Check the link below.
you will see that the species occurs on cliffs.
I would think that it needs absolute drainage even
though it probably does great with a daily watering, as long as it drains off completely.

Here is a link that might be useful: P. spiceranum

Sheila, are you sure that you had all the roots near the very top of the s/h container. If they were to deep to start with they would have died from too much moisture. Those roots need to grow down into the bottom of the container themselves. I personally have about 9 spicerianum's in s/h. Matter a fact Hadley of Marriott Orchids gave me one of the bare rooted Paph. spicerianum that he traded for with In-Charm Orchids. I came home and put that one in s/h as well. Hope this wasn't already everything you knew about s/h and I really didn't help you.

Bob in Albany, N.Y.
P.S. wish I had run into you at the WOC. I ended up working for Marriott Orchids every day except the first day.

Thx for the link terrestrial_man, I'll sure check it out. I've been wondering if I need to let the medium dry out more before I water & refill the resevoir.

Hi Bob, yes, I'm going to check the roots. When I repot I'll make sure that the healthy roots are in the upper area of the pot. I was watching for you, as were my two friends. We were only at WOC on Sunday. Spent Saturday at Tamiami. I did meet Nyuyen Than (sp? Springwater Orchids) and his niece and bought a couple plants from him. They were both so very nice. I took a pic of his niece holding a specimen Prince of York plant that was gorgeous!

I refuse to give up on paphs.....I do have some healthy plants growing......just waiting to get to blooming ;)

Happy growing,
Sheila

"I've been wondering if I need to let the medium dry out more before I water & refill the resevoir."

This is a typical and frequent response to the issue of some plants not doing well in s/h. Personally I don't think it is a very effective strategy, here's why: when you finally water the reservoir, even if you have let it go dry one, two maybe even more, days at that point the plant is going to be wet for several days until the reservoir goes dry again. Those several days of consecutive wetness, if being consecutively wet for several days was a problem would be more than enough to cause problems and the momentary relief every week or so will not be enough to prevent decline. On the other hand, if the plant can tolerate a full cycle of wet reservoir to empty it should be able to tolerate an immediate topping up of said reservoir. If it can't the answer is to find out why not and fix that rather than to attempt a frustrating schedule of watering that will alternately soak and parch the roots. This is a long way of saying that something other than the S/H or how it is being watered needs to be adjusted for the paph. You already know what I think the top contenders for modification are.

H

Hi Howard, thx for the input. I always take your advice to heart.

By the time I trimmed off dead roots and dead leaves there wasn't much of the plant left. I put it into a small net pot with good fresh spag. Most of the seedling plants I bought at the WOC were planted this way, some of them already having their roots coming out of the spag/pot. These were various genera, however none of them paphs. I also repotted P. Hell's Chamber to check it's roots. They were pretty good, so back into SH it went. It is making a new leaf and there are new roots and I think maybe a new growth or two getting ready to start. I'm glad I decided to repot it.....good to see these positives happening......although I also want to see a bloom!!! patience, patience......I don't seem to have much of it! LOL. Oh well, happy growing.

Sheila :)