Vic,

Your story makes me realize that maybe I am the one with the misconception
after all.

I consider Phals easy, even though I do have grow lights for them, since I
(like you) have only north-facing windows in my apartment and I turn these
lights on every day before I go to work and turn them off at night before
going to bed, and even though as mentioned in my other post when the whether
is in the 60s at night I tend to open the window to give them the 10-15
degree difference in temp. Before I did all this, my first two Phals did not
reflower for me for two years. To me this still is not too much to ask, so I
consider them "easy", but I guess as compared to a plant that just sits
there in a corner of the room and gets watered once in a blue moon, they are
not all that easy. However, I can't keep houseplants alive that other people
consider hard to kill -- such as cacti or dumbcane, a plant which I killed
very quickly, and didn't care enough about to try to prevent from dying. So
I guess, whether Phals are easy to grow in part depends on ones definition
of "easy", how much one is willing to do, without feeling put upon.

I look forward to someday moving to a place with eastern windows though --
my dream house will have an eastern bay window for the Phals :-) and then I
won't need to do anything special to get them to reflower.

Joanna

wrote in message
...
I'm probably in a better position to answer this question than most
people. I've got one phal. That's it. It came from a hardware store
because the woman there said she grows them and it's easy. She gave me
a few basic instructions. They seem to have worked, and the plant is
doing O.K.

Shortly after buying the phal I went to a local orchid show to find
out a bit more about caring for it. Everybody there gave me
conflicting advice -- when they would even deem to give me advice.
Most just said things like "I don't keep phals" or "you'd better ask
somebody else."

When I tried talking to vendors, I'd tell them "I'm new to this but I
like that plant. What conditions does it need?" Then they would
proceed to tell me that I had the wrong facing window, or the wrong
room conditions. They also told me the plant wouldn't likely bloom for
me, or wouldn't bloom for two, three, four, etc. years.

The few vendors who tried to convince me to buy plants tried way too
hard. They really believed in the hard sell and basically told me
that it would grow no matter what There seemed to be no middle ground
-- especially since a vendor selling an identical plant a couple
spaces over would tell me point blank that I'd just likely kill it. So
even though I was almost ready to buy another plant, I walked away
empty handed (except for a small bag of fertilizer). Actually even
buying that was frustrating because every vendor told me I needed a
different strength/type/numbers (10-30-10, 20-20-20 etc.) of
fertilizer or that I needed two or three different types (one for
general growth, one for blooming, one for something else, etc.).

Even following the discussions on this group is off-putting. I just
have a normal apartment. I don't have grow lights or plant-specific
humidifiers or hydroponic trays. My room temperature stays pretty
constant -- I don't have 10 or 15 degree differences between day and
night temperatures. As far as I can tell my plant shouldn't be growing
at all, especially since I only have one north facing window that
isn't shaded by a balcony or doesn't have a window unit
heater/airconditioner blowing under it. Added to those limitations, I
constantly read about people who have had plants for years that
haven't bloomed or rebloomed for them, and it all gets a bit
discouraging.

I'd love to get a couple more plants -- another phal or two would be
nice, I'd love a nice fancy catt or an LC and something fragant would
be wonderful -- but beyond not really having space for them, the more
I read, the more I wonder whether I want to take the risk of buying
another, better plant. On top of it all, I really hate obsessing about
my plants. I'm happy watering them and repotting them when needed, but
I don't want to have to fuss with them on daily basis. When I was
travelling a lot more for business, I'd often joke that my plants were
happier when I was gone and they were ignored for a few days. I don't
know if better quality orchids can stand up to that kind of treatment.

Don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled with my phal. I'm glad I've got it. I
just don't know if I'll ever buy another one.
--Vic