Winter is the season in which many Phals display their full potential. While it actually doesn’t feel so wintery in NYC these days, my Phals are responding to the season as they should. I have a few orchids in bloom that I want to share with you! One of them is the Phal that opened up in mid January; a few more buds have opened and there are still more to come:
The second is a beautiful, colorful bloom on a side shoot of the Phal that my parents sent me for my 33rd birthday last summer:
And possibly the most exciting of the three, my Tolumnia from Lowe’s is finally beginning to bloom again!
Another one of my Phals and two of my Phal keikis (one potted on its own, one still attached to its mother) are in spike too, so there will be blooms aplenty in the house soon. 🙂
10 comments
Fantastic!
Love your Orchids and this blog!
Thank you!!
Your “birthday orchid” is absolutely and utterly drop dead stunning!
Thanks Aileen!!
Hi Brooklyn Orchids!
My orchid is exactly the same as your second orchid! Today, I had repotted it after most of the flower had fallen off. It was packed in moss (from the flower store) and there were a good number of rotten roots. I noticed that some of the aerial roots were rotting (when I squeeze them, they’re soft and airy) although one rotting root still had a green end. When I was cutting off rotten roots during the repotting process, I also found roots that were rotten in the middle, but had a long segment of green roots at the end that was connected together by a white thred-like substance that was in the middle of the rotten roots. I had cut these off anyway, but I was curious why there were roots like these.
Also, my second question has to do with cutting the spikes. One of my flower stems has completely browned and yellowed. The other one has browned on top but is still quite green. I was wondering if I should cut the entire brown stem off, but cut the greener stem under the flowered node?
Thanks for your help!
Hi Lin! I’ve seen seemingly healthy green roots growing off the tip of rotten roots too, and I’m not sure why that happens. When I do see it, I cut them off because I don’t want the rotten material to remain in the pot and cause problems.
Regarding your second question, yes, you should cut the entire brown stem down at the base and you can cut the green stem just underneath where it first flowered. You may get a side shoot and a couple more blooms from it that way!
I had repotted the orchid with new phalaenopsis potting mix, but I noticed that the mix seems to dry up pretty quickly at least from what I can tell by the bark on the surface. Will this provide the orchid with enough water and nutrients?
Since I had cut off most of its rotten roots, it has a cluster of short green roots so it’s not very deep in the flower pot. Should I plant it deeper inside the pot? I just wanted to give the aerial roots some space.
Thanks again!
It’s better for the orchid to be a little on the dry side than to be too wet. If you can find a clear plastic pot to plant your orchid it, that would be ideal, as you will be able to see the potting medium and the roots and can tell how moist they are. But do note that the surface usually dries up faster than the rest of the pot, so just because the surface is dry doesn’t mean the rest is. You can try inserting a bamboo skewer into the medium and pulling it out to help gauge the moisture level inside.
You can try to plant the orchid a little deeper inside the pot so that it doesn’t fall over, but you should try not to bury the stem (where the leaves grow from) too deep, as this part of the orchid needs air flow too. Good luck to you!!