I'm curious to hear experiences with these as well, particularly ease/flexibility of care. I've avoided attempting them myself for a long time.

With Antec no longer operating I think the big go to is piping rock. I'd check out Woodstream orchids. They've done some interesting Parvi crosses, ie to assorted bulldog paphs.

Woodstream was worth looking at.

Nick

Bought a bunch of them on eBay from a China vendor. I offered to send my import permit. Offer was declined, he will include Phyto and CITES but claims that he does not need an import permit as long as he sends less than 13 plants with that documentation. Never heard of that before.

The price is right, Paphiopedilum armeniacum, 2 growths in bud for $12, can't be beat. Others charge $35 for plants not in bud. Paphiopedilum emersonii, 1 growth for $18 is another example, lowest price I found in the US is $40. Hopefully it's not a case of 'too good to be true'. Will know in 2 to 3 weeks. Shipping is $18 for the 1st plant, $2 for any additional plant. Getting 6 at this point, maybe 3 more within 2 days. Will report on the outcome in 2 to 3 weeks.

Nick

If you like cool paphs the easy one is P. insigne.
I have 3 small plants outside next to my house in shade
and they seem to handle getting a bit on the dry side as well as the cold weather and flower.
I have also moved P. druryi outside and it has flowered for the first time since i got it back in 1974!! It is in osmunda root in mostly shade. this is a big surprise. It seems to have handled the very cold weather down into the high 20s we have had the past week.

Nick,

I'm growing delantii and vietnamense. Fine orchiata bark, watered frequently, stay outdoors from May until mid-October in central Ohio. The delantii is putting out buds/spikes now, the vietnamense is just kind of sitting there, growing slowing but not adding any new growths. Maybe I need to keep it a bit cooler. I add calcium 2 x year to most of my paph species, but not to the delantii. As I understand it, the delantii likes it acidic, so no calcium/oyster shells in that one.

Bob

Nick,

May be too late, but Parkside has some of these, mostly hybrids...
I've ordered from them in the past (paphs included), always been happy.

Bob

Here is a link that might be useful: Parkside Parvis...

Hi Nick:
Our orchid society is a big fan of Piping Rock (Glen Decker) He vends and gives workshops at our annual February show, and gave us a good "talking to" last month at our usual meeting. He's knowledgable and has good quality stock.
Parkside also has a good reputation with one of our members who has purchased there, but I have not personally ordered from them - yet...
Best wishes from snowy WMass.
Maryanne

Parkside has an impressive list. Many out of stock but also many available. Some plants have remarkable range of prices. Paph vietnamense goes for $150 from the Chinese vendor who otherwise has remarkably low prices, most under $20. It lists for $35 from Parkside, as do most of their other plants.

The fat is sin the fire, I have ordered from 2 Chinese vendors on eBay, 2 weeks from now should have results. Will report.

Nick

Your a bad boy, Nick. I had a miscommunication with a Thailand vendor and they sent befor I sent my paperwork to them and I lost the shipment. An empty box arrived with a note in side saying they were confiscated by our government. Not a good thing.

The strange thing is that I have an import permit and have imported plants before. I offered to send it to these 2 but they declined. They will include phyto and CITES but insist that if there are less than 13 plants they do not need the import permit.

I also got an empty box from Thailand once and a full refund from PayPal.

Nick

Interesting story about permits.
A couple of months ago at a plant show, I had the chance to speak with another WMass (western Massachusetts) orchid grower. He had the occasion to go to Burma (Myanmar), not specifically as an orchid trip though. He said in the market place, he saw baskets full of wild collected orchids including Paphs. They could be bought for $5-US. That's 5 for the basket, not per plant, and $5 was a lot of money to the collector. He did not buy any since CITES permits would have been near unattainable.
Maryanne in "still snowing" WMass

Nick,

I cracked and got the vietnamense from Parkside, we may have to compare notes... Also got a charlesworthii and a Nortio Hasegawa.

My own worst enemy :-(

Do you have the link to Antec's calcium 'loving' paphs? Link below.

Bob

Here is a link that might be useful: Calcicolous Paphs

I didn't bite on that $150 plant, I plan to get the vietnamense from Parkside as soon as I recover from my latest financial folly. That calcicolous Paph link is useful.

Nick

Received a price list of plants Dr Holger Perner and his wife will bring to San Francisco in Feb. One can preorder and pick up there or they'll mail them to you once they are in in the US. It included a very exhaustive list of Cinese Cymbidiums.

Here are their contact particulars, I'm sure they'll email you the list if requested.

Ms. Wenqing Perner
3-11-904, Yinduhuayuan, Xinguang Rd.8
610041 Chengdu, Sichuan
P.R.China
E-mail: wenqing.perner@gmail.com
tel:+8613688062330

Nick

Oh my gosh Nick,haven't checked in for awhile. This is important.

Sam Tsui owner of Orchid Inn. He has spectacular stuff. Parkside was fantastic in the past. I got my HCC Primcolor from them when the guys still owned it. I think some of the "Chinese" paphs are super easy but then I had a nivium cross for years bloomed great a couple times then it up and died on me. Couldn't make it happy again.:[

Orchid Inn is a trip. One could get lost there, thanks for the tip.

Nick

When I listened to Norito Hasegawa give his talk I knew very little about the parvisepalums. I knew they existed but not a whole lot more. That talk was Dec 8th and I was not the only one in the group who knew very little about these plants. After bouncing around eBay and following all the leads expressed in this blurb, it is amazing what's available out there. One really has to make a chart comparing the different sizes and number of growths of a given species. Then add price and eventually a picture emerges of what would be reasonable to start with.

Since they bloom in the spring, this is the perfect time to get one's feet wet with them. I preordered some from Dr Holger Perner who will touch down in San Francisco in February and have a couple of eBay orders coming in. Let's see where that leaves me before I break the bank with Orchid Inn and Parkside to name a few.

At the same time my Cypripediums are vernalizing in the fridge in the garage, some of the Chinese vendors one cannot help run across while dealing with this group, also have some very unusual Cypripediums. Where does it all end? I'll have a lot of plants with pouches in bloom this spring and yet don't have a single rothschildianum, fairianum etc. The members in my society who grow these, have no Cyps nor do they grow the parvisepalums.

Nick

Nick,
IMO, the "brachy" types are pretty similar. I grow my niveum right beside my delantii (intermediate, damp) and it is also spiking currently. I've become an 'expert' on the bellatum and concolor ones though, killed all I've tried within 1 year :-(

Bob

I keep hearing that story over and over again as I talk to people. I have never grown them but expect a bunch of them to arrive within the next week or so. What is the trick to success and why do so may people have difficulty with that group when they seem to be doing OK with the other Paphs.

My understanding is that they like cool and moist, no winter rest, moderate light. There are a couple of warm growers but the vast majority are on the cool side. Anything else? I would appreciate any advice from people who grow them successfully.

Thanks, Nick

Nick,

Received my vietnamense from Parkside, it had 1 growth and 3 smallish leaves. Made my older vietnamense (has 1 growth and 5 leaves which are @2" longer than Parkside's) from Orchids.com/Norman's look downright 'BIG'...

I also got a P. charlesworthii, a blooming medicalcar decoratum, a P. Norito Hasagawa and a blooming slightly variegated leaved phal. The charlesworthii was in bad shape, but when I contacted Parkside, they stated they would make it good after the 1st of the year. I did notice it was no longer listed on their website either, so I may have gotten one of the last ones. As long as they keep their word on the charlesworthii, I'll be pretty happy. The other 4 were in very good shape.

Bob

Nick,

Here's a pic of the two vietnamense plants, my older one is in the back in a clear 4" pot, the new one is in the green 3" pot.

{{gwi:205732}}

Does anyone know generally how large/how many growths are needed before blooming one of these?

Thanks,

Bob

Hi Bob, This in Bob from NY and I have three of these in 2 inch pots that I grew from compots. Two of the three are in bud at the moment with a single growth. I'm at work at the moment so can't give you a leaf span but my guess would be around 6 or 7 inch leaf span.

Bob8,

My largest is 5"-6" across, no sign of budding yet.
How many leaves are yours carrying?

Thanks,

Bob

OH-Bob, I'm very curious. Could you post a pic of the charlesworthii?

Here is the photos of two of my three vietanamens. I had a compot of 3 or 4 to start with. The smallest one has a leaf span on only 3 inches (photo not included). The one on the left has a leaf span of 9 1/2 inches with one leaf on the left side and three on the right side. The one on the right has a leaf span of 8 inches and has one leaf on the left side and two on the right. The width of the leaves from both plants vary from 1 1/2 inches to as wide as 2 inches.

{{gwi:205733}}

Terp,

Here's a pic after I initially un-potted the charlesworthii.

{{gwi:205734}}

This was newly potted in a 4" pot, you can see the root threads (by the 'r' in word starting on the ad)where I ended up cutting away the dead roots before re-potting into a 3" pot. The longest looking segment of roots that are detached from the plant were dead.

I ended up un-potting/checking roots because the plant was very, very wobbly in it's original 4" pot.

Bob

This post was edited by westoh on Thu, Jan 2, 14 at 7:10

Santa Claus was good to me, he dropped 2 packages in my lap and did not loose any contents during the long sleigh ride. I said earlier that I would report on the outcome and it was positive.

Nick

I'm happy for you Nick. Wish, I had the same kind of luck.

Just wanted to follow up about Parkside.

They are sending a spiking Paph. Wossner Bellarmi (bellatulum x armeniacum) when the weather permits. I'm very satisfied with the replacement.

Also ordered a couple of varieties of Phal. mannii's, heck can't just let one 'kid ship by itself :-)

Bob

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:205731}}