When a Paph starts to send up a bud, does it look like a leaf at first or does it look like a bud?

In my experience, it depends on the type. With Paphs I have a hard time telling sometimes, often, there will be a margin of color on a sheath, with regards to the multiflorals. I find that the cochlopetalums and brachy relatives appear fuzzy pretty much from the start, so they are easier for me to tell than the multis. Phrags to me look like a new leaf, but with no opening - no "v" shape, just a flat closed "leaf".

Sometimes you just have to be patient (I know, so hard isn't it?) and wait until it grows a bit more.

Thanks.

I've often mistaken a new leaf for a bract when they are just coming up. As Heather said there is generally a color or texture difference.

Also the plant may produce a couple of small leaves in rapid succesion just before sending up a spike.

Feel it. If there is a bud, you will be able to feel the bulge in the base of the growth. For some paphs, like the Barbata types, you can detect a bloom long before it appears as a bud. The exception is with the multiflorals....they can grow on so long without blooming that the base of the growth gets genuinely obese. Take care, Eric....despite the record heat (hottest Sept on record for NYC) there are some buds appearing...barbigerum, possibly henryanum, and a couple of complex types......

I have to take that back about my spiking paphs...barbigerum has become yet another loss after the warmest sept in NYC history.......Take care, Eric

Eric you are not alone I have lost quite few this summer. My A/C broke at the end of August.