how to tell if Paph is multifloral?

[DDS2007]

hi all ,

our local nursery has PROMISED me they'd get me some Paphs on monday , i was wondering if one can tell if a Paph produces only one flower , or is multifloral or sequential floral by looking at leaves of the plant itself?

any advice on how to chose my paphs on monday would be most appreciated

thank u

[kmarch]

First the easy part, picking out healthy Paphs:

Look for plants that have healthy, well-coloured leaves. A few spots here or there won't hurt much. The leaves should be firm and hold their position and shape, not floppy or wilted feeling, not loose feeling. It's a little like buying lettuce or herbs, you want well hydrated crisp leaves. Given a choice, I prefer a plant in active growth, sometimes exhibited by a new leaf coming, a flower spike started, or a new growth started. If a Paph is growing, it probably has healthy roots.

Look at the mix. Is it fresh or broken down? Is is parched and over dry (over dry could mean damaged roots)? Does the plant need repotting? The mix should be reasonably fresh looking, although many people like to repot their new orchids as soon as they get them. If it is in spike, wait until after it blooms to repot.

Look for critters. Look at the undersides of the leaves for scales and mites and look in the crevices for white fluff (mealie bugs).

If it all checks out, and you are sure you can provide the required conditions, it's all systems go.

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The second question is more involved. First off there are 2 kinds of Paphs poeple refer to as "multi-floral". One bears 2-5 flowers on one stem opening nearly together. Species in this group include: Paph rothschildianum, philippinense, adductum, sanderianum, kolopakingii, lowii, haynaldianum, parishii, and a few others. Their leaves are solid green, shiny, and mostly fleshy. There are other non multi-florals that have solid green leaves (Paph insigne, villosum, etc., etc.) but multi-floral plants are usually larger plants. Of course if you're buying young plants it's not much help.

The other kind we call a "sequential bloomer" which means it will produce many flowers one or 2 at a time in succession over the course of many months. This type I usually hear called "multi-floral" less often that the first type. More commonly referred to sequential bloomers. This group includes species like Paph primulinum, liemianum, victoria-regina, moquettianum, etc., etc. These plants also have green leaves, but many of them are darker, thinner, with wavy edges, some wiht hairs on the edges of the leaves, and some of them are purplish on the underside or mottled with a darker green.

Most mottled leaved Paphs will be single-flowered unless it is a hybrid made with a multi-floral. For example Paph Delrosi is made with a songle-flowered Paph (delenatii) and a multi-floral (rothschildianum) and has mottled leaves eventhough it usually blooms 2-flowered.

As you can see trying to tell if a plant is a multi-floral only by its leaves can be tricky unless you really know what you're looking for. So, I porpose a far more reliable route. Learn your multifloral species and popular hybrids and look at the plants' name tags.