Paph Lake of Styx - maybe next year

[NEslipper]

Don't see enough complexes on here in my opinion. I picked this up last year at my local garden shop, the plant is originally from Lehua Orchids, Lake of Styx is (Paphiopedilum Hellas 'Westonbirt' FCC/RHS x Paphiopedilum Emerald Lake 'Lehua Greenery' HCC/AOS). The markup was a little ridiculous, but I wanted to give some positive reinforcement for my local center picking up some named slippers, plus, I liked the flower - there was a lot of 'Westonbirt' coming through. It was a single growth with a new lead at that time, but now currently has one PB growth, one blooming growth, one NBS growth, and one new start. It has been incredibly vigorous, and the plant has really put on some size, so I was really excited to see how the flower improved this year. Womp womp. At least the color is nice? I guess I'll be waiting another year to see any improvement...

Here is the first bloom from 2021:

Here is this years bloom:

 

[Ozpaph]

its an attractive flower; nicely subtle shadings

 

[eds]

On the plus side, this year's bloom seems to have a much chunkier, squarer-set pouch than the first bloom so hopefully bodes well when it flowers again!

 

[Paphman910]

Really Fantastic Bulldog slipper orchid!

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Kudos for speaking up for the bulldogs!

This year's flower is chunkier but the left side of flower (our right) looks like it developed a bit wonky. Was it pinched behind a leaf?

 

[NEslipper]

Thank you for finding a silver lining! I agree the pouch is improved over last year.

On the plus side, this year's bloom seems to have a much chunkier, squarer-set pouch than the first bloom so hopefully bodes well when it flowers again!

 

[NEslipper]

Thank you! I’m blaming it on my final thrip treatment in early winter- it had just sent up the sheath at that point, but it stalled out for a few months after I sprayed. All my other in-sheath complexes at that time blasted. It’s on a much taller stem this year, so the bud developed quite high above any foliage.

Kudos for speaking up for the bulldogs!

This year's flower is chunkier but the left side of flower (our right) looks like it developed a bit wonky. Was it pinched behind a leaf?