Wow, Katrina, your conditions do sound a bit extreme to me. Brrrr, I can't
imagine living in an apartment where it gets to be that cold -- I get cold
whenever the thermostat goes below 70 Fahrenheit or 21 Celsius (I guess I
am
spoiled -- though come to think of it I probably got that spoilt in my
adult
years, I suspect that the temperatures in the old house I grew up in in
Poland were not as cozy as here). Phals generally are said to like the
same
temperatures as most humans do -- so if you are cold, it may be too cold
for
them, unless one is as spoiled as me that is.
We're not cold by day, except where the drafts are. Like here by my
computer. *Sigh*.
Have you gotten any of your Phals to rebloom in these conditions yet.
Not as such. I got one with 1 1/2 spikes, and it went ahead and finished off
the second spike nicely; I considered this a Good Sign. Two of the German
ones, the weird green and pink spotty ones, also came with second spikes.
One was snapped off at the tip accidentally by a friend (urrrgh....), but
the spike is still green and seems vigorous, and the other is very slowly
enlarging the second spike. The first plant lost the flowers on the first
spike, but only after 8 weeks and all at once, so I'd guess they were just
done. I don't know how long the flowers had been open before I bought it.
The second plant has lost one flower off the first spike, but that's after
12 weeks or so, and the other flowers are still going strong.
If you
have gotten at least one of the Phals to start a new spike in your
apartment
then all should be well enough, since if one Phal is happy enough to
rebloom, the others should be as well. If not, if you have had any Phal
for
longer than a year and it has not rebloomed for you, think of ways to try
to improve your conditions, one bit at a time.
I got my first one in July. That one has grown two new fully-developed
leaves since then, and has survived root rot and drying out while I was
learning how to take care of these (you can read and read, but just like
with animals none of it helps much once the thing is sitting there looking
at you in your own home), and since then has started a new node along the
crown that looks to me like it'll be a root. Some of the others, acquired in
July, September, and one of the ones I got 10 weeks ago, have poked tiny new
leaf beginnings out the crowns; that's why I was worried about the
"big-leafed" one. I also have a Cambria, an Oncidium, a Miltonia, and a
Calumnea wildcat, and these are doing fine in the colder, brighter bedroom.
I've only had them about 5 months but the Cambria has grown a whole new...
are these pseudobulbs?... as has the oncidium, and the wildcat has a lot of
new leaves. All of these reacted to being sold and transported by losing the
flowers fairly rapidly, but that seemed only to be expected, to me. I'm sure
they'll reflower; they seem quite happy.
Thank you so much for your insight and help. I guess these guys are fine,
but I'll monitor them carefully!
Thanks,
Katrina
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