wrote in message
...
Hi Katrina. I like the comment on the root stimulator - that might
help. I bought a seedling in May and it lost all it's roots and became
wrinkly. I cut off all the dead roots, put it in peat moss and kept the
moss damp and misted the leaves when I knew they'd dry (not at night)
and now I now have the startings of a new root. It takes along time but
as long as your plant seems alive I'd hang in there. I have mine near an
east window with blinds and under a plant light. Good luck


Thanks so much!

Plant light. That sounds like a good idea. This is Amsterdam; I wonder if
they even sell low-wattage here? I'll go out and check at the Big Garden
Place a little ways out of town, on Monday or so, if I can find out what
tram to take. I'll see if they have a rooting stimulator, too. Ummm... do
they come plant-species-specific? There's a very thriving culture here
related to growing a particular type of plant, and "rooting hormone" is
available all over the place for that species. (A sort of hemp, if you're
not catching on. This is *Amsterdam*...) Would this rooting stuff be
appropriate, or do I need one made for orchids?

Thanks,

Katrina


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"White Monkey" wrote in message
...
I didn't get it at an office. I am an illustrator and I work from home. I
got it at a market stall, open air. Irt was probably forced

Hmm, I don't know why I misremembered that part. Must have been reading too
many posts about orchids rescued from somewhere or other and confused them
in my mind :-)

Joanna

"White Monkey" wrote in message
.. .
we just have to crank the gas heater up until we feel warm
enough. Then we turn it off late at night, go to bed in the freezing room,
and turn the heater on again in the morning. I'd bet the room doesn't get
below 40 (Fahrenheit, obviously) at night even when it's several degrees
below zero (Celsius, of course) outside, and it doesn't get above 70 or so
in here by day. So the fluctuation is there--it jsut fluctuates a bit far,
I
guess.

Wow, Katrina, your conditions do sound a bit extreme to me. Brrrr, I can't
imagine living in an apartment where it gets to be that cold -- I get cold
whenever the thermostat goes below 70 Fahrenheit or 21 Celsius (I guess I am
spoiled -- though come to think of it I probably got that spoilt in my adult
years, I suspect that the temperatures in the old house I grew up in in
Poland were not as cozy as here). Phals generally are said to like the same
temperatures as most humans do -- so if you are cold, it may be too cold for
them, unless one is as spoiled as me that is.

Have you gotten any of your Phals to rebloom in these conditions yet. If you
have gotten at least one of the Phals to start a new spike in your apartment
then all should be well enough, since if one Phal is happy enough to
rebloom, the others should be as well. If not, if you have had any Phal for
longer than a year and it has not rebloomed for you, think of ways to try
to improve your conditions, one bit at a time.

Phals are pretty resilient plants, and they can adapt to conditions that are
not ideal. Mine are in an apartment that has only northern windows and I
have added grow lamps to try to improve the light. But even with the lamps,
the leaves of mine are darker than they ideally should be. However, the
Phals have re-flowered for me (including two that surprised me by growing a
new spike a second time this year). So the conditions here are good enough.
I do however keep trying to improve the conditions: recently I bought a
humidifier -- though, last winter I did not use one, and the plants
rebloomed nonetheless, but now I have the goal to improve their conditions
so that hopefully they will bloom more often, or longer or with more than
one flower spike.

All the best,
Joanna

Wow, Katrina, your conditions do sound a bit extreme to me. Brrrr, I can't
imagine living in an apartment where it gets to be that cold -- I get cold
whenever the thermostat goes below 70 Fahrenheit or 21 Celsius (I guess I
am
spoiled -- though come to think of it I probably got that spoilt in my
adult
years, I suspect that the temperatures in the old house I grew up in in
Poland were not as cozy as here). Phals generally are said to like the
same
temperatures as most humans do -- so if you are cold, it may be too cold
for
them, unless one is as spoiled as me that is.

We're not cold by day, except where the drafts are. Like here by my
computer. *Sigh*.

Have you gotten any of your Phals to rebloom in these conditions yet.

Not as such. I got one with 1 1/2 spikes, and it went ahead and finished off
the second spike nicely; I considered this a Good Sign. Two of the German
ones, the weird green and pink spotty ones, also came with second spikes.
One was snapped off at the tip accidentally by a friend (urrrgh....), but
the spike is still green and seems vigorous, and the other is very slowly
enlarging the second spike. The first plant lost the flowers on the first
spike, but only after 8 weeks and all at once, so I'd guess they were just
done. I don't know how long the flowers had been open before I bought it.
The second plant has lost one flower off the first spike, but that's after
12 weeks or so, and the other flowers are still going strong.

If you
have gotten at least one of the Phals to start a new spike in your
apartment
then all should be well enough, since if one Phal is happy enough to
rebloom, the others should be as well. If not, if you have had any Phal
for
longer than a year and it has not rebloomed for you, think of ways to try
to improve your conditions, one bit at a time.

I got my first one in July. That one has grown two new fully-developed
leaves since then, and has survived root rot and drying out while I was
learning how to take care of these (you can read and read, but just like
with animals none of it helps much once the thing is sitting there looking
at you in your own home), and since then has started a new node along the
crown that looks to me like it'll be a root. Some of the others, acquired in
July, September, and one of the ones I got 10 weeks ago, have poked tiny new
leaf beginnings out the crowns; that's why I was worried about the
"big-leafed" one. I also have a Cambria, an Oncidium, a Miltonia, and a
Calumnea wildcat, and these are doing fine in the colder, brighter bedroom.
I've only had them about 5 months but the Cambria has grown a whole new...
are these pseudobulbs?... as has the oncidium, and the wildcat has a lot of
new leaves. All of these reacted to being sold and transported by losing the
flowers fairly rapidly, but that seemed only to be expected, to me. I'm sure
they'll reflower; they seem quite happy.

Thank you so much for your insight and help. I guess these guys are fine,
but I'll monitor them carefully!

Thanks,

Katrina


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If you can find this Hormex vitamin and hormone concentrate
locally that's good. You can also get it at www.wormsway.com but it's a bit
pricey there.
I'm always buying sick plants on the $1 shelf or dumpster diving behind the
store. I've had luck using it mixed 2.5 ml to 1000 ml of water (depending
how sick and rootless the phal) and mist daily. Since yours has roots I'd
try 1 to 2 ml to 1000 ml. Also 40 cm isn't that long of a leaf as I've seen
white phals in the stores here with leafs that size or longer.

Thanks! I'll see if I can get that.

I had no idea white phal's tended to larger leaves than other-colored, very
similar phal's. Doesn't surprise me, though. I've already noticed a great
deal of variation among mine--one of the greeny ones, the more
creamy-colored one with the sillier pink spots, has long, narrow, pointed
leaves that stand stiffly out with a slight upward inclination, the one that
gets big purple flowers has similarly shaped leaves but they s-curve
gracefully, one of the smaller ones--the Pink Stripes, I think--is pretty
strongly recurved, and then there's this white guy with its huge lush leaves
draped all over the pot and table. I like it!

--Katrina


"dusty" wrote in message
s.com...



If you can find this Hormex vitamin and hormone concentrate
locally that's good. You can also get it at www.wormsway.com but it's a
bit
pricey there.
I'm always buying sick plants on the $1 shelf or dumpster diving behind
the
store. I've had luck using it mixed 2.5 ml to 1000 ml of water (depending
how sick and rootless the phal) and mist daily. Since yours has roots I'd
try 1 to 2 ml to 1000 ml. Also 40 cm isn't that long of a leaf as I've
seen
white phals in the stores here with leafs that size or longer.



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