Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum philippinense var. laevigatum

"Philippinense" is a difficult word to spell correctly. One L and two P's, as opposed to the more common "Phillip," with two L's and one P. Though I suppose if you spend a lot of time thinking or writing about the Philippines, you probably get used to it. (Though, then, do you start having trouble spelling "Phillip?")

I knew Phragmipediums could have ringlety petals (or are they sepals?), but I feel like I didn't know until now that Paphiopedilums could as well.

We haven't seen Paph. philippinense var. laevigatum, as such, on the blog before, but we've seen a named clone:

Paphiopedilum philippinense var. laevigatum 'Twin States' (2011 show)

one non-laevigatum variety:

Paphiopedilum roebelenii (more correctly, Paph. philippinense var. roebelenii) (2012 show)

and three of its hybrids:

Paphiopedilum Berenice (2012 show)
Paphiopedilum Judge Phillip (2012 show)
Paphiopedilum St. Swithin (2011 show; St. Swithin remains one of my all-time favorite orchids)

So I think it's safe to say we've got most of the Paphiopedilum philippinense bases covered.

Schlumbergera time again

After the first round of selling Schlumbergera seedling cuttings in May, I took another batch of cuttings, and they're ready to go now. So if you passed up that opportunity to buy some, here's a second chance. Prices are the same as the first round: one plant for $7, two plants for $11. If you want more than two, I'm allowing that this time around, but I strongly prefer it if you select an even number of plants to purchase.¹ They'll be shipped as boxes containing two plants each, so four would be $22, six would be $33, etc. Those prices include shipping.

The previous disclaimers apply:
• they're mostly three cuttings, stuck in a square pot 2 inches on a side.
• U.S. only.
• you have to let me know which ones you're interested in well before buying them, because quantities are limited and there will probably be conflicts. E-mailing gets you dibs on a given seedling, but neither of us is obligated to do anything until money has been exchanged.
• Though I have tried my best, I cannot guarantee that bloom color, frequency, etc. will be the same for you in your home as they are for me in mine. Mutations happen, cuttings get mixed up, plants grow differently in different environments, etc.
• Rooted plants only; I won't send unrooted cuttings.²
• I still haven't seen scale or thrips on any of the Schlumbergeras in the house, ever, and consequently think that they're unlikely to transmit bug infestations to your other plants, but it is still hypothetically possible and you should be prepared to take appropriate precautions, like quarantining them, spraying them with a pesticide, or washing them in soapy water, on arrival.

A couple seedlings that weren't available in April/May are available now, most notably 055B "Fort Venus" and 082A "Strawberry Madeleine." Here's the full list as of 14 July 2015:

008B "Candor"
Colors (petals / tube): orange / light pink; dark orange / light pink
Bloom Frequency: slow
Quantity Available: 1
Comments: Might be the same plant as 008A "Frightened Dog," just producing more shapely blooms. I haven't seen a second bloom from "Frightened Dog," and "Frightened Dog" happened before I started marking the branches to indicate different seedlings.

010A "Semantic Satiation"
Colors (petals / tube): orange / pink; ages to red-orange / pink
Bloom Frequency: slow
Quantity Available: 2

012A "Sofa Fort"
Colors (petals / tube): orange / pink
Bloom Frequency: medium
Quantity Available: 1 ready now; 3 waiting on new growth from one or two cuttings
Comments: One of my personal favorites; the orange and pink harmonize better on this one than they do on some of the other orange / pinks.

019A "Belevenissen"
Colors (petals / tube): orange / white
Bloom Frequency: medium
Quantity Available: 2
Comments: As nobody wanted it during the April/May round, the pots available for this one are significantly larger and fuller than those of a lot of the other options.

022A "Sad Tomato"
Colors (petals / tube): red-orange / white; ages to red-orange / light pink
Bloom Frequency: medium
Quantity Available: 1
Comments: The color doesn't do much for me personally, but it blooms well, the blooms last a normal amount of time, and the color is strong, so I think it's objectively a good seedling, just one I'm not especially into.

023A "Stoked"
Colors (petals / tube): dark orange / white
Bloom Frequency: fast
Quantity Available: 2 ready now, 3 waiting on new growth from a cutting
Comments: Another of my personal favorites, though sometimes the petals . . . break off? I'm not sure what's going on; I just know that a few times after taking photos, I then notice pieces of petals on the floor or wherever, and they seem to be mainly from "Stoked." Either I'm being unusually rough with it, or it's unusually brittle.

024A "Safety Vest"
Colors: orange / white
Bloom Frequency: slow
Quantity Available: 1
Comments: Very similar to 025 "Clownfish." Infrequent blooms, but was one of the latest to bloom during the spring, so it's possible that it's less strict about temperature and day-length requirements than many of the others. 023A "Stoked" is a better version of the same thing, if one is available.

024B "Bryce Canyon"
Colors (petals / tube): light orange / white; yellow-orange / white
Bloom Frequency: crazy fast
Quantity Available: 1 ready now, 1 waiting on new growth from some cuttings
Comments: Does drop a lot of buds, but it starts out with so many that it still winds up producing more flowers than any of the others. Vigorous. Odd color which may or may not be to your personal taste.

025A "Clownfish"
Colors (petals / tube): dark orange / white
Bloom Frequency: slow
Quantity Available: 1
Comments: Earliest to bloom, and still seems to be the least picky about getting absolute darkness at night, but for all that, it doesn't produce very many flowers. Reason is unknown. 023A "Stoked" looks a lot the same but blooms much better.

026A "Brick Wall"
Colors (petals / tube): orange / white; pink-orange / white
Bloom Frequency: medium
Quantity Available: 3 ready now; 2 waiting on new growth from one or more cuttings
Comments: Probably my overall favorite orange from the group; it doesn't come across in the photos at all, but there's a weird softness to the color that I find very appealing, and the flowers practically glow at certain times of day. I mean, they all do this to some degree or another (golden hour + orange bloom = glowy), but "Brick Wall" regularly stops me in my tracks. I was surprised there wasn't more interest in this one in April/May.

028A "Phil Collen"
Colors (petals / tube): orange / very light pink; ages to orange-red / light pink
Bloom Frequency: medium
Quantity Available: 1 ready now; 2 waiting on new growth from one cutting

028B "Neon Like"
Colors (petals / tube): orange / pink
Bloom Frequency: medium
Quantity Available: 2
Comments: Similar to, and a reasonably good substitute for, 012A "Sofa Fort," though "Sofa Fort" is a slightly yellower shade of orange.

030A "Diwali"
Colors (petals / tube): orange / pink
Bloom Frequency: slow
Quantity Available: 2
Comments: The odd not-fully-opened thing has been consistent in all blooms so far, but it doesn't bloom often, so I'm not sure that's necessarily genetic. Other seedlings have done similar things from time to time, so it's possible "Diwali" was just having trouble getting its shit together. We'll find out this fall, I guess. As nobody wanted it during the April/May round, the pots available for this one are significantly larger and fuller than those of a lot of the other options.

031A "Baby Carrots"
Colors (petals / tube): orange / white; ages to orange / light pink
Bloom Frequency: medium
Quantity Available: 1 claimed, 1 available
Comments: As nobody wanted it during the April/May round, the pots available for this one are significantly larger and fuller than those of a lot of the other options. The parent plant bloomed a little later into the spring than a lot of the other seedlings.

054A "Helpful Gesture"
Colors: red / pink
Bloom Frequency: slow
Quantity Available: 1 claimed, 1 available, 2 waiting on new growth from one cutting
Comments: Not a heavy bloomer at all for me so far, but when the blooms appear, they're pretty nice. Or at least they're not orange.

055B "Fort Venus"
Colors: orange-red / pink; ages to red / magenta
Bloom Frequency: fast
Quantity Available: 3
Comments: One of the three available pots only has one cutting in it, but that cutting has a developing fruit on it, which you could use to start your own seedlings if you really wanted to. (No idea who the pollen parent was, and I can't guarantee that any resulting seedlings would be worth growing. But how will you know unless you try?) "Fort Venus" is as close as any of the seedlings have been to the parent, 'Caribbean Dancer,' and the similarity is especially strong on older flowers.

057A "Pyrotechnic"
Colors (petals / tube): pink-orange / white; ages to orange-pink / white
Bloom Frequency: medium
Quantity Available: 1
Comments: Another one I really like, probably based on the color being pinker than most of the oranges. Fairly substantial color change from orange to orange-pink as the blooms age.

061A "Leather Fairy"
Colors (petals / tube): light orange / white
Bloom Frequency: slow
Quantity Available: 1 ready now; 1 waiting on one cutting
Comments: Looks an awful lot like the NOID peach that I think was the pollen parent, and I think has only produced one flower to date, but the cuttings rooted like champs so at least the plant is fairly vigorous? I mean, this is definitely the one to get if you're big into stems. I'm not going to promise flowers.

073A "Laurie Anderson"
Colors: orange / pink
Bloom Frequency: medium
Quantity Available: 1
Comments: Pretty ordinary orange / pink. It started late and didn't have a very long bloom season, so I didn't really get to know it as well as some of the others.

078A "Art Party"
Colors (petals / tube): red / pink
Bloom Frequency: very slow
Quantity Available: 1
Comments: The original plant has only produced one flower so far. 054A "Helpful Gesture" isn't a heavy bloomer either, but it's probably a slightly better plant, with a very similar color. The original seedling has a less upright growth habit than a lot of the others, though the cuttings so far have been pretty vertical.

082A "Strawberry Madeleine"
Colors: orange-red / white; ages to red-magenta / white
Bloom Frequency: fast
Quantity Available: 1 ready now; 1 waiting on one cutting
Comments: Probably the most impressive of the later seedlings, in that it produced a lot of blooms all at once, in April, and then the blooms change colors in an interesting way as they age, too.

088A "Cyborg Unicorn"
Colors (petals / tube): orange / pink
Bloom Frequency: fast
Quantity Available: 2 ready now; 2 waiting on one cutting
Comments: Although the flower in the top two images looks different from the flower in the bottom two, I'm pretty sure both blooms are from the same seedling. 'Caribbean Dancer' is prone to the occasional streaky bloom too, and they're not produced consistently on the same branch or anything as far as I can tell, so I think it's just a Schlumbergera thing.) "Cyborg Unicorn" is one of the stronger, more floriferous orange/pinks, though it's a darker, more magenta pink than, say, "Sofa Fort" or "Neon Like," which have lighter, more delicate colors.

099A "Dessert Room"
Colors: orange / pink
Bloom Frequency: medium? Can't actually remember. . . .
Quantity Available: 1

111A "Morning Sun"
Colors: orange / white
Bloom Frequency: slow
Quantity Available: 2
Comments: I can't remember if this was actually a crappy seedling or if it just happened to photograph badly.


And that's all there is for this round. There won't be a third Schlumbergera-selling post like this this year, because there's nowhere for me to get new cuttings from, so when these are gone, they're gone until next spring. If you're interested in any of these, send me an e-mail and we'll get the payment, mailing addresses, and so forth straightened out. I'm hoping to mail plants out on or before early August, so they can have a couple months to acclimate to their new homes before it's time to produce buds.

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¹ Because I have boxes that will fit two plants more or less exactly. If you really, really want a large odd number, something can probably be worked out, but it simplifies things a lot for me if you stick to even numbers.
² The main reason being that the seedlings have had so many cuttings taken from them already that they need time to recover before I can take more.