I have observed with three of my Phals that are getting stronger light than
most, that the new spikes are directly under the leaves, and the new spikes
seem to follow the leaf beneath it to the very tip, as if they wanted to
hide or protect the new spike from the light as long as possible. Could this
be the reason? Has anyone else noticed this pattern? Is it indeed due to the
light being more there, or is it just a coincidence that these three happen
to be more in the light and happen to have the spikes like this? Just
curious.

FYI: these plants are quite healthy and are not showing any signs of
distress, and qhen I say 'more' light, I just mean more light than most of
the other Phals in my apartment, but even the 'more' light is at most medium
light, since most of my plants grow in low light conditions, and I can't
achieve high light levels with my current setup.

By the way if you have any other interesting observations about Phal spike
habits, feel free to share those in response to this thread as well.

Thanks,
Joanna

I noticed that mature plants that I've had for numerous years, which are
reliable bloomers, change their form after each bloom. I have hybrid Phals
that grew new leaves narrower than they were when I aquaired them (Ex:
picture Phal gigantea leaves on a hyb that in the next leaf growth produce a
leaf that resembles the leaf of a cornu-cervi). In some cases, the flowers
take on either a lighter or darker shading. Especially the hybrids with the
"blushy" centers. The type of stem "crawling" that you've described, is
something that I've observed as well, and I always thought that it's
attributed to the nature of Phals species: Short stemmed, and many of the
species produce flowers under the leaf, leaving the stem after flowering,
will generally produce a keiki or reflower on it. In horticulture, the more
you hybridize the more unstable the offspring becomes. I wonder if the same
applies to orchids.

My phals are still in the quite chilly outdoors, tonight the forcast calls
for high 50's and for the past two days the daytime temps were in the high
60's. Hopefully this will boost some spikes .

Mariana

"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:3CT6d.14226$Cn.13963@trnddc04...
I have observed with three of my Phals that are getting stronger light
than
most, that the new spikes are directly under the leaves, and the new
spikes
seem to follow the leaf beneath it to the very tip, as if they wanted to
hide or protect the new spike from the light as long as possible. Could
this
be the reason? Has anyone else noticed this pattern? Is it indeed due to
the
light being more there, or is it just a coincidence that these three
happen
to be more in the light and happen to have the spikes like this? Just
curious.

FYI: these plants are quite healthy and are not showing any signs of
distress, and qhen I say 'more' light, I just mean more light than most of
the other Phals in my apartment, but even the 'more' light is at most
medium
light, since most of my plants grow in low light conditions, and I can't
achieve high light levels with my current setup.

By the way if you have any other interesting observations about Phal spike
habits, feel free to share those in response to this thread as well.

Thanks,
Joanna