Paph. Mount Toro

[Michael Bonda]

First time blooming
Paph stonei x philippinense ‘Dr. Henry Wilbrum’ AM/AOS

 

[Redtwist]

Lovely. One of my favourite multi primaries. Still waiting for mine to flower.

 

[Djthomp28]

I love how pristine the dorsal looks.

 

[emydura]

That is lovely Michael. Nice dorsal.

I have a stonei X praestans opening up at the moment and unfortunately it looks like the stonei is imparting it's trait where the dorsal doesn't open up. Not a problem for yours.

 

[musa]

Wonderful!+
That's a cross still missing in my collection...

 

[Ozpaph]

the dorsal colour and markings are lovely.

 

[GuRu]

I like these very nice flowers. They are lovely in shape, stance and colouration. Congrats.

 

[Helena]

Looks almost like pure philippinense

 

[Michael Bonda]

I have several philippinense and they are vastly different. I think in person you would agree in that my photography ability is very amateur. The dorsal looks very stonei to me and the color and length of the petals are very influenced by both parents.
Here is a photo of my Phillip that bloomed last spring with darker thicker and more solid petals.

 

[masaccio]

Newbie here, but I completely agree with your comment. Wonderful flowering. I'd really like to hear about your setup.

 

[Michael Bonda]

Newbie here, but I completely agree with your comment. Wonderful flowering. I'd really like to hear about your setup.

In Florida west coast south of Tampa.
Kept on my outside on lanai. Screen and fiberglass cover. Summer fans on 24-7. Temp cam get up to 90 but with Dan’s stays cooler. Water 2-3x a week. Mostly rain water. Fertilize weakly weekly. If temp drops below 40 I bring all inside or use heater.

 

[masaccio]

In Florida west coast south of Tampa.
Kept on my outside on lanai. Screen and fiberglass cover. Summer fans on 24-7. Temp cam get up to 90 but with Dan’s stays cooler. Water 2-3x a week. Mostly rain water. Fertilize weakly weekly. If temp drops below 40 I bring all inside or use heater.

I've heard it can be a challenge to grow in Florida, which seems counterintuitive to me. I had an orchid contact a few years ago who was in my area, the northeast US, who had to relocate to Florida. She lost a lot of plants. Is your area generally cooler than, say, Homestead?

 

[Michael Bonda]

I've heard it can be a challenge to grow in Florida, which seems counterintuitive to me. I had an orchid contact a few years ago who was in my area, the northeast US, who had to relocate to Florida. She lost a lot of plants. Is your area generally cooler than, say, Homestead?

Yes my area stays cooler than Homestead which is south and east coast (no Gulf Coast breeze on East cast). With the screen and fiberglass roof I can protect all my orchids from too much sun. With 24-7 fans and I use an automatic misting system if temp over 85 degrees days that mimics an evaporative cooler so I can keep cooler growing brachy paphs and phrags cooler. The strap leaf multifloral paphs fair fine when 85-90. Other orchids like Dendrobes, Phals, Catts, Vandas do fine but cool growing Miltonia, some oncidium, etc cannot take the heat so they come inside in summer in air conditioning under LED lights/windowsill. The big growers here have greenhouses with heaters for winter, fans and evaporator coolers/air conditioners for summer. Marie Selby Gardens is in Sarasota (just west of me) has beautiful specimen plants of many orchid species in their greenhouses.

 

[masaccio]

That sounds GREAT !! Thanks for sharing!

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Ah so nice to grow outdoors. We have snow here lol.

 

[masaccio]

Yes my area stays cooler than Homestead which is south and east coast (no Gulf Coast breeze on East cast). With the screen and fiberglass roof I can protect all my orchids from too much sun. With 24-7 fans and I use an automatic misting system if temp over 85 degrees days that mimics an evaporative cooler so I can keep cooler growing brachy paphs and phrags cooler. The strap leaf multifloral paphs fair fine when 85-90. Other orchids like Dendrobes, Phals, Catts, Vandas do fine but cool growing Miltonia, some oncidium, etc cannot take the heat so they come inside in summer in air conditioning under LED lights/windowsill. The big growers here have greenhouses with heaters for winter, fans and evaporator coolers/air conditioners for summer. Marie Selby Gardens is in Sarasota (just west of me) has beautiful specimen plants of many orchid species in their greenhouses.

I've been wanting to attend Redlands ever since I heard of it, which at this point is probably around two decades. Do you know if they're having it this coming year?