Weeeee, it's HERE!
 

My very first Paph! It's finally here! *doing mad dance of joy*

:dance: :dance13: :cloud9:

I'm not happy, I'm thrilled! It's the cermanense (Paph. bullenianum var. ceramensis - I must learn this name!) I booked a while ago and today it finally arrived.

I checked the roots and the foliage, cut off one yellowing leaf, and potted it in a fine bark/sphagnum/perlite - mix. It has a spike, but most likely it'll abort it or the bud will blast. A Paph that takes some coaxing to complete its spikes, that has been shipped through Sweden and spent two days in a box, and then has finally ended up in the hands of an utter newbie... The prognoses for the bud to survive is not good I would say.

Here it is! Oh, I'll purchase a better outer pot for it during the week, the one in the pictures is not ideal I think.

I like the cache pot it is in. Don't count that spike out, you never know. But it is good that you are ready for it to abort.

It was the least awful looking smaller cache pot I had (thank you Jonada for teaching me a new word). It's planted in a clear plastic orchid pot and since the cache pot has holes in it, I figured sunlight would get to the roots and that this maybe wasn't good. Is it okay to keep it in the cache pot?

Newbie? Who? Me? I've no idea what you're talking about!
:rofl:

Congratulations on the new addition to your orchid collection. I bought my first paph a couple of months ago and it's in bud right now.

I don't think the sun will hurt it at all. Mine are in clear plastic with no cache pots and doing fine. We were all Newbies once. Spikes can take forever to mature.

Thanks Tucker! I really hope I'll succeed with this one. :nod:

Okay, I'll keep it in the cache pot then. :biggrin: I believe the Paphs will teach me the virtue of patience, especially this guy since it's a bit tricky to get to bloom according to the seller (an experienced Paph grower). And, yes, I wrote Paphs, I've ordered two more, but I'm not expecting them in at least a couple of months.

Congratulations! I love the excitement of a new plant. Kind of like Christmas morning for adults. :D Good luck!

Especially when it's an entire new genus it's even more exciting than usual.
But imagine when my megagigantic order from Schwerter arrives - then it truly will be Christmas... :blushing:

Good luck with your new paph. I have also got my one and only paph -so far- into bloom well, I can see a tiny new growth coming from the crown and it can only be a spike so hopefully in a few months I will have my very own first bloom. I will have to get many many more now!

I can say the very same to you and I really hope it'll bloom for you. :nod:

I've ordered two more Paphs that will be shipped to me as soon as the temperatures are a bit warmer. :D

Okay, so the spike has straightened up today and is no longer resting on the leaf as it did yesterday. I suppose this is a good sign, but probably not a sign that the spike/bud will survive.

It looks perfectly healthy to me. Paphs don't usually have a problem with repotting. They actually quite like it. I see no reason why this shouldn't bloom out.

I have noticed that when they stand up on their own that they are generally doing alright. I would expect your paph to bloom for you. If it was going to blast then I don't think that it would have used as much energy as it did when it became perpendicular. Have faith! :D

Apparently this guy is a bit tricky to get all the way to bloom, the previous owner told me. It spikes and then the spike grows only to die, and then it starts on a new growth. He didn't really know why it decided to complete the spike sometimes and sometimes not. He hadn't been able to discover what kind of conditions this Paph required to become a reliable bloomer.

Well, I checked it now when I got home, and it has straightened out completely. :D Let's keep out fingers crossed that it decides to bloom (man, what a great start that would be on my life as a Paph owner).

I've grown alot of plants that were supposedly "hard" and found them to be quite easy. It al depends on conditions...maybe it likes lower humidity, and that guy's humidity was too high for it?...or maybe it likes cooler temps for flowering and that guy's temps were a bit higher? Stuff like that matters, so I tend to take "difficulty" with a grain of salt unless it's something that has been grown for a lot of years by alot of people. It also helps to look at it's native range and get a general idea of what kind of conditions it grows in...it might give some hints.

He never said it was "difficult", actually he said that it's an easy Paph. What he did say though was that it's a bit tricky to actually get the spike/bud to develop into a flower.

But you are right in your comment that a plant that person A finds difficult, person B might find easy due to the conditions and, also, one's watering regime and so on. I know for certain that I can't grow a pelargonium even if my life depended on it - I kill them pretty quickly without even trying.
:rofl:

Since I couldn't take a picture yesterday (it was too dark) I did it today instead. Look how nicely it has straightened up. :love:

And look at this! Isn't this a little root nub I see poking out? :biggrin:

This is so exiting!