Hi, wandered over here from another orchid forum and am so happy to find one devoted to Paphs! I love em!

I have been growing them for about two years now and have had luck rebooming lowii, delenatti, a colorform maudiae, urbanianum, a vinicolor etc.

The yellow and white forms such as Irish Lace, Alma Gaevert Hager, Napa Valley grow like crazy (Alma Gaevert has put on 4 new growths this past year) just no blooms. Napa blasted last year and the yellow primulinum (sp?) x Honeydew cross did the same thing?

So I am wondering, do other folks find the white/green or yellow forms tough to bloom?

Any advice would be appreciated! I grow on the windowsill and under flouresecent lights.

TIA, ALba

:welcome: Thanks for joining! I don't grow the Paphs that you have but I'm sure someone who does would chime in!

I hope someone can help, its frustrating to have pretty plants, no blooms! Alba

If they are not blooming and if you think the plants are mature, then I would provide more bright light and a night temp drop in the winter. That is what I do with my larger multiflorals and they bloom like clockwork.

I assume you are talking about plants that have albinistic traits. Albino plants are typically inferior not only in quality, but in vigor. It may seem hard to tell on the outside, but it requires some good breeding to bring the lines up to snuff, otherwise you're left with plants that take many growths to bloom, never do, or when they do they have small ugly flowers. Just to give a corollary example, take albino humans. They typically have very poor eyesight, and other bad gene makeup. However, we could certainly breed them to have improved normal eyes, and still have albinistic qualities, but they don't naturally have that advantage.

I'm partial to white paphs, especially complex paphs. They seem to bloom during the late fall along with everything else with no special treatment.

I have definitely found white complex paphs to be harder to bloom than the normal spotted, tan, or green forms. The older whites seem to be a bit easier..FC Puddle, Rosy dawn, etc. I love the whites more than the other complex types, but they are not easy! Take care, Eric

Well, it is good to know I am not the only one with the problem. Thanks Steve for pointing out the genetic reasons why getting the Alba forms to bloom can be difficult.

I am going to avoid buying them in the future and stick with my easier paphs.

I assume by the term "alba forms" you're referring to species. Though I can't comment based on my experience, I have heard others say that the alba forms of species often produce smaller and/or fewer blooms than their normal sibs or cousins. We saw a recent example of that with some normal and alba bellatulums photos posted.

I was referring to complex paphs, a much different situation!