Well, it's happened. Was bound to earlier or later. One of my orchids is
dead.

It's one that was bought in mid-April at a show, and it looked like such a
healthy sturdy plant then. It was a Phal, one of those multiflorals which
have a lot of equestris in the hybrid. When I got it in April it had three
flowering spikes. At the end of July I noticed that two of it's leaves had
turned yellow, so I cut off all flower spikes to give the plant a rest, and
I repotted it at that time. I noticed at that time how small the root ball
was compared to the pot, so I repotted it into a much smaller pot. But alas,
I forgot to put in styrophome peanuts with the moss, so the plant became
water-clogged. As soon as another leaf turned yellow, and the moss would not
dry out, I realized my mistake, but I guess it was already too late. I
repotted it once more, using peanuts this time, in early August. But a week
ago yet another leaf turned yellow, and it was down to two leaves. This
morning as I was about to check whether it needed watering, the two
remaining leaves fell off. They were still green, but the core of the plant
was charcoal black -- is that what is called "black rot"? The blackness had
not been visible from the outside, only once the two leaves and crown fell
off, was it visible that the core was completely black.

Anyway, I am tossing it in the garbage with regret, it was a very nice Phal
when in bloom. I know that I definitely contributed to its demise, by water
clogging it when I first repotted it. But even then it was already not doing
well. Maybe it had bloomed too much for too long. And the previous owner had
either potted it in too big a pot or the roots had shrunk already a lot by
the end of July, and it just went down-hill from there.

Oh, well. I guess most of you will say that this makes me a more experienced
orchid grower, but I don't feel too good about that right now.

Joanna