Anyone else have trouble with these?

I've been growing "ordinary" phals for at least 10 years, and they
flower every year, almost without problem. One, which unusually has 3
flowering stems, lost its leaves (crown rot?) over 18 months ago, but
continues flowering without leaves, and has now produced 3 keikis (with
possibly 5 more on the way). All these phals were houseplant gifts or
donations from those without green fingers. They were probably all
sourced from M&S.

Earlier this year we were given one of those M&S dwarf phals in flower.
I put it with the others, and grew it the same way. Within a couple of
months I noticed the remaining flower buds were not looking right, and
one by one they fell off, soon followed by the leaves. After a few weeks
it was dead. We replaced it with an almost identical plant a couple of
months ago. It flowered well, but the flowering stem lasted a much
shorter time than normal phals. As it seemed to be a bit loose in its
pot, I repotted it a couple of weeks ago. A few days ago I noticed the
leaves seemed to be turning yellow. This morning the last one fell off.
I think the compost heap awaits it...

--

Jeff

Hello Jeff

In article ,
Jeff Layman wrote:
Anyone else have trouble with these?

Big Snip

I picked up one at one of our local "cheapie" stores for £1.35.

It flowered OK and then nearly died. My wife wanted to throw it out, but I
rescued the one green leaf, repotted it in a small pot, Put the pot in a
polythene bag, and gave it a little bottom heat in my windowsill propogator.
It took quite a time, but it recovered, was moved out of the propogator onto
the kitchen windowsill, and has flowered.

Since then it has grown some more and has a new flowering spike coming. It
seems to need to be kept very moist in a very well drained compost.

Cheers

John

--
John Rye
Hadleigh IPSWICH England
Web Site http://www.ryepad.plus.com
--- Using RISC OS on a Strongarm RiscPC, a Raspberry Pi, and emulated under Windows ---

On 23/12/16 16:31, John Rye wrote:
Hello Jeff

In article ,
Jeff Layman wrote:
Anyone else have trouble with these?

Big Snip

I picked up one at one of our local "cheapie" stores for £1.35.

It flowered OK and then nearly died. My wife wanted to throw it out, but I
rescued the one green leaf, repotted it in a small pot, Put the pot in a
polythene bag, and gave it a little bottom heat in my windowsill propogator.
It took quite a time, but it recovered, was moved out of the propogator onto
the kitchen windowsill, and has flowered.

Since then it has grown some more and has a new flowering spike coming. It
seems to need to be kept very moist in a very well drained compost.

Cheers

John

Interesting. I hadn't thought of putting it in a polythene bag. As it's
now leafless, I'll wait and see if any new leaves appear. before doing
anything else. It's got 2 or 3 months to come up with the goods...

--

Jeff