Paph. haynaldianum 'Sheila' AM/AOS

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John M

Orchid Addict
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
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Location
Hamilton, Ontario - Canada
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.

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Gorgeous :) This is one of my favorite species, and this is a wonderful example!

- Matt
 
OH! I see. I read into the story he displayed it not once but twice and awarded on the second go a round. Sorry John.
 
OH! I see. I read into the story he displayed it not once but twice and awarded on the second go a round. Sorry John.

Nope. It was just a plant for sale on his table. I bought it and finished bringing it into bloom. Then, I put it into my display at the Ottawa show. It got the award the first time it was exhibited.

Obviously, Alan probably should've kept this plant; but, I didn't feel bad for him. Ever heard of Karma? :p A few years before that (actually, 1986), I started a little orchid business. At the same show, my first official sale was on the Friday night of the RBG show weekend. It was a deep yellow, flat Phal with electric, metalic red stripes that Alan bought from me for about $30. I'd agonized about selling that plant for the whole week before the show; but, in the end, I decided that I'd started a business and I needed to sell plants, not keep them because they were a bit special. As Alan walked away with his new plant, oddly, he made derogatory comments about it.....and I knew right then that selling that plant was a mistake. If he didn't like it, then, why'd he buy it? Well, I read between the lines that he knew it was VERY good and he'd just got himself a really good deal! I felt sick.

A few weeks later, he got an AM with that plant at another show. In fact, I heard that he'd sold it to another commercial grower for over $400.00, before judging. Being a very experienced and savy grower, he clearly knew it was super good when he bought it. In fact, being a Paph growing specialist, it was odd to me that he was interested in a Phal at all....until I found out about it getting the award a few weeks later.

We all look at plants that are offered for sale and choose the best looking ones to buy. That's what Alan did with my Phal and really, that's okay. But, at the time, I was young and I felt it would've been nicer if he'd mentored me and pointed out the quality and true value of that plant to me. Of course, I understood that he didn't owe me that kind of consideration; but, letting that plant slip through my fingers really ate at my insides and it was the main reason why my business failed. I would buy plants to sell and then be unwilling to sell any of them that were even half good because I couldn't stand the thought of selling off another award quality plant? So, I hoarded everything and went broke. LOL! So, it was just a bit of sweet Karma years later when this Paph from Alan, bought off his sales table, at the same show, in the same room as where he bought the Phal from me, got an AM just a few weeks later.:rollhappy:
 
Thanks again, all. Yes Kevin. That's the true colour. It's a very richly coloured clone. Although, I have seen a few even more colourful, they didn't have the nice form as well.
 
WOW!! John, what a great looking plant and a couple of good stories to go with it, thanks... Jim.
 
That is just superb. I love how the colours are intense yet subtle at the same time. Would have been a real sight with 7 of them!

Of course, I understood that he didn't owe me that kind of consideration...

Pfffft... I don't buy that. Not really a case of owing you anything, it would simply have been the decent thing to do, especially for a young person starting out.
 
Amazing John. I've always felt haynaldianum is a poor cousin to lowii, but this one is an exception. To get 4 flowers on a haynaldianum is impressive. Seven is unheard of. Interesting stories as well.

David
 
I had gotten a haynaldianum from Stewarts Orchids many years ago that held six flowers but it was a very mature 10+ growth plant. I still have it somewhere as a single, small "seedling" do to my poor culture so many years ago:(
They are tuff to bring back after you rot them out.
 
That is GORGEOUS!!!!!!! :drool: Tell it to hurry up and grow so I can have a piece back. :poke: It's beautiful John! :clap:
 

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