Paph. armeniacum 'Hope'

[JPMC]

Well done. Your plant seems to have a well-behaved growth habit.

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

Beautiful! :clap: I may have to send you mine if it decides to be stubborn.

 

[John M]

Thanks very much everyone!

I don't find Parvi's hard at all; but, my greenhouse has intermediate temps at night all year 'round, except for the occasional "heat wave" in the summer. This plant has been growing at the warm end of my greenhouse on the sunny side. I water from the top and never worry about water in the crown, even when in bud. Temps at night for this plant have been a consistent 55*F to 60*F with a rise each day up to 70*F to 85*F. Even though we had a cool summer last year, I was reluctant to put the heat on earlier than normal in the fall. So, for about a month or so, the nighttime temps got down as low as about 50*F (maybe even a few degrees lower on a few nights), until I started heating again.

Also, I water less often in the winter. So, it probably gets drier inbetween waterings than in the summer. Because I'm watering less often, I'm also feeding less often too. All my plants get a substantial rest for about 2 - 3 months each winter.

 

[paphioboy]

Simply beautiful..

 

[Paphman910]

Very Nice flower!

I find that they grow like a weed when I lived at my folks place. They were grown under 4 40Watt florescent bulbs with temperature never going over 70 F and low temperature going down to 50 F at night in an unheated basement. They kept producing stolon grow and it even grew out of the drainage slits. I think another important point is the water quality has to be good for them to grow well.

Paphman910

 

[jblanford]

WOW!! What great color, thanks... Jim.

 

[Bolero]

Excellent bloom! That's a high quality flower. Plant looks very healthy as well.

 

[SlipperKing]

Nice one John....clay pot huh?

 

[SlipperFan]

All my plants get a substantial rest for about 2 - 3 months each winter.

Please define what you mean by "substantial" -- Do you cut your watering down to 1/2 of what you do in the summer during these two months, or less? I'm asking because, on the one hand, Sam Sui (sp?) said to never let Paphs dry out, but on the other hand, according to the charts on slipperorchids.info, I'm led to believe that some Paphs get no water for a month or more -- or very little.

 

[rdlsreno]

Nice!

Ramon

 

[Rick]

There's quite a lot of temp/light/watering regimes that people successfully bloom these under.

Ernie lights to crank them bright/warm wet in the summer and cool/dry in the winter. Leo does good with these under lights in his basement with narrower ranges of temp and light. In the wild they go through a big hot/wet summer and dry/cold (just short of freezing) winter, but the light levels are much higher in winter than in summer.

I think soil pH and nutrition is pretty important with most parvis (not delanatii), and keeping the soil pH relatively high, with good availability of magnesium and phosphorus is important. I always add oyster shell to my armeniacum and micranthum mixes, and got amazing leaf color when I spiked with Epsom salts this summer.

John, didn't you also spike with Epsom salts this summer?

This bloom is extremely nice!!!

 

[Rick]

Please define what you mean by "substantial" -- Do you cut your watering down to 1/2 of what you do in the summer during these two months, or less? I'm asking because, on the one hand, Sam Sui (sp?) said to never let Paphs dry out, but on the other hand, according to the charts on slipperorchids.info, I'm led to believe that some Paphs get no water for a month or more -- or very little.

Some of the field data for armenicum and micranthum show very little rainfall for extended periods in the winter, but the narrative habitat descriptions indicate that morning fogs, drizzles/mists and dews keep the area pretty damp.

So I agree with Sam about not drying them out.

 

[John M]

Please define what you mean by "substantial" -- Do you cut your watering down to 1/2 of what you do in the summer during these two months, or less? I'm asking because, on the one hand, Sam Sui (sp?) said to never let Paphs dry out, but on the other hand, according to the charts on slipperorchids.info, I'm led to believe that some Paphs get no water for a month or more -- or very little.

Dot: Normally, November, December and January not only experience severely shortened days here; but, most days are also heavily overcast. There is only a few hours each day of useable light, if that. So, I often skip watering or misting for 2 or 3 days in a row...sometimes more. When I do that, I turn the heater down to 70*F for the daytime high. On winter days that are sunny....or after 2 or 3 (more?), days of no water, I mist the whole greenhouse and water one bench and set the heater to 80*F. There are 6 benches. So, it can take me almost 3 weeks to actually get every bench properly watered once. However, in the summer, I water one bench each day and mist everything else each day. So, in the summer it takes only 6 days to get to everything once, with spot watering for the water hogs to get them through to the regular watering day for their bench. After I water bench #6 in each cycle, I fertilize the whole greenhouse with a low dose foliage fert spray. In the summer, this gets done every 6 days. In the wintere, this gets done every 18 days, or so. Plus, I reduce the dosage by 1/3 for winter feeding, as compared to summer feeding. I also add Epsom salts to the summer feeding schedule and cut it out altogether for the winter. So, from November through January, my plants get less light, less water, less fertilizer and lower temps overall. Sometimes Paphs and Phrags do go completely dry; but I try to avoid that because it causes unnecessary stress which can lead to bacterial rot. It's stress that causes rot, not moisture. Even a dry plant can get rot.

Rick: Yes, this past summer was the first time I spiked my fertilizer solution with Epsom Salts and I did see a remarkable improvement in the colour and growth of most plants. Also, even though I've had this armeniacum for a few years....and it was blooming size when I got it, it's now, (following a summer of extra Epsom Salts), that it's decided to bloom. In fact, I've had a good fall/winter with the Parvi's. I've got more photos to post soon too.

 

[SlipperFan]

Thanks, John. It sounds like your climate is very similar to mine. I will have to rethink the "dry" concept.

 

[Ruth]

Love that yellow!

 

[GuRu]

John, your armeniacum is very nice and its got an excellent shape - congrats. :drool: :drool: :drool:
I love this species very much and not without a reason I chose it for my avatar.

Best regards from germany, rudolf