"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...
Phals can keep you in bloom for 6-8 months of the year, but you probably
will need to diversify to have truly year-round flowers. If you have
enough
light, consider Dens. They are also long-lasting, and most will bloom
several times a year. Kenni

Kenni, sorry to disagree with you, but Phals can keep one in bloom all year
round. While it is certainly a good idea to diversify and have other orchids
as well, but if someone wanted to have only Phals, it is certainly possible
to have blooming ones all the time, even in the home environment.

I looked at my records, and there are 5 Phals of mine which have covered the
entire time period since March 2003 to the present, so that if I had only
those 5 Phals I would still likely have at least one Phal in bloom at all
times:

March 2003-September 2003 ---- Phal Zuma Confection
July 2003-December 2003 ---- Dtps Talitha's Gem
late November 2003-end of February 2004 ---- phal equestris
January 2004-May 2004 ---- No ID yellow Phal (nicknamed Canary Twin)
March-August 2004 ---- Phal Zuma Confection
May 2004-July 2005 ----- No ID white Phal with pink lips (nicknamed Ruby
Lips)
August 2004-April 2005 ---- phal equestris
September 2004-December 2004 ---- Dtps Talitha's Gem
September 2004-July 2005 ---- No ID yellow Phal (nicknamed Canary Twin)
December 2004-July 2005 ----- No ID white Phal with pink lips (nicknamed
Ruby Lips)
July 2005-(still in bloom in November) ---- Dtps Talitha's Gem
end of October 2005-(just starting to bloom) ---- phal equestris

now (November 2005):
+ No ID white Phal with pink lips (nicknamed Ruby Lips) is currently in
medium high new spike
+ Phal Zuma Confection is currently in low new spike
+ No ID yellow Phal (nicknamed Canary Twin) is showing continued activity on
an old spike

So as you see, it looks like with just these few Phals I could have Phals in
bloom all year round.

However, there are some caveats to this:

(1) I did not know that these particular Phals would be the ones to ensure
that I have something in bloom all the time, it happened by chance since I
have a total of 32 Phals by now and these happen to be the ones;

(2) note that two of these are No IDs that rebloom frequently and are in
bloom for a long time, just very lucky with those;

(3) I happen to own 2 Dtps Talitha's Gem, and the other one has yet to
reflower for me -- it seems to believe that producing many new leaves is
sufficient -- and these two were bought from the same vendor and I believe
both come from the same seed pod, and yet one of them is a reliable bloomer
and the other is not.

So, I think in order to replicate similar all year round blooming coverage,
you could acquire only Phals, but you would need to buy more than just 5
Phals to achieve this.

Best,
Joanna