It might be temperature related, they like it not too hot and not too cold. I tried to grow them and they always died.
Scarce as hens teeth around these parts. approx 1000 orchids benched each year at the local orchid society and you would be lucky to see one most years.

I would agree with temperature if it had died the first year. The thing that doesn't make sense is that it did well for a few years then just stopped growing.

I have been unsuccessful with them for years and finally hit on a simple formula which led to 3 of them blooming this year. In the summer I put them in the cold greenhouse, in the winter they switch to the warm GH. They don't like to get too warm nor too cool This may not apply to the original post but does address years of frustration I have had with these beauties. Now that it finally found a successful formula, I plan to lay on a few more, they are very showy.

I know most people don't have a cool and a warm GH but the principle applies. Keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Nick

We all have orchids in our collection that fit the heading. They might survive for a few years in marginal conditions but in the end they die.
Just to add to what Nick said one OS member many years back had some success with them but he had a very large airy glasshouse that because of its size did not get as hot in summer as my two small glasshouses.
In the unlikely event that i try another one i would keep it in my home all year.
As i said before not easy at latitude 33S. Maybe not easy in NJ either, I remember arriving in New York many many moons ago and it was hot and sticky, hardly cloud forest conditions.

I have tried every which way. They seem to like cool. I kept them in the house in AC all summer, put them out in fall, back inside for winter. Kept them cool. They still died.

One did bloom for a few years but would appear to die. After bringing it to Florida, I kept it inside and saw two new growths and was really optimistic it would grow here. They entire plant suddenly died.

I can't grow them in NY or Florida!

Jane

I routinely give talks to beginners at our orchid shows. I single out 2 plants for negative recommendations. I tell people that the Miltoniopsis and the Dendrobium nobile are striking and irresistible. 'Buy them, love them and photograph them a lot because you'll never see them bloom again.'

Nick

I understand and agree with the points made about temperature to an extent. The die back happened between January and March which for my area are some of the coldest months of the year. The last few months have had record breaking heat waves and in the last 2 months is when it started growing back.

I guess if it was easy to grow it would be much less interesting.

They are very desirable.... but maybe easier if you lived in San Francisco?
Must ask the owner of this orchid if it is still alive.
{{gwi:160564}}

I love these orchids and failed miserably for thirty years. I knew people who were successful with growing and blooming them in New Orleans, La. I was told what their secret is and I've had success growing them for the last five years here in central Alabama. I put them in cool pots which act as a cool evaporizer at their roots. Repot every year. Grow under grow lights. Go to Wal Mart and buy a couple of those small seven dollar fans and place them directly in front of the plants. Also while at Wal Mart buy the cheapest warm mist evaporizer and place it directly behind the fans. The biggest thing to prevent the rot on the new growth is never fertilize these plants ever. If you feel that you must fertilize. then crush up some dead leaves and put on top of your orchid bark. In five years, I've never fertilized any plant and have been rewarded with multiple growths and blooms twice a year on all my plants. I water every three days. Like I said,I failed for thirty years trying to grow these plants. I followed the instructions from down in New Orleans and I haven't lost a plant in five years. I grow them inside of the house and they never go outside. I hope that this helps some of ya'll to give them another try. BTW, I just noticed a new flower spike forming on one of my plants. The orchid mix that I use is Schultz Orchid Mix. It has no fertilizer in it. It took me many years to learn that chemical fertilizers kill the new growths on these plants. Oh, and my house temps are set at 75 degrees all year.

Oh, and I keep the door closed to the room the orchids are in. Besides the grow lights they also get some late afternoon sun from a window. The time that the room gets sunlight is not hot enough to damage my plants. It's very humid when I go into that room and the plants seem to love it. This setup is real cheap. The only expense that I have to endure is only when I have to buy two grow lights every six months, and two of those are less than 20 bucks at Home Depot.

What is the name of the grow lights you get from home depot?

24 inch GE Plant and Aquarium. If you're growing miltoniopsis, I left out the MOST important fact. Only use bottled water to water these plants. I currently grow about ten miltoniopsis in regular pots and not the cool ones. They are doing as well as those grown in the cool pots. Only use bottled water. I buy spring water sold at Wal Mart for eighty cents a bottle. You can water many plants with one bottle. I now water once a week. You can use any type of bottled water such as distilled. I hope that this helps.

I'm so glad I found this post, even if it's from 2012. I'm having the exact same issues with two miltoniopsis that I purchased about 2 months ago. I had two large-ish beautiful plants that I received in spike/bloom: var Andrea West & Maui Mist. I noticed an overpowering sweet smell from the roots, just like the OP; like a mix of spilled Coca Cola & decaying wet wood/organic material. I decided to repot because I couldn't stand it, and the plants went into shock with the leaves drooping, flowers dropping, taking on a pale silvery cast.

I repotted into semi-hydroponics using leca beads in clear plastic pots. The Andrea West, the supposedly, weaker variety has been doing fine and largely recovered with leaves intact with a new growth. The Maui Mist though declined, all the leaves completely wilted until they started to get brown and snap right off. All pseudobulbs shriveled until almost flat, and the turn brown and die. I was also about to throw it out when I noticed a small growth. I'm guessing this has been set back enough that it'll take like the OP at least 1-2 years to get back to where it was.

There was also an intense long-lasting heat wave that I think is the cause of the Maui Mist's almost demise and I think the repotting didn't help. Finicky plants!

I got mine miltoniopsis Breathless "Florence" as a seedling. Gosh, it was hard to grow it! I thought orchid will die! However, plant survived. Secret? Tiny pot, artificial light, at home all year round and cool air. I have mostly 70 in the house. But Im in Alaska.

Mine stay inside all year too. I would never put them outside in the heat. We have high temps and humidity practically all year long. Mine are very happy inside of my air conditioned house. I can't believe how fast and big they grow. Thirty years of killing the plants until a grower told me to use bottled water. Since doing this, I haven't lost one plant.

Thats right! Im using RO water!

When I'm not too lazy, I'll use RO water. I have a small RO system in one of my bathrooms. Once you figure out that you need pure water to grow these gems, they grow like weeds and bloom like crazy. These are my favorite orchids and boy did I kill my share before I found out that you need to use pure water. I buy most of my plants from the Orchid Gallery. Their plants are huge and extremely healthy.

My milts. are still doing great in my house. Most of mine bloom once a year but I have a few that bloom every six months. I no longer live in Alabama, I returned home to Louisiana. The only difference that I noticed is that the humidity is slightly higher in Louisiana. I still use nothing but distilled water and I no longer buy plastic bottles of it. I purchased a water distiller for seventy-five dollars and that water distiller was a blessing. The brand name of my distiller is VEVOR.

Wow, ten years went by real fast.

Maybe it’s time to try another one.

Mark, no issues with the heat down there? I thought these liked being on the cool side

James - this is like traveling through a time machine! Anyway, I water my orchids with rain water I collect from my gutters. I purchased a cheap diverter from Amaxon, cut into my downspout (I was fortunate in that it is a 4" variety) and divert the water into a 55 gallon drum. It can't over fill due to the way the diverter is set up. The instructions are very clear and contain everything you'll need to cut into the downspout and drum.

So every time it rains, all the pollen, bird poop, dead bugs and whatever else doesn't make it off my roof, gets washed into the barrel. The water is crystal clear except during heavy pollen season when it contains a film of yellow pollen. It doesn't matter, because I collect everything and water my orchids and my hoyas with it as well. It's a natural fertilizer, like would be found where these plants grow naturally. Everything grows fine and healthy. Blooming on the other hand, is a function of light and temperature. My Miltoniopsis do need a cold spell to initiate flowers, which I have no issues leaving them out to chill a little in the fall.

Best of luck with yours.....

James, I have no issues with the heat because they grow inside my house. I never put them outside, even for a couple of minutes. I grow them in a spare room that has a large window that gets early morning sun. I also have them under cheap grow lights that clip onto something that's near the plants. The grow lights take an ordinary grow bulb or you can use those long square grow light bulbs. Either type will work and the total cost is really cheap. Ever since I found out about the water my plants are growing fast. I use only organic fert. since the other types of fert. can burn the roots. The organic can not burn the roots. A guy that I purchase miltoniopsis plants from told me that since most tap water is purified to get rid of bacteria and other things most tap water contains chlorine and chorline burns the delicate roots. I never thought about this before and since I found out about chlorine being in most tap water, this makes sense plus you can smell the faint odor of chlorine in the tap water. I can't tolerate the heat so I stay inside and I set my thermostat at 70 degrees. If I'm happy with the temps. the plants are probably happy too. I almost forgot one important issue. I have a humidifier working 24 hours. It's a real cheap humidifier that I purchased off of Etsy. The humidifier looks like a fat white stick. I stick it in an old plastic water jug and you can see the mist coming out. Apparently it works real well. I can't tell you the brand because it came in a company box and everything is in Chinese including the instructions. I think that the humidifier cost me around five bucks. My set up is cheap but I haven't killed any plants. I currently have about seven plants putting out spikes. I have about twenty plants and I don't want anymore. I'll probably get another one only if the flower color appeals to me or if it's a cross that I don't have.