My husband bought me a gorgeous orchid plant for Valentine's Day. I'm
not sure what type it is. You can see it he

http://home.comcast.net/~jbcamel/temp/long.jpg

It is a single plant with two long stems covered with flowers. In fact
it has not lost a single flower since he gave it to me and has grown at
least four or five new ones. It also has several new buds. Most of
the buds are at the end of the stems but a couple are in the middle.

Questions:

- Should I prune the flower stems so that they do not get extremely
long and spindly? If so, where do I prune them?
- What about feeding? The instructions said to only feed them monthly
in warm months. I do have orchid food but I haven't fed them yet. I
thought I'd start in May. Does that sound right?
- I have no idea what I'm doing but so far the plant seems to be very
happy. It gets filtered morning sun and bright light the rest of the
day. Do orchids continue to flower all year or do they have a season?
- Does it ever need to be repotted?

I'd really love it and would like to keep it beautiful and happy as
long as possible. Any help would be appreciated.

Jane

Hi Jane. I have an orchid that looks alot like yours. It has several
flowers and a 'kiekie' (baby). Yours looks like a Phalaenopsis or Phal.
to me. They sometimes put on a baby plant on end of their spikes (not
stem). Heres a orchid site: crystal-company.com/care.html
The only thing it doesn't mention is not to let the water stand in the
over flow tray-that's death to an orchid. I use rain water and yes
fertilize maybe once a month and your orchid will love it. Good
luck........Burr

On 2006-04-04 20:22:37 -0400, said:

My husband bought me a gorgeous orchid plant for Valentine's Day. I'm
not sure what type it is. You can see it he

http://home.comcast.net/~jbcamel/temp/long.jpg

It is a single plant with two long stems covered with flowers. In fact
it has not lost a single flower since he gave it to me and has grown at
least four or five new ones. It also has several new buds. Most of
the buds are at the end of the stems but a couple are in the middle.


Hi Jane,
What you have is a Phalaenopsis orchid. Sometimes called a phal for
short. Do a google search on it and you'll have enough info to read for
many days!

You seem to be doing the right things so far.

On Tue, 4 Apr 2006 17:22:37 -0700, wrote
(in article .com):

My husband bought me a gorgeous orchid plant for Valentine's Day. I'm
not sure what type it is. You can see it he

http://home.comcast.net/~jbcamel/temp/long.jpg

It is a single plant with two long stems covered with flowers. In fact
it has not lost a single flower since he gave it to me and has grown at
least four or five new ones. It also has several new buds. Most of
the buds are at the end of the stems but a couple are in the middle.

Questions:

- Should I prune the flower stems so that they do not get extremely
long and spindly? If so, where do I prune them?
- What about feeding? The instructions said to only feed them monthly
in warm months. I do have orchid food but I haven't fed them yet. I
thought I'd start in May. Does that sound right?
- I have no idea what I'm doing but so far the plant seems to be very
happy. It gets filtered morning sun and bright light the rest of the
day. Do orchids continue to flower all year or do they have a season?
- Does it ever need to be repotted?

I'd really love it and would like to keep it beautiful and happy as
long as possible. Any help would be appreciated.

Jane

Welcome to the group, Jane. The genus is Phalaenopsis, but unless you have a
tag somewhere about the pot, you'll never know the species or hybrid name.
That's OK; most of us have picked up what we call "noids" for No ID because
they're pretty.

Phals need warmth, but only low to moderate light levels; they sunburn rather
easily.

They need to be kept moist, but never standing in water, and it's important
to keep water out of the crown of the plant, where the leaves come together,
because the roots and crown are very susceptible to rot. How often to water
depends on the ambient temperature and the medium they're in, but a good
drenching once a week in warm months, and every 10 to 14 days in cold months
is plenty.

The recommendation for fertilizing is "weakly, weekly." One quarter
teaspoonful of the usual granular fertilizers in a gallon of rain water would
be fine. Everyone has his or her own magical routine, but I like to water
with a fertilizer solution three times in a row, and then just drench with
water the fourth time.

Phalaenopsis blooms are exceptionally long lasting - up to several months.
You shouldn't prune back the inflorescence, or "spike," until the blooms have
mostly withered (or you're tired of them!), and then cut it as close to the
leaves as you can. Most Phals bloom once yearly, adding new leaves on top
between times, and losing old leaves on the bottom as they grow.

If yours is in a medium like bark or coconut chips or sphagnum, with or
without Perlite and charcoal, it should be repotted every two or three years.
If you don't know when it was last repotted, I'd do it after these blooms
have faded. Otherwise, the medium could decompose, keeping the roots wet with
poor air circulation, and harboring the organisms that cause rot.

If you're impelled to keep this orchid growing or add others (it's an
insidious addiction), join a local orchid society, read any one of the many
good orchid primers, and/or keep coming back to this generally friendly
group.

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D70

Thanks for the help Tom. So when the the plant isn't blooming it will
grow leaves? I had another orchid once that flowered for a long time,
looked great and then suddenly died. The flowers died and then the
leaves turned yellow. At first I thought the plant had gone dormant
but now it sounds like it just croaked.

I hope that doesn't happen this time.

In general how long is the none blooming season? Is it at any
particular time of year? Do I feed it even if it isn't blooming?

I know there is LOTS of info on the Web but I have a very bad back and
can only spend a limited amount of time on the computer. Asking
questions seems to be the most efficient way for me to get help on
this.

Thanks again.

Jane

On Wed, 5 Apr 2006 17:39:55 -0700, wrote
(in article .com):

Thanks for the help Tom. So when the the plant isn't blooming it will
grow leaves? I had another orchid once that flowered for a long time,
looked great and then suddenly died. The flowers died and then the
leaves turned yellow. At first I thought the plant had gone dormant
but now it sounds like it just croaked.

I hope that doesn't happen this time.

In general how long is the none blooming season? Is it at any
particular time of year? Do I feed it even if it isn't blooming?

Jane

Some orchids are deciduous; most, including Phals, are not. It is normal for
the lowest pair of leaves on a phal to yellow and shrivel with further growth
of the upper part, but generalized yellowing and shriveling suggest
approaching death, often due to poor condition of the roots, which is why a
look at the root system, and repotting when necessary, are so important.
BTW, Phals often put out a lot of aerial roots, which are not a bad thing,
and should probably be left alone except for soaking or spraying when you
water.
I'm not one of the several experts in the group, but my experience has been
that the most prolific blooming season is in the late Winter and Spring,
though some orchids seem to enjoy blooming in Summer and early Fall. Not
infrequently, a healthy orchid will even bloom 2 or more times a year.
Probably varies with the species and cultural conditions. It is common for
growers to manipulate light and temperature exposure to bring plants into
bloom at any time for the market.

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D70

Joanna - thank you for spending so much time answering my questions.
This has helped a lot.

Jane

Thank you all for your help. I can see myself getting addicted to
this. Right now my plant has 15 gorgeous flowers on it. What a
pleasure.

Thanks again. I'm sure I'll be back for more help.

Jane

You have a lovely Phaleonopsis there... mine is the same colour and produces a flower stalk every year, last count being 13 blooms at one time. I have mine in front of a south facing window, the light being filtered through net curtains. I usually leave the blooms to die off naturally then snip the flower stalk a little, maybe a couple of inches, to leave some of the nodules on. After this, if the conditions are right, it might produce another stalk from one of these nodules and flower again for you. Also, it isn't unusual to have more than one stalk at the same time! I was amazed when I found mine to be in flower from July - February one year! Be careful not to let it dry out too much, as the flowers will wither and start to drop. Good luck!