Why are Paphs, particularly awarded clones, sometimes more expensive than other orchids?
There are three basic reasons for this. First, although capsules from some types of crosses can yield high numbers of plants, in general the yields of Paph seedlings are lower from any given capsule than for many other types of orchids. And, as ‘Murphy’ would have it, it always seems that the more desirable the cross, the lower the yield. Secondly, it can also take longer to grow some Paphs up to blooming size than many other types of orchids. Again, there are exceptions; for example yields of many of the mottled leaf hybrids and the so-called Maudiae types can be substantial, and they also can be relatively fast growers, so they tend to be among the less expensive Paphs. The third factor relates to the fact that Paphs have not leant themselves to commercially viable cloning, so it is not possible to make thousands of copies of a desirable or awarded clone in the laboratory as it is with Phals and Catts. Paphs are cloned only by the slow process of division, and it can take anywhere fr
