Your experience with Paphiopedilum emersonii and/or it's hybrids?

Slippertalk Orchid Forum

Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Happypaphy7

Paphlover
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
8,132
Reaction score
2,295
Location
New York City
Both hangianum and emersonii are reported to be rather slow growers.
I don't have either species but have a bunch of hybrids involving them.

I find hangianum hybrids relatively easy and some are even vigorous.

Emersonii hybrids, not so much.
Overall, other than being very slow, their buds tend to sit low for a long time and then disappoint me with bud blast.

One of my Mem. Larry Heuer had a bud that blasted after sitting low for many months. The second growth developed its spike without much waiting and bloomed fine. This is probably the best emersonii hybrid among what I have.

Three Franz Glanz all had their sheath/bud sit low for a long time and then turned brown. One of them repeated this already.
Other than that, they seem to grow the best.

Some medium to large seedlings of Joyce Hasegawa grow at the rate of snail.
The same goes for Wössner Wöllke (hang x emersonii).

Emersonii x Fanaticum has been in sheath since last summer, but at least it is sending up two new growths.

Cam's Cloud blasted the first time, since then it shot up two growths, both of which have been in sheath for many months now. It is among the best grower. It is sending up two or three new growths.

Mem. Larry Heuer x emersonii has grown nicely in the last two years and finally came to spike last summer. It looks like it might be dying. Not sure but it doesn't look right. It is sending up a second growth.
I'm very curious to see flowers on it eventually. Hopefully.

Todd Hasegawa seedlings have been growing slowly.

Mem. Larry Heuer x armeniacum was bought in bloom. A huge Franz Glanz like flower on a tiny plant. I bought it in bloom not too long ago and can't comment much as a result.

I don't have Lola Bird. Haven't seen any offered.
Funny thing is micranthums do well for me but its primary hybrids are frustratingly slow.
Armeniacum is the other way around for me.
Interesting!!
 
I would say my experience has been more or less the same.

Parvisepalum hybrids with lots of hangianum influence seem to be quite vigorous and grow quickly relative to other Paphs. No special care is really required to grow and bloom them. Hangianum itself is a slow but steady grower. I haven't bloomed any yet, so I can't really speak on that aspect, but it's my understanding that the more recently produced line bred hangs aren't too much trouble to bloom, but may skip a year between blooming.

Parvisepalum hybrids with lots of emersonii influence all seem to be much slower growing, more reluctant to spike, and more likely to blast than their hangianum counterparts. My Mem Larry Heuer is a steady grower, but compared to Shun-Fa Golden, it's a snail.

Similar to hangianum, I haven't been growing emersonii long enough to have flowered one. However, growth is very slow. The leaves grow at a fraction of the pace of hangianum and the roots, while healthy, are sparse in comparison with many fewer active growth tips. I just assumed this species has special needs that I haven't been able to figure out yet, but perhaps it is just a very slow, finicky grower and shy bloomer? I was thinking it might need cooler night temperatures or bigger daily temperature ranges than I can provide indoors. I think my humidity is generally decent except during brief spells, and based on leaf color, it seems to be happy growing fairly bright, but maybe emersonii wants even higher light?

Anyway, hopefully modern breeding will overcome this. If I recall correctly, wasn't P. delenatii considered a difficult plant at one time? Now it's considered an easy species to grow and bloom.
 
Mr.Canh mentioned emersonii occurs in higher altitude than hangianum, I think you're right in that they might need cooler temperature with better day/night swing.
It seems emersonii are just a very slow grower based on what I read from others experiences.

Regarding delenatii, I read the same, but I think it might have to do with genetic issues dising from inbreding.
Newly discovered population around 90s are what we are growing now if I'm not mistaken.
 
I found hangianum and emersonii enjoying a bit more moisture.

They tend very much to bud blast. They form their buds and sit for a very long time, like 6 months until they actually continue to spike. So there is a much higher chance for the buds to experience unfavourable conditions and blast off.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top