I replied to the other post, but I am fairly new to paphs. I used to have a few when I was younger, but they did not flower well and eventually died because family members knocked them out of their pots and abused them. I gave up after a while because of that, but just last year I got some orchids from someone who was desperately needing to get rid of their collection and got a good size paph. (not sure about the name) that just started blooming. I just this morning pollinated it with a dental pick after using the fused end of a pair of tweezers to pry the stigma up in front of the labellum very gently. I will not know for some time if this was successful and it is no guarantee that even if pollination itself is successful that you will get viable seeds. Some paphs and cypripedium species actually will not waste time producing seeds if the cross creates sterile embryos or the cross is incompatible. I have also read that some of these orchids can produce seeds that are genetically identical to the parent by mitotic division and meiotic division so there are at least some viable embryos in the capsule. I hope to get some seeds from this self cross and try my luck at flasking seeds again. The flowers are very beautiful to me.
