at all. You are a very patient man!

 

[swamprad]

Wow, that has to be a great feeling to finally bloom this Dollgoldi, after so many years! It is a lovely flower. I've been wanting one for a long time, and recently found one for sale that has already flowered once. Hopefully that means that it is a little more floriferous than some, but it might just mean that it is 11 years old and flowered for the first time last month!

 

[paphioboy]

That's quite nice... But what the heck..!! Its still single-growth after 11 years..??! I thought it would have been multi-growth and bear more than just a single spike...

 

[SlipperKing]

Wow! I hope I don't have to wait that long to see some of my seedlings bloom! I don't know if I can be that patient... great job! Nice first bloom.

This is a good example and common one at that to consider forking out more monies for larger, more mature plants so the wait period is much shorter. For us older folks this is the way to go. You younger folks out there (with less money) buy the compots and flasks and in 10 yrs us old folks(if still a round) can buy them up.

Great job Jon! (P.S. you're still young Jon)

 

[likespaphs]

neato.
i ain't never bloomed an armeniacum-type. didn't know they started out green....

 

[Ron-NY]

Gosh 11 years, you are one patient man Good job!

Yes you are...I have one Dolgoldi that was purchased as a small seedling 8 years ago...I am still patiently waiting as well, lol

Hopefully, now that it has reached blooming size you will not have to wait more than a couple of years until the next growth blooms.

 

[toddybear]

Congrats! The flower looks huge.

 

[NYEric]

I must have not noticed this was a diff thread. Well done. After reading your culture method for this plant maybe I'm over fertilizing them! I'll reduce the fert then, thanx.

 

[GuRu]

Hi Jon, it was worth the long wait, way to go!!
I thought I was patient when I flowered my P. rothschildianum finally last winter after a growing term of 5 1/2 years. But that's nothing compared with your 11 years wait.
Best regards from Germany, rudolf

 

[Wendy]

Beautiful and worth the wait. I got my Dollgoldi about 6 years ago as a small seedling and have been lucky with the growth rate...it is now five growths and two of them are starting to show bud sheaths. These things sure teach you patience.

 

[NYEric]

That's pretty good for Dollgoldi!

 

[Candace]

Way to go! I'd have to look at my Dollgoldi to see when I bought it, but I must have been growing it for 5 years from a seedling I bought from Paphanatics. It's now growing it's 3rd growth. And it teased me this year. The large, main growth sent up a darker colored leaf that looked like it was a spike coming. Then it kept growing and was a leaf, but the tip of it is dark. I've had several multis do this too.