Phrag. caudatum--first bloom

Actually, that's a myth that once the petals reach the ground or get hindered they stop growing.

They continue to grow to their full potential length even after they have touched the ground or whatever. I experimented that with one of my plants and I was right.

Peter, you sure? Out here, if I forget to raise a pot when those long-petalled things start blooming and the petals hit the bench, they'll grow a couple / three inches along the bench and then just quit. It's only when I either raise the pot up or tilt it so that the petals swing free that I can get them to grow to those ridiculously long lengths. It was actually pure dumb luck with the one here; I hadn't even noticed it spiking so it wasn't staked, and the flower apparently just got heavy enough to tilt forward so that the petals hung over the far side of the bench and didn't hit anything.

I haven't actually experimented (with a control and such) but, if what you're saying is true and the ant ramp thing *is* a myth, it sure is one that a lot of growers have bought into (myself included. I had heard it from several other growers and am the one who told it to Brutal when he asked). It just made sense given my own (casual, certainly not rigorous) observation....

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Louis J. Aszod

thats beautiful! Why did you have to post that picture...Now I have to get one!

LOL! Thank you, ncclimber. When those petals get long like that, they sure make a spectacle!

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Louis J. Aszod

Waah! I was hoping my phrag cross(the one I said looked like a female in the post below ) would have the long petals..they are only 7".

Very beautiful,Louis! If you ever get tired of it ..I will be happy to adopt it!

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< Gilda >
"Master of the Moth"

Lja,

I performed 3 different experiments with 3 different long petalled Phrag species to see if that was true and what I "discovered" from the results were quite the opposite. The experiments were done on wallisii, warscewiczianum and caudatum (No Phrags were harmed in the experiment) and I got the same results.

I had intentionally impeded some of the blooms and let the rest dangle freely untouched. It made no difference, the impeded petals continued to grow. In fact in my last experiment with the caudatum, the impeded petals were the longest (26") and for some strange reason, one of the unobstructed blooms had one petal shorter than the other by about 2 inches. You can scroll down to my caudatum picture and you can clearly see it and the one with the longest petals which were hindered is right next to it.

So, I came to the conclusion that it may have all been an old wife's tale, a mere myth.

Now, my lindenii is in spike and I'll be performing another experiment on him just out of curiosity.

Gilda, your Phrag cross will never reach that length of the species. If you want very long petals, get one of the long petalled species and warscewiczianum has the longest of all the species and also more compact and blooms on small plants, mine bloomed for the first time when it was only 6 inches across.

Well, that's a lot more experimenting than I ever did on them. I'll have to try something similar when I get more than just one flower on a spike: let one bloom dangle freely, and stake the other two so that their petals reach a surface. Should be interesting to see what happens. I'm glad you posted that!

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Louis J. Aszod

Yes, you should try it and give your warsce. more light and amybe it'll produce more flowers.

BTW, I have the same 'Dark Tower' x self and I think it is about to spike, hopefully.

I would like to experiment on my Paph sanderianum but that one is a long ways from maturity, hope I'm still around when it does; they are so slooooooooooow growing.

(!!)

The shorter petals make for a much better proportioned flower. Those long ones'll get caught up around your ankles when you're just trying to walk by and they'll make you trip and fall.

(Ok... Not really.)

But if you really want those darned long things, warscewiczianum is definitely the one to get.

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Louis J. Aszod

I've got a sanderianum X self that I swear must be made out of plastic for as little as it's done over the past 2 years....

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Louis J. Aszod