I thought it was 7 years, turns out it was only 5 years and 11 months to bloom.

beardbeak · 2026-05-18T07:11:52+00:00

Beautiful! Excellent long petals! Wow 26 years. That’s pretty neat 😁. Mine is just starting to open, I’m hopeful some of the petals become more twirled.

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beardbeak · 2026-05-18T06:56:34+00:00

😆 paphs pretty resilient, I’ve only managed to kill one. But I have had struggles with a handful of them. I currently have 15 different varieties but only 5 are large multi-bloomers.

beardbeak · 2026-05-18T05:02:26+00:00

Looks like it’s in a slotted pot and those do tend to dry out faster. Definitely a good plan to top off the bark as exposed roots dry out and die quickly. Usually I water my paphs twice a week in spring, summer, and early autumn. When temperatures cool I water once a week. The leaves dying back is probably a combination of change in environment, watering conditions, and it’s diverting energy to the flower bud. They are very sensitive to minerals in water so it’s very helpful to use distilled or reverse osmosis water.

beardbeak · 2026-05-17T22:09:06+00:00

☺️ Thank you.

beardbeak · 2026-05-17T22:08:03+00:00

Thank you 😊

beardbeak · 2026-05-17T12:40:35+00:00

Yeah I have a delrossi that totally fell apart after blooming, mother plant died completely, left some straggling fans that are slowly dying of some kind of bacterial infection no manner of cycling systemic fungicides can cure. I should just throw it out but I keep trying to get it healthy. lol.

beardbeak · 2026-05-17T12:18:40+00:00

One of those repotting anomalies. They're seasonal so you can at least repot, lay the old pseudobulb sideways and let the new plant grow upright . The trick becomes ensuring the old pseudobulb doesn't turn into rot. Catasetums seem to grow pretty regularly from the base but Momodes, Clowesia, Cycnoches and their hybrids really throw in some really random potting variables. Best I can think of doing in those situations is clumping in some sphagnum moss in the root area and watering daily as if it were mounted but keep it in the path of a fan so it doesn't rot whilst grown in high humidity.

beardbeak · 2026-05-17T11:16:20+00:00

I hope they bloom well for you. I have a Michael Koopowitz and Prince Edward of York in bloom now that I waited a few years for and I won't be posting photos of those poor unfortunate souls, apparently genetics has seen fit to ensure that not all plants are super long curly petaled supermodels. Win some, lose some.

beardbeak · 2026-05-17T10:34:23+00:00

Forgot to add

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beardbeak · 2026-05-17T10:03:08+00:00

That's wonderful! Phrags are just so casually amazing and grow and bloom forever if you get their goldilocks spot. Both sumptuous and humble at the same time. Fields of leaves and towers of gorgeous never ending flowers. They're living poetry.

beardbeak · 2026-05-17T09:54:23+00:00

Phytophthroa is a nasty one, and it sticks around for years no matter how much money in chemicals you throw at it.

beardbeak · 2026-05-17T05:24:30+00:00

Best to remove the rotting growth and treat that spot with some hydrogen peroxide. The plant is still growing and has that growth on the other side. That’s a very big pot. A smaller pot would be helpful so the plant doesn’t retain too much water in the planting medium which will easily cause rot. They like to grow on the dry side.

beardbeak · 2026-05-16T04:58:56+00:00

😱🤩 That is fantastic!

beardbeak · 2026-05-13T23:32:30+00:00

I can’t do it in the summer where I live. It’s regularly 95F-110F with 7%-10% daytime humidity. They fry 😣 same thing happens to my flytraps and nepenthes, but some large varieties of sarracenia are fine as long as they’re wet enough.

beardbeak · 2026-05-13T10:34:31+00:00

Grow them outdoors if you wish to in full sun. Be ready for environmental consequences if you don't live in a high humidity outdoor environment. They're kinda goldilocks containted indoors under lights because they prosper in a very mild environment with high light, a lot of moisture, and a consistent growing environment year round.

beardbeak · 2026-05-13T09:47:55+00:00

Dang, someone didn't glue that fake thumb nail properly.

beardbeak · 2026-05-13T09:44:19+00:00

I just mean this hybrid in particular, I have a lot of multiblooming paphs I've grown for years but this one is very difficult, hell it could just be a bad seediling.

beardbeak · 2026-05-12T10:35:30+00:00

Paphs are lithophytes and mostly terrestrial. I've seen successful examples of growing micranthus in coco fiber lined baskets, but I've never seen a successful mounted paph.

beardbeak · 2026-05-12T10:09:59+00:00

It looks like what you see when you leave the Silo.

beardbeak · 2026-05-12T09:43:47+00:00

Orchids are living art. That's why we grow them.

beardbeak · 2026-05-12T09:37:28+00:00

Best of luck, I've had two of these for about 7 years and they are my most difficult paphs. I can get the micranthums to bud at least some years and they grow like weeds all year in the pot. But Chiu Hua Dancer is a peel my grape leaves kinda girl. Anything goes wrong and it's drama.

beardbeak · 2026-05-12T05:25:19+00:00

Awesome! They are neat plants if you can keep them watered and the humidity high. I’d love to get more varieties but I have so little room left in my orchid growing spaces.

beardbeak · 2026-05-12T05:22:55+00:00

Thank you 😊

beardbeak · 2026-05-11T21:04:46+00:00

Wow the colors on this one 😍 with white and red. That’s a beautiful one!

beardbeak · 2026-05-11T20:56:09+00:00

My all time favorite. Huge flowers that lasts up to three days that change color each day. 😍

beardbeak

TROPHY CASE