John M
Orchid Addict
I got this plant in bloom back in 1993 from a well known excellent multifloral Paph grower; Alan Salzman of Penfield, N.Y., near Rochester. He brought it up to the Royal Botanical Gardens show near where I live and put it on his sales table in bloom/bud. It produced a total of 7 magnificent flowers on one very tall inflorescence and a few weeks later, it was pulled from my display at the Ottawa Orchid Society Show and awarded the AM.
A number of years ago, Wendy got it from me. Actually, I can't remember the exact circumstances now. It might have been a division; but, I think it was actually all that was left of the plant after a spell of poor growth and rot problems in my care. I do remember that it was just a single growth that Wendy had and it did very well for her in her warm Paph grow room and recovered quickly. It even spiked for her; but, since it had no new growth starts and was only a single growth itself, she wisely removed the flower stem to encourage the plant to put it's energy into growing up some more, which it did. Whatever it might have done on a single growth that had recently recovered from a near death experience, it was not going to be anywhere near what it could do and has done in the past. At the time of the award, as well as the high quality of each of the flowers, it was the only haynaldianum known to have 7 flowers on one inflorescence. To my knowledge, it remains the only one known to have achieved that.
After my freeze in 2008, I bought a small collection of Paphs from a local grower who was going overseas. My intention was to resell them off for profit; but, there was a strap-leaf Paph in that collection that Wendy just HAD to have. So, we traded. She gave me back the haynaldianum and she got the plant that she liked. I can't remember the name right now; but, I do remember that she recently showed it to me in her grow room with a HUGE leafspan. The arrangement was that each of us gets the "right of first refusal" on the first division to be taken from the other's plant.
I have had a bit of Erwinia on this haynaldianum and in fact, it tried to bloom for me shortly after I got it back from Wendy over 2 years ago. I removed that stem as well, to conserve it's strength and help it to fight off the rot that had gotten into the base of one of the growths.
Finally, today, the plant is now large enough, strong enough and healthy enough, to allow it to bloom.
A number of years ago, Wendy got it from me. Actually, I can't remember the exact circumstances now. It might have been a division; but, I think it was actually all that was left of the plant after a spell of poor growth and rot problems in my care. I do remember that it was just a single growth that Wendy had and it did very well for her in her warm Paph grow room and recovered quickly. It even spiked for her; but, since it had no new growth starts and was only a single growth itself, she wisely removed the flower stem to encourage the plant to put it's energy into growing up some more, which it did. Whatever it might have done on a single growth that had recently recovered from a near death experience, it was not going to be anywhere near what it could do and has done in the past. At the time of the award, as well as the high quality of each of the flowers, it was the only haynaldianum known to have 7 flowers on one inflorescence. To my knowledge, it remains the only one known to have achieved that.
After my freeze in 2008, I bought a small collection of Paphs from a local grower who was going overseas. My intention was to resell them off for profit; but, there was a strap-leaf Paph in that collection that Wendy just HAD to have. So, we traded. She gave me back the haynaldianum and she got the plant that she liked. I can't remember the name right now; but, I do remember that she recently showed it to me in her grow room with a HUGE leafspan. The arrangement was that each of us gets the "right of first refusal" on the first division to be taken from the other's plant.
I have had a bit of Erwinia on this haynaldianum and in fact, it tried to bloom for me shortly after I got it back from Wendy over 2 years ago. I removed that stem as well, to conserve it's strength and help it to fight off the rot that had gotten into the base of one of the growths.
Finally, today, the plant is now large enough, strong enough and healthy enough, to allow it to bloom.