Staking and restaking

[Tom-DE]

Last night, I re-staked my Paph. emersonii because I didn't like how the flower was presenting itself...The flower looked good after I re-staked it, but this morning, one flower petal bent backward...Did I make a mistake to re-stake the flower while it was fully open?
For those who like to show your flowers(for shows or judgings), when is the best time to stake the flowers, especially for the big flower with weak stem? TIA

 

[Djthomp28]

I try to stake flowers as the spike grows and do final positioning before the bud open. Thats the goal but I often miss that timeline. Staking after the flower is open is more challenging but it should not be a problem for the flower. The overall orientation might be challenging to get right after the flower is open. For example tilting to one side or the other.

How long was your emersonii open before the re-staking? I am wondering if the petal was going to bend backward anyway, and it is not related to the re-staking. Maybe it is just part of the flower's maturation?

 

[Heather]

Haha, I did this last week with my Fritz. When I came home from work the flower had almost turned upside down and I had to stake it again much higher up. Worked out ok in the end…

 

[Tom-DE]

Dj, thank you for the input. The flower started to open when I left for Panama 10 days ago, so it must have been fully open for a week before I re-staked the flower. Because of the weak stem, I staked the spike early....but with a huge fower (5.75" NS), and not long enough wire at the end to pop up the flower, I re-staked it when I got home from the trip.
It is not a first-time bloomer, I have not seen the petal (just one) bend back like that before.

 

[Djthomp28]

hmm. Something must have changed when you re-staked. Flowers do curious things when we mess with them.