Paph. 'niveum'

[Axel]

This is my first contribution to the gallery - my Paph. niveum, currently in bloom. Some people on another forum said it could be the ang-thong variety.
I don't know what to think about this, I'm not an expert ... All I know is that Slipper books (Cribb, Braem, ...) differ greatly about this taxon's status. Pics I found on the Web can be very different. What do you think ? Flower is rather small (5.5 cm), and leaves are heavily dotted red underneath (this point said to be particular to ang-thongs).

 

[cdub]

That's freakin' awesome! I need a niveum or two in my collection. I've always thought the spike length, flower size, and foliage size are in near perfect proportion to each other, in my opinion at least. I like yours. Nice growing.

How do you culture yours? If I can match your conditions I just might have to make this my next acquisition.

 

[Heather]

Lovely niveum! One I have not seen around this forum too much.
It (at least the flower?) doesn't look like ang thong to me, but I am NO brachy expert for sure!

 

[paphreek]

That just looks like an extremely nice niveum, to me. Great growing! Niveum is not always the easiest plant to grow and bloom.

 

[DavidM]

That is lovely, I like the spotting

 

[Rick]

That's a great looking bloom. Now I have to go check to see what mine is doing.

Given the amount of variation in niveum, I wouldn't be surprised if the only way to realy know an ang-thong is to know which island it origionated from.

 

[Greenpaph]

Nicely shaped niveum!

thanks

 

[Axel]

Thanks to all for the nice kind comments !

My plant is surprisingly easy to grow. In fact I don't see anything special ; it usually flowers twice a year, making two or three blooms. This hasn't occured for a while because I somehow gave up growing and just keep my remaining plants alive, until Sept. 2005, when I decided to go back to growing (this is definitely a 'harmful' virus :rollhappy: ). And this plant survived (so as my armeniacum) to a relative dryness, some colder conditions (with even some 11-12°C at night), in an used medium... I know, this is very bad...
Now it is grown in I/W temps, bright light (I always thought this was an important point to successful growing for at least this species), and maintened evenly moist (sphagum/bark/seramis medium). Winter temps are a bit cooler - and waterings thus reduced -, but I don't think this is absolutely necessary.
No secret, it likes calcium ; I used to add calcium carbonate to the growing medium twice a year. But I'll turn my plants in rockwool (already done for my primulinum, and God, this is breathtaking, strong new roots developped within a week !!). So all the nutrition program will change. I'll keep you informed of the results ;-) !

 

[SlipperFan]

Lovely flower. Good job!

 

[Gideon]

Very nice indeed

 

[Axel]

Many thanks :rollhappy: !

 

[Axel]

New flowering and pics

 

[Lance Birk]

Axel,

Your plant is a typical P. niveum. There is no such thing as P. "ang thong," it is an invalid name for P. godefroyae. P. niveum occurs on Langkawi Island and along the east coast of Malaysia; P. godefroyae is found only in the Gulf of Siam....and should not be confused with P. leucochilum wich occurs across the Tenasserim Range in the Gulf of Phuket on the east coast of Thailand. Red underside never occurs with either P. godefroyae or P. leucochilum, but sometimes with P. niveum.

I like your black and white background process, how did you do it? Very nice.

 

[goldenrose]

Nice niveum & terrific job with the pics!

 

[Axel]

Thanks to all for your comments.
Thanks a lot, Lance ; this is clearer to me now.
About the background : under Photoshop, just select the flowers using your prefered selection tool ; invert selection (ctrl+shift+I) and fill it with black (shift+F5).

 

[SlipperFan]

Thanks to all for your comments.
Thanks a lot, Lance ; this is clearer to me now.
About the background : under Photoshop, just select the flowers using your prefered selection tool ; invert selection (ctrl+shift+I) and fill it with black (shift+F5).

It's a lot easier if you can photograph the flowers against a black background. But you do a nice job of making selections.

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

Definitely niveum....in addition to what Lance said, "Ang-Thong" is also claimed to be a natural hybrid of niveum and godfroyae, equivalent to Greyi. Take care, Eric

 

[Axel]

It's a lot easier if you can photograph the flowers against a black background. But you do a nice job of making selections.

It takes to me nearly more time to prepare and set up a black panel behind the plant than processing the background by Photoshop , so this is why I systematically do it this way now.

 

[Bolero]

That's a very nice flower, I am indeed envious.

 

[SlipperFan]

It takes to me nearly more time to prepare and set up a black panel behind the plant than processing the background by Photoshop , so this is why I systematically do it this way now.

I have a piece of black velvet covering a panel of cardboard. It takes about two minutes to place on a chair and then have the plant placed on a stand in front of the panel.