Sarahsbs,

Are you sure it is a Miltonia and not a Miltoniopsis? Did it come with an
identifying tag by any chance? A lot of people (including some vendors) use
the two interchangeably, but they are different: Miltonias are warm-growing,
whereas Miltoniopsis prefer intermediate temperatures. When my mother-in-law
bought her Miltoniopsis, the vendor told her that when they are in flower or
in bud, they need much more water, and thus he advised watering twice a week
during that time -- the Miltoniopsis has flourished for her, and has
reflowered a second time in the meantime, so I suspect that this advice was
good. I am not an expert on Miltonias nor Miltoniopsis though, so I hope
someone else will give you more advice.

One important thing to keep in mind: loosing buds does not mean that the
plant is dieing. The orchid plant may well be quite healthy and still loose
buds (called bud blast) due to difference in conditions between where it was
grown previously (probably a greenhouse) and your home, or any number of
other reasons that may cause bud blast. Just because it looses buds now does
not necessarily mean that you are doing something wrong, it may be a
reaction to something that happened to it before you got it. Just because
the orchid looses buds now does not mean that it will not flourish for you
in the future. It could loose some of the buds only and then open other
flowers, or it could loose all its buds this time but reflower for you some
other time. So do not give up on this plant just because of some bud blast!

Best,
Joanna

wrote in message
ups.com...
I just received a beautiful miltonia plant for my birthday, and it came
to me with several flowers in bloom and several more buds (6-7, on 2 or
3 separate spikes). I moved it into my living room, onto a mantle which
recieves direct sunlight. All of the buds began to wilt after several
days. I thought maybe the mantle didn;t get enough light, so I moved it
into my window sill, since it has been cloudy for the past few days.
The flower shop told me it has been watered once a week.

Any suggestions on how to save this guy?

Thanks