Patrick Mullins wrote:

I am a new orchid grower and I have an orchid that has two flower stems.
One is over three feet long and another is two feet long. When will they
bloom? Should I stake it now or wait until it starts blooming?

Thank you, Deborah

Please allow me the opportunity to give a warning that may apply, as new as I
may be to orchids....

I bought a Phal this Summer that had a prodigious spike with many buds on it.
The store had staked it straight up. By the time those buds bloomed, the weight
became more than the spike could handle, and it snapped.

All that I could think to do was to straighten out the snap and splint it with
an even longer stake. That worked for a few days until it snapped again a little
higher up, and I splinted that one, also.

Now, the blooms lasted quite a long time, and I can't say the snaps shortened
their life, but this is just to say that you can't beat gravity, and the plants
in the wild don't try. I didn't really consider the weight while awaiting those
first blooms.

(and my good luck....as soon as that spike was empty, out came another one. This
one was a bit shorter and with half as many blooms, but just as nice!)

Good luck with those!!!


Joe


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