Description
IMPORTANT NOTE: these plants are NOT IN BUD/BLOOM when shipped. PLEASE look at all the pictures in this listing so you know the condition/size of plant you’ll be getting.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not a great orchid for beginners, but for intermediate or advanced growers. If you’re new to orchids or only have a small collection, it’s best to pass on this until you have a setup where you can keep plants above 55 F and constant humidity in the 70% range.
P. fairrieanum is one of the most distinctive plants of the slipper orchid genus, Paphiopedilum. Its unique form and beautiful color have made it a an object of botanical desire since its discovery in 1857 in India.
Back in the day, the English orchid fanciers grew P. fairrieanum in hothouses that were, well, too hot. Of course, that ended up killing the poor plants and by 1905, only one plant was known to exist in England.
The great orchid collector and dealer, Frederick Sander (after whom many orchids are named), put out a prize of 1000 pounds for exclusive knowledge of its location. In today’s dollars, that would translate to around $200,000. Many orchid hunters jumped at the chance, and three months after the offer was made, the species was re-discovered. Nothing like the prospect of serious money to motivate orchid hunters… Nearly 200 P. fairrieanum were sold at auction, and the proceeds of the sale actually ended up saving Sander & Co. from financial disaster.
Given Sander & Co.’s immense and enduring influence on the orchid world, it’s fair to say that modern day collectors (e.g., you and me) would not have nearly the variety of plants without Sander & Co., and the company might have collapsed without Sander’s ship (literally) coming in with this shipment of P. fairrieanum.
So you can think of P. fairrieanum as the orchid that saved the orchid world. (Or at least a big chunk of it.)
