Ted,

First....don't repot them yet! Enjoy the flower show for now.

There could be two explainations. First is that a dormant bud at the base
of the plant decided to grow and you have one plant with two growing points.
Some phals are prone to this and you probably do not want to divide them
unless there is a real desire to have two plants. In this case you really
are conducting surgery on the plant and causing stress. If they have a
pleasant appearance I would leave them grow together and create a great big
phal. This is akin to what happens when a phal gets crown rot and throws
off another plant from under the medium. It's a good thing!

The other explaination is that when someone was de-flasking the tiny
seedlings they had two of them that were entangled. In this case you have
two different plants that are growing together. Do the flowers look
identical? If they appear different then this is most likely the case. I
would not divide them until the phal has finish blooming. Since the roots
are entangled at this point. When you divide them you will break the
healthy roots and stress the plants. This will probably cause the
buds/flowers to drop. If it were my plant I'd enjoy the flowers for now and
when I cut the spike I'd divide it then.

You could just let them go for a long time. In nature when two phals grow
next to each other there's no gardener there to divide them. The stronger
plant will crowd out the weaker plant or they will co-exist. In your case
if they are compatible varieties (same water, light, heat requirements) they
may live for years in the same pot.

Good growing,
Gene



"Ted Byers" wrote in message
.. .
I just picked up two new phals, or perhaps it is four (I haven't repotted
them yet - they just arrived at the store only yesterday, so their staff
did
not have a chance to unduly stress them ;-). The plants in both pots look
for all the world like siamese twins (both about the same size), joined at
the hip, er root. There are lots of leaves, and two inflorescences, in
each
pot. SO, did someone screw up and pot two phals in each pot, or leave two
seedlings planted so close together they couldn't be separated without
killing them, or do phals occassionally grow in such a way that they look
like siamese twins? What's your best guess as to what happened? It will
be
at least a week before I get around to repotting them.

Cheers,

Ted