Paph woluwense

[Orchid664]

I fell in love with Paph Woluwense, but I read that it is difficult to bloom. Does anyone have any experience with this plant?

[kmarch]

Orchid664,

Hello and welcome to the forum. To start off on the correct foot, the "W" should be capitalized as Paph Woluwense is a hybrid. Hybrid names are capitalized, species names are in lower case.

Paph Woluwense is a primary hybrid between Paph rothschildianum and Paph niveum. Paph rothschildianum is from the Coryopetalum section of Paphs and Paph niveum is from the Brachypetalum section of Paphiopedilum. Coryopetalum-Brachypetalum crosses can be very difficult to bloom if the Coryopetalum Paph, in this case the rothschildianum, was used as the pod parent. Jason Fischer of Orchids Ltd in the US has lately been remaking these crosses using the Brachypetalum parent as the pod parent. These have been flowering much easier and faster (he reports as little as 3 years out of flask).

I have an enormous Paph Daisy Barclay (rothschildianum x godefroyae), probably 12-15 growths in a 7-inch pot, which has never bloomed. I suspect it used the roth as pod parent and in all honesty I don't expect it will ever bloom.

[prisana]

Kevin, is there anyway to know just by the name of it if which one is the pod parent and which is the pollen parent just by looking at the name ? I've been wondering about that for a while now.

I notice how they tag , for example, parent #1 x parent #2 , is there a difference if it says parent #2 x parent #1 in which it will give you a clue as to who was the male or female so in the case of an offspring of roth pod parent can be avoided ? I hope I'm not confusing you, I'm beginning to confuse myself.

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by prisana

Kevin, is there anyway to know just by the name of it if which one is the pod parent and which is the pollen parent just by looking at the name ?

Unfortunately no. You can't tell by the name alone which is the pollen and which is the pod parent. Paph Woluwense is Paph Woluwense regardless of which parent was the pod parent.

Originally Posted by prisana

I notice how they tag , for example, parent #1 x parent #2 , is there a difference if it says parent #2 x parent #1 in which it will give you a clue as to who was the male or female...?

Again, unfortunately, no. There is no commonly accepted standard (for example pod parent listed first), so it is impossible to tell by looking at the tag even if the parents are spelled out. If you know for certain that a particular breeder always does it one way and if you were certain that that breeder taged your plant, you could then know, but otherwise there's no way to know.

My recomendation: buy it and grow it for a few years, try different things if you like. If it doesn't bloom in a few years, sell it.

[mayres]

Kevin - In my first year of growing orchids, about three years ago, I remember seeing some gorgeous paphs at the Oregon Orchid Society show that were selling for about $250. I wish I could remember what the crosses were, but at that time I was too green around the gills to remember much of anything except that I was amazed at nearly everything I saw! Anyway, the person selling the plants said that they were expensive because it had taken them 25 YEARS to get them to blooming maturity!

[Vivienne]

25 years! YOW!! Now that's patience.

[kmarch]

Hmmm would be interesting to know what Paph it was. The longest growing one I know of is Paph rothschildianum which can take up to 15 years to first bloom.

[brookn]

Hmm...that's $10 per year, I would say that is a bargain.

[prisana]

Kevin, thanks for the info I can stop wondering now..

Brook, if that was me I'd be like..$ 10.00 deducted for each year it doesn't bloom I love roths ( don't have one yet ) but I'll stay away from ones that's not in spike or hadn't previously bloomed