OMG! I think she had a bud!!!

[Persephone]

OK, OK, now what do I do? Is there a fertilizer equivalent to a pre-natal vitamin?

I thought it was a new leaf yet again, but it seems to be a bud.....after 18 months. I promise to find my camera and figure out again how to upload photos.

I am soooooooo......nervous.

 

[Candace]

What plant is it?

 

[Persephone]

It's a Paph I got at the NY Botanical gardens. It didn't have a tag on it (or maybe I threw it out?) and I don't know exactly what it is. The dorsal sepal is a light green with dark green striping, the petals are violet with dark purple fuzzy spots, and the lip is mostly mahogany shading into green toward the center.

Very classic "Lady slipper" in shape.

 

[NYEric]

There are blooming formula fertilizers.

 

[goldenrose]

Is it just me? I don't change fertilizers when the plant is in spike.

 

[Grandma M]

I use MSU year round. Everybody gets the same (if they like it or not). I just water a little less in cool weather, otherwise no change.

 

[NYEric]

I'm just now switching from MSU to OL Green Jungle fertilizer. I don't know about blooms but if anything should make a plant grow stronger this stuff should.

 

[Candace]

I'm just now switching from MSU to OL Green Jungle fertilizer

Why are you switching?

 

[cdub]

The "bloom formula" fertilizers theoretically can help a plant produce more than the average amount of blooms but must be used in anticipation of the bloom season or cycle because the plant forms the cells that will eventually become the bud and flower way before we see any sheath or evidence of a bud. Therefore, I think those bloom formulas are very difficult to use, and so I never change feeding schedules or amounts, except maybe feed a bit less while in bloom.

I can't wait to see your bloom Persephone!

 

[Ernie]

Yeah, as far as I know, once you see a spike, the fate is determined no matter how much you love/torture the plant thereafter.

-Ernie

 

[NYEric]

Why are you switching?

Besides someone, handyman who worked on the sink?, sabotaging my container of MSU, I have always been impressed w/ the size and fullness of OL plants' foliage,so...