Fall Spikes in the House!

Ohhhh, I’ve been so terribly neglectful of you, my little orchid blog. Not only that, I’ve also been a bit neglectful of my actual orchids, which I feel even worse about. This summer and fall have been ridiculously busy, much more so than a typical few months for me. I had a period of time when I was only home on weekends a couple times within a couple months. For a homebody such as myself, that was pure insanity.

But I’ve finally been able to get some quality time at home and some quality time with my orchids. Now I’m excited to say that this weekend while watering I discovered not one, but TWO Phals with a spike! It’s definitely the right time of year for these to start appearing, with the cooler nighttime temperatures that we’ve been having in Brooklyn.

Spike # 1 is on my peloric Phal that I got at Home Depot several years ago. It spiked and bloomed a couple years in a row for me, but it didn’t bloom at all last year so I literally gasped with surprise when I spotted this burgeoning spike:

And spike #2 is beginning to poke out from the base of a lovely white and peachy-pink Phal that I bought at Trader Joe’s. This orchid’s bottom leaves have been looking dehydrated and limp…which is totally my fault because I had to skip a bunch of watering sessions this summer. So I was also surprised to see that it’s still doing well enough to spike:

Because these orchids each have a new root and a new spike coming out, these photos are excellent examples of how to tell the difference between a root and a spike, as I’ve posted about in the past. You can very clearly see that the roots have rounded tips and the spikes have that flattened mitten-like shape. (It’s easier to see in the first image.)

Aside from the spikes, I do have some growth going on but nothing to brag about too much. Now that I’ve settled back into my usual routine I hope to be able to give my little green babies much better care…and then maybe they’ll start rewarding me with blooms!