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Persephone

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I am very very new to this, as a matter of fact I have only one slipper orchid. My facination began when I visited the NY Botanical Garden's orchid show early last spring. What inspiration! While browsing in the gift shop I came upon a plant that I absolutely fell in love with. I bought her, bought some food for her and, of course, I named her. I also picked up "Orchid Growing for Wimps" The horticulturist at the gift shop helped me decide whether the light conditions in the room I had in mind for my orchid were adequate.

I am happy to report that she is still alive and has new leaves.....but no sign of blooming. :( I guess it's still too early. I plan on getting some bloom booster fertilizer to change her diet for now. In the meantime I have been perusing the net and marvelled at the variety of these wonderful plants. I seem to be drawn to Paphs for some reason...I feel some sort of strange atavistic kinship with them (Maybe I was a plant in a former life?) I plan to add to my collection, but only after I can prove to myself that I can keep them alive and well which I am very very determined to do.

I'm glad I found this forum. Oh BTW, I live in Northern New Jersey.
One lesson that I did already learn is not to thow away that little tag that tells you the identification of the plant.
 
Hello there Persephone. Glad to have you aboard.

I'm glad you saved the tag from your plant, because as you are finding out from your web resaearch, the normal blooming time will depend on what species or species parents (for a hybrid) you have.

Was the plant in bloom when you bought it? If so the next blooming will require the plant to grow a new growth, which will take 9 months to a year to mature before it blooms. Bloom promoting fertilizers are generally not needed.

Check out our vendors section and look for slippers that are "good for windowsill growing, or growing under lights".

Have fun.
 
Hi Persephone, welcome to the forum! Let me second Rick's notion that bloom boosters aren't especially helpful for Paphs (and may even harm them, if over-used). Most of us start out with hybrids that are easy to grow, I think. I very quickly moved on to SPECIES that are easy to grow, and then species that are easy to kill.

Hope you find some species that you like and that grow well for you! :)

- Matthew Gore
 
Thanks for the welcome and the advise.. Rick, unfortunately, I learned the lesson about not throwing away the tag after I threw it out! :sob:

I'm searching the net for an illustration that looks the same. Time to don my deerstalker.
 
Welcome. Hope you have lots of fun, because orchids are addictive. As to fertiziler, feed them slow and gentle, because thats how they grow. If they don't flower for ya, just sit them next to the trash can, it's a subtle threat.;)
Barb.
 
Welcome! hehe I got trapped with paphs fairly recently too, even after so many years of growing other types of orchids with my mom. There's something unique about paphs...now my collection is mostly paphs

Persephone said:
Thanks for the welcome and the advise.. Rick, unfortunately, I learned the lesson about not throwing away the tag after I threw it out! :sob:

I did the same thing to most of my mom's collection of orchids unfortunately, when I was repotting as a irresponsible kid. I learnt my lesson now that I can't use my mom's orchids in crosses, etc.
I now keep a list of my collection in case I loose a tag or something.
 

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