Phragmipedium Olaf Gruss flavum

[MrHappyRotter]

Phragmipedium Olaf Gruss flavum (bessaea v. flavum x pearcei)

Phrag. Olaf Gruss is a cross between the yellow color variety of bessaea and pearcei, one of the smaller growing phrags with green flowers. The outcome here is that you get a small growing hybrid, with muted yellow tones with rosey pink blush at the petal tips.

I'm very happy with the size of this plant, it's nice and compact, one of my smaller growing phrags. I hope it stays this size. I actually did not expect it to bloom so soon after I acquired it, I had assumed that it was still an immature plant. This was based partly on the fact that I have a very similar cross, Phrag. Petit Anquette (dalessandroi x pearcei), that is quite literally 4 - 5 times larger. Of course, now I'm starting to think the Phrag. Petit Anquette is mislabelled because I never would have anticipated such a big difference in size between these two hybrids. And if there were going to be a size difference, I would have put my money on the one with Petit in the name to be the smaller of the two.

Anyway, this guy decided to entertain me with 2 spikes. I think it'll have 2, maybe 3 flowers on the first spike, and although the second spike is quite a bit younger and I can't quite tell, I assume it will produce a similar number of blooms.

Being a relatively new acquisition (thanks Beth), I haven't yet moved this over to my preferred mix, so it's still in a bark mix. I don't really treat it any differently than my other plants in terms of water, I just keep it sitting in water at all times. Because it's a shorter plant, I have been growing it on one shorter portions of the plant stand, so it does get fairly bright light. I know pearcei likes really bright conditions to induce blooming, and bessaea can tolerate a good amount of shade, so I'm sure Olaf Gruss is going to be pretty adaptable to a wide range of light levels.

(takes a deep breath)









Not the best flower shape, the dorsal is a little floppy, but I like it overall, and I wouldn't be surprised if the flower quality improved quite a bit as the plant gets older. This is its first bloom afterall.