In your opinion.....

[Marco]

...What is are the three most difficult paph species to cultivate and why?

 

[Jmoney]

the three most EXPENSIVE ones in your collection. sorry, but that's the @#%^@$ truth. :/

 

[Heather]

Jason has a good point. And he's right - which means I can discuss just one (since I have three of them!)

randsii

(This would be my less than scientific reason why...)
First, it is impossible to find due to the fact that it is impossible to propigate as it is impossible to self it, and there aren't enough sizeable plants for any one person to have more than one blooming at once in order to get a sib cross. (Brian - did you have any luck at all trying to pollinate yours when it was nearly finished blooming?)

I've heard it is fairly picky about acidic conditions as well. I have no idea if my three babies are going to survive. They cause me much anxiety.
Because of all of the above, it is exhorbitantly priced, of course!
It all really stinks, cause it soooo beautiful!! Wah!!

 

[Marco]

the three most EXPENSIVE ones in your collection. sorry, but that's the @#%^@$ truth. :/

I only have one species it's a Phil. Alba. oke: And soon a Roth seedling.

If you're talking about the hybrids. Great! . I definately know how to pick them. Maybe I really shouldn't cut off those flowers now, if I ever get them to bloom!

 

[Mahon]

Well, I think it depends on conditions and media.

Paph. malipoense is a very hard to grow species. I say this because it gets bud blast very easy. Needs lots of water, lots of shade, and LOTS of time. A very tempermental species. If it doesn't like coniditions, it will either morph into an ugly flower or blast its blooms.

Paph. micranthum is also a very tempermental one. It needs quite a bit of water, but much less than Paph. malipoense. The plants grow on or near stream banks, and shaded under adjacent growing plants. This species also needs a larger pot, though it is super-compact. The plants produces stolons that will end up everywhere.

I personally have troubles with Paph. bellatum. I now have a large plant, but I can't get it to even kick up a blooming sheath. Maybe it is just retarded, and I need to get a new one, not sure, but it is way overdue on blooming.

After a while of growing Paph. malioense and Paph. micranthum (along with other hard to grow species Paph. armeniacum, Paph. kolopakingii, and Paph. rothschildianum, and others), they get very acustomed to your conditions. Sometimes, they will just be alive, and not perform or do anything. Sometimes, you get lucky.

-Pat

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

Well, we have to differentiate here between difficult to grow and difficult to bloom.....very different situations. Way back in 1986 or so, Ned Nash had a great series of articles in the AOS Bulletin about growing paphs, including "difficult" paphs, and I still find his ideas correct. For example, bellatulum is a very difficult paph to keep alive for long...but while its alive, it is very easy to at least get into spike...I find that the alba form spikes as easily as the normal form but the normal form is less prone to blasting. malipoense is certainly difficult to bloom...but I have had plants live for many years with me...without ever even thinking of setting a bud.
Multiflorals, as Nash said, are easy to grow....but difficult to bloom...especially roth and its crosses (I have only gotten St. Swithin to bloom, of all my "roths"..)
I have a philipinense that has never bloomed in the 15+ years I have had it...although it is multigrowth...(actually, it spiked as a single division when I first got it, and a squirrel knocked it over and broke off the spike...). Then again, difficult paphs can have the difficulty bred out of them...like delanatii. On the other hand, paphs like armeniacum and micranthum were very easy to grow, at least armeniacum was...in the original imported plants...they were stoloniferous, growing like crazy, and even if they kicked the bucket they produced enough offspring to carry on. Now, there are newer seed-grown clones that are "easy" to bloom...well, maybe they are easier to bloom (no luck yet for me... but they have lost the stoloniferous trait...so when a piece dies, it is dead...and you don't have spare pieces.....its a trade-off...easy to bloom? Easy to grow? Most of the time you can't have both...........Take care, Eric

 

[Marco]

Eric - That definately is most interesting!

Thanks for the post.

 

[Jon in SW Ohio]

If you have the room, temps, humidity, and air flow, most are easy to grow as long as you keep them repotted often. Brachys can be problematic as they rot easily compared to other subgenera, and Parvis a little too.

IMHO the hardest plants to keep alive are the ones you get awarded. It's like the kiss of death. I almost wonder if the judging teams carry little bottles of weed killer in their pocketsoke:
If you get a plant awarded, make sure you give a piece to a friend so when yours dies you can still get a piece of it back.

Jon
________
Honda Accord History

 

[adiaphane]

For me, it's my malipoense. It was beautiful when I first got it, but then my cat thought it would be lovely to play with. It recovered okay, but after putting out a new leaf, it has done nothing the last year. I am very sad about this... I love green flowers... maybe I should get a few more.

 

[Heather]

Too true - malipoense is a little ***** of a plant, if you ask me.

(can I say that??)

 

[littlefrog]

Never had much problem with malipoense... Fairrieanum, on the other hand, all die. They bloom, then they die a year or so later after lingering pain and nausea.

For some reason I have trouble growing niveum and bellatulum as well, although that never stopped me from trying. And yes, I keep them drier than the other paphs...

 

[Darin]

For some reason I have trouble growing niveum and bellatulum as well, although that never stopped me from trying. And yes, I keep them drier than the other paphs...

Rob,

I have had success growing (not blooming yet) bellatulum seedlings in deep clay pots in a wardian case with constant humidity in the low 80% range. While I keep the media drier, they really seem to respond to the extra humidity.

Darin

 

[Mycorrhizae]

If experience is directly proportionate to the number of plants killed, then much of my experience comes from killing Paph. sangii and Paph. randsii. Several times. (Well - only once for each plant, of course) For me, the best way to enjoy these two species is in someone else's collection.

As for Paph. bellatulum, I have had outstanding results growing in clay pots under lights. The plants become massive and get so large that eventually the leaves completely block any water from getting into the pot. BUT - if these same plants are put out on the bench in natural light with the rest of the paphs, growth slows, new leaves mature at smaller sizes than older leaves, and the plant eventually dwindles to nothing. To concur with Eric's recollection of the Ned Nash article - they do indeed bloom all the way to the DIMP pile.

 

[kentuckiense]

I'm constantly paranoid that I'm going to rot my bellatulum f. album and my complex brachy.

 

[Heather]

If experience is directly proportionate to the number of plants killed, then much of my experience comes from killing Paph. randsii.

Exxxcellent!

Any advice??

 

[couscous74]

If experience is directly proportionate to the number of plants killed, then ....

For me, it's henryanum.

Haven't killed a brachy yet <knock on wood> So far, they seem to like my conditions. Warm all year round and they get a chance to dry out.

 

[kentuckiense]

and they get a chance to dry out.

I just moved them closer to the fan.

 

[Mycorrhizae]

Exxxcellent!

Any advice??

Buy a book and look at the pictures.

 

[Heather]

randsii

Buy a book and look at the pictures.

Ha!
That's not really funny you know....

 

[Rick]

I think the south pacific Barbata (hookerae, sangii, wentworthii, mastersianum, papuanum) have some of the worst reputations for dying. I've gone through more purpuratum than I would like too. This group as a whole has very thin leaves and have problems with low humidity and airflow.

The parvis, armeniacum and micranthum would probably rate just behind the above. Aside from regular bud blasting my malipoense grows very well for me.