…Ok… rhyming is not my strength… so we’ll move right along. The first bud on my Paphiopedilum Ho Chi Minh just opened, so now I know it can’t be long until Easter. In the wild the seed parent usually blooms in March, something this popular hybrid has taken after. You can almost set your calendar after this one, my favorite Easter flower. I think it turned out extra nice this year, really deep in color.
It has a really nice long spike, it measures 35 cm this year with a really large flower at the top, about 11 cm wide. It has a very faint fragrance, smells somewhat like old fashion roses. Unfortunately the flower does not lasts very long, only about 2 weeks. But the foliage is almost more beautiful than the flower. It is shiny and dark green, almost blue-green, with burgundy underneath. It is also has the world’s cutest furry buds! Simply adorable. I love the extra fuzzy Paphiopedilums. The buds almost look like exotic larvae that eventually turn into beautiful butterflies.
Ho Chi Minh is a Parvisepalum primary hybrid between Paphiopedilum vietnamense och P. delenatii. The parents hail from Vietnam and are primarely lithophytes. I grow mine in intermediary temperatures on the windowsill in bark/volcanic rock mix under additional lighting.
