Paph. philippinense

[Rick]

Interesting, Rick. I got this one from Paul -- maybe there are genetics involved as to why my plant likes it shadier and yours does better with high light?

It might be Dot. The high light/temp requirements is typical for most philis, so yours may be a good one to breed for better culture under dimmer cooler conditions. Plus it has good flower count and flower confirmation. Go for it!!!

Can you give us some plant and flower dimensions?

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

Looks like a beauty to me. Wish I could get one to bloom with three or four spikes.

 

[SlipperFan]

It might be Dot. The high light/temp requirements is typical for most philis, so yours may be a good one to breed for better culture under dimmer cooler conditions. Plus it has good flower count and flower confirmation. Go for it!!!

Can you give us some plant and flower dimensions?

Would you self it, Rick?

I'll check dimensions tomorrow, when it's light out.

 

[Rick]

Would you self it, Rick?

I'll check dimensions tomorrow, when it's light out.

I would, and send the seed to Troy M for the freebe flask:wink:

 

[SlipperFan]

Rick, the plant's largest leaves are just a tat over 12" in length. The oldest flower is, from tip of dorsal to end of petals, 7" in length. The pouch is 1" in length. It has a bunch of growths -- I didn't count them.

I wish one of you slipper breeders were nearby -- I've never tried to set pollen onto a slipper... Not my thing. I grow, enjoy and photograph them.

 

[Rick]

Rick, the plant's largest leaves are just a tat over 12" in length. The oldest flower is, from tip of dorsal to end of petals, 7" in length. The pouch is 1" in length. It has a bunch of growths -- I didn't count them.

I wish one of you slipper breeders were nearby -- I've never tried to set pollen onto a slipper... Not my thing. I grow, enjoy and photograph them.

Those are nice sizes for a straight phili. I guess if you take off 4 cm for the dorsal, then the petals would be about 14-15cm long. And compared to my roebelinii this plant is would be considered compact.

Breeding slippers is pretty easy and fun Dot, and the capsule maturing times for philis is about the shortest of all slippers (about 4-5 months). So closer to instant gratification for this one. There is a good tutorial on the Meyers Conservatory website, and I believe Matt Gore put a good photo series together on this site a long time ago. It may still be available on his site for study.

Instead of removing the whole pouch, I cut a window in the back of the pouch with a sharp one sided razor blade. Then using a toothpick pick off one (or both) of the pollinia and stick them to the stigmatic surface (which is a mushroom shaped organ behind the staminode). If you cut your window in the right spot and pull back the ventral sepal, you should be looking right at the stigma.

The pollinia have the sticky consistency of ear wax, and usually adhere to the stigma without too much trouble in paphs.

With this species (as with most paphs) nothing will happen for several days, and then the flower will wilt and drop off. If the capsule stays green (or in this case purple) for several days after the flower drops then you are probably growing seed. The capsule may swell some, but paph capsules don't grow much compared to many other orchid species.

I looked up the thread from Matt Gore. It's a perfect tutorial.


http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1091

 

[Wendy]

Well done Dot. That's impressive!

 

[emydura]

I always thought that this was a real light loving species. More so than most other Paphs. Lance Birk says in one of his book that this species is naturally found growing in a lot of direct sunlight. He says if you are growing it properly the leaves need to be a yellow colour. Generally if you can't get it to flower it is not receiving enough light. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that a plant won't flower because it gets too much light. Sure, if you give it so much light that the plant is basically struggling to survive, then it is unlikely to flower. But that doesn't seem to be the case here.

David

 

[SlipperFan]

Thanks Rick. I should give it a try. But one more question -- is there a window of opportunity, when the flower is how many days old, for instance? Most of these flowers have been open for awhile.

 

[Ross]

Beautiful plant, Dot. You should give a master class on orchid photography, too!

If the pollen is still waxy and the flowers are firm and not wilted, the pollination should work. If it doesn't, you still have three more spikes coming.

 

[likespaphs2]

I have only pollinated a few plants but i thought that if the pollination is successful, the flower wilts but persists. Is that not always true?

 

[etex]

Amazing plant and blooms!!

 

[Rick]

I have only pollinated a few plants but i thought that if the pollination is successful, the flower wilts but persists. Is that not always true?

Most non-slipper orchids I've pollinated this is true. In many of the Vandaceous species, the column appears to actually swell and grow with the ovary, while the petals wilt and shrink. Those pods get HUGE in comparison to slipper pods.

Every now and then I have a pollinated slipper flower wilt and hang on the end of the ovary for quite a while, but a slight bump will generally knock it off. In some species (like hirsutisimum) the flower can persist for weeks after pollination fairly intact, while for henryanum, it lasts for only a few days at best. I once pollinated a henryanum and the flower popped off no more than 2 days later, and I got good seed. But most species like to take 5-10 days to wilt. Whether the wilted flower actually falls off the end of the ovary is somewhat immaterial with regards to whether pollination is successful, the capsule should be sealed off at that point. I have a personal concern that a rotting flower on the end of the capsule may promote disease into the capsule making it harder to get a good clean flask going later in the sowing process. So I generally knock off those "hanging chads" before they get too rank.

Dot as Ross indicated there is a fairly wide range of time for successful Paph pollination (this is not true for Phrags in my experience). If I'm more interested in enjoying the flower than breeding I'll wait until the flower is fully open and wait until I know I'm getting well into the "middle age" of that flower. If I'm more interested in the breeding I'll pollinate about when the flower is just fully open. And you have lots of chances with a multi spiked multifloral (although flower life is generally shorter in this group than other Paph groups). Also it shouldn't make a difference if you swap pollen from 2 adjacent flowers/ spikes or self the exact same flower that you take the pollen out of.

With Phrags its better to pollinate as soon as possible on the open flower.

 

[Rick]

I have only pollinated a few plants but i thought that if the pollination is successful, the flower wilts but persists. Is that not always true?

Looking at Matt's tutorial, you can see the wilted dorsal and ventral sepal still hanging on after 4 months (which doesn't usually hang on this long for me, but I usually leave the pouch on, which could make the dead flower heavier and more likely to fall), but the ovary and flower stem are nice and green. When pollination is not successful the ovary and stem will turn brown and die along with the flower. With slippers in general, that's about as much early notice as you are going to get that things went right. Bulbos and Phals are much more dramatic within the first 24 hours. Sometimes within just hours, the stigma will swell and "engulf" the pollinia. Some flowers close up around the column. Very dramatic in comparison to slipper pollination.

Dark (purple) colored ovary and stemmed species like phili are a bit trickier to tell when things are going right, especially later when the pod is mature and getting ready to split, just because the dark color masks brown wilt colors better. But Dot has good powers of observation so I don't think she will have any problems.

 

[SlipperFan]

Thanks, Ross & Rick. I hope you are right, Rick.

 

[Rick]

Thanks, Ross & Rick. I hope you are right, Rick.

Everything to gain and nothing to loose, so don't worry.:wink:

 

[Pete]

Nice one Dot. looks great!

 

[NYEric]

Nice plant.

 

[SlipperFan]

Updated photo. They are all open at once (well, almost; and I've lost a flower on the original spike). Nonetheless...

 

[Clark]

You slay me.