"Rob Halgren" wrote in message
...
You may, at your discretion, remove the
spent inflorescence (flower spike), just the same as you would deadhead
a geranium or a rose. Cut it off reasonably near to the foliage. Yes,
you can sometimes get more flowers if you cut it higher (about the
middle would probably work), but in my opinion it stresses the plant too
much and just starts to look ugly after a while. I usually compromise
by leaving the inflorescence on the plant until it turns completely dry
and brown- but that may not look so nice.

In my opinion, if the Phal is healthy (i.e.: if it has lots of healthy
looking leaves and lots of healthy roots, and is not loosing more of either
of those than it is gaining over time), it is a good idea to try to see if
it will choose to reuse the flower spike, so if I were you I would either
cut the inflorescence just below where the lowest of the wilted flowers used
to be or leave the flower spike alone and wait and see if it turns dry and
brown or decides to reflower after all. I think for newbies (and I still
consider myself one on my more humble days -- with only 3 years of
experience) having an orchid in bloom is more important than for experts
(such as Rob). And even though experts claim that a secondary blooming is
never as impressive as a primary one, for those of us with less experience
the difference is either not noticeable or unimportant. I assume that this
may be your only orchid plant right now, whereas Rob has a greenhouse full
of them, and thus one flower in bloom more or less makes less difference to
him. Also you never know whether or not you will be successful in getting
the orchid to grow a new inflorescence within the next year or so, so trying
to get more flowers out of this flower spike may be very tempting. And if
the Phal is healthy, a second blooming on the same spike shouldn't hurt it.
However, if it does appear to be showing signs of stress, especially if it
is loosing leaves and not growing enough new ones to compensate, then cut
the flower spike down.

An additional thought, what kind of light is your Phal getting: how close to
a window is it, and which direction does the window face? A lot of newbies
have the orchid plants in the middle of the room somewhere, which is
acceptable while it is in bloom, but not enough light in the long run.

A final thought: you might consider buying another Phal if this is your only
one thus far. Two Phals are not any harder to take care of than one, and
this way you can prolong the time during which you have an orchid in bloom,
without relying on the first one to reflower.

Best,
Joanna