And one more...

Congrats! Phals are pretty tough and the flowers last for so long! Enjoy!

Oh boy, I think you got bitten by the orchid bug.lol Your phalaenopsis is lovely.What I like most about phals is you get more bang for your buck.I had one that bloomed for 6 months, from the opening of the first bud to the last.Enjoy their beauty.

Allymarie

Oh boy, I think you got bitten by the orchid bug.lol Your phalaenopsis is lovely.What I like most about phals is you get more bang for your buck.I had one that bloomed for 6 months, from the opening of the first bud to the last.Enjoy their beauty.

Allymarie

Oh boy, I think you got bitten by the orchid bug.lol Your phalaenopsis is lovely.What I like most about phals is you get more bang for your buck.I had one that bloomed for 6 months, from the opening of the first bud to the last.Enjoy their beauty.

Allymarie

Hi rgebczynski, You were talking about flower jealous. I tell you what I'm jealous of you guys who live in England or the like climate. My son and his girlfriend live in Oxford. June 2012 I came to visit them and saw an orchid plant on a windowsill and at that time I know nothing and had no interested in them or looking after them. Since then their orchid has bloomed 3 times. Just only over a year and it bloomed 3 times!! I am so jealous of them because over here. I pray to have one and nothing yet from the one I have since April. Every orchids I had before last April I killed them all with my ignorant. Didn't know what to do and so I kind of "sour grape" saying to myself."Oh well, it worth the money with the flowers last that long, if I spend $40, or $50 for a bouque of flowers, it last only for a week or 2" to comfort myself. But since last April, I started out one small phal which was blooming with a lot of buds for ONLY $15 (you are so lucky to get that kind of deal in England) and determine to try to keep it alive. Since then, I went on line, talked to people who raise orchids. I talked to florists, anyone I can make conversation with to learn and since that one didn't die after the blooming were gone, I went nut and got more and more every time I see some beautiful in my opinion. So, now I have more than one kind of orchids in my house and the first spike from my phal. Not the one I bought in April. The rest of them seem to be doing okay except for Miltoniposis. There is one spike was coming since I bought it. All the other spikes were beautifully bloomed and gone except this one decided to stay where it is and never grow out of where it is. So, I am waiting for at least another spike from either cymbidium or ontodium to spike before I let myself excited. Some of them give me some new shoot and I have very high hope for my dendrobium to rebloom for me. If the stores over here have some deal like you have, I'd go crazy too and for the heck of the cheap cost, just get them and experiment. The cheapest orchids I can get over here is somewhere between $10 to $15. Right now in Safeway has some beautiful orchids but they are $30 to $50. If I want a small phal which I don't then it cost $15. so, you see that is what I am jealous to you guys about......

Ah thank you!
We are lucky indeed, just the other day I went to a local garden Centre and they a pre-Christmas plant sale, and man I am telling you what I saw was outstanding! A section just for orchids and I mean from pots, under pots, fertiliser, plant food, special soil to the actual plant part where they had at least 5 different types of orchids and each in dozen of colour. Also they had the Kaffir lily which I had never saw before and now want it so badly, and some 20 hybrids of amaryllis and air plants, amarylids and you name it.
Most of them get from a ridiculous high price when in bloom to few pennies when they loose the flowers.

Congrats on your new passion! You have a truly beautiful plant!
I initially started out as a cacti grower. Some 10 years ago orchids made inroads into my home - some pretty regular phals, like in your case. Since then I have bought many marked-down and regular orchids, mostly phals, but also catts. They are very thankful flowers to grow - some of mine bloom non-stop for close to 2 years (the larger phals). I'm still learning my way around Amaryllis world, which peacefully coexist with orchids, cacti and numerous Cyclamen i can never say no to when they hit the stores. Of all these plants, phals always bloom the longest. I hope yours will give you many beautiful moments and it's ok to be bitten by the orchid bug as long as you exercise restraint in the flower stores ;)
Lena

Lately, I just go to Safeway and go to the orchids section, stand there and take all my deep breath, breathe in the fragrant of orchids. Told myself not to bring my purse in!! You can call it a passion or an addict or whatever..... I do have a couple of reasons to restrain myself from buying more. and I really hang on that. Well, first, the price is high and especially from now until Christmas and with orchids, they never reduce the price.... With some of them wilting and dying I thought they'd put those on sale but no, they rather chuck them in the garbage... isn't that a shame? Secondly, my friends told me there will be an orchid show in Spring and I hope by that time, I'll know what kind of orchids will do well in my house and I'll go from there. Oh, what a passion!! I just can't wait until Spring......A couple of weeks ago, I went to see a green house of a man who raises and hybrids orchids. Oh I can just live in that green house! Many kind of flowers, especially the orange and deep pink and white with purple in the centre of Catteayas. He has over 2000 orchid plants and he grafted a few of them....He used to go to orchids shows with his orchids as far as the Australia and Brazil... And he lives in where I live (Alberta Canada!) Do you believe it? I told him I'll volunteer to water the orchids (so I can get my fix looking at them!) if he ever need someone! Well, I can go on and talk about orchids forever!! And I told my son and his girlfriend to pay attention to orchids show in England or Scotland and I think they are getting hooked too because she has been sending me pictures of orchid flowers. He even got her orchid and they seem to enjoy them a lot...

Tanie

I have the same with orchids and Amaryllis, its silly for a 26 year old guy to sit and look on plants, see how they grow, how the structure of the flower goes or how the veins on the leaves form.
And I always go thinking what else I can do to make them grow better. Right now it's hydroponics on hydroton but I will have to wait till the orchids stop blooming. But I can try it with the Amaryllis to see how they like it.
The problem in UK is that the weather is very inconsistent and the soil here holds water for very very long time. And the air is muggy and the fluids don't evaporate that fast as they should. The worst nightmare I used to have was fungus gnats and I didn't overwater!
Now I am prepared to have a fungicide and insecticide to spray the pots whenever I water my plants.

Right now Ive read some 10 articles about orchids, eve bought myself a book about all of them and am overthinking! And minutes turn into days of waiting for something to happen - funny as it sounds - try sitting in front of your flower, play some peaceful music and just be serene and observe... and after 2 hours somebody will find and ask you if you are alright - and you will wake up because for you it was a glimpse, a insignificant moment in time.

Hi rgebczynski again, funny is that I wrote something like that about my obsession with orchids this morning in the other post. You can go to "Phal's spike may be?" I posted in there and a lot of us got all excited and posted. Just now Jason even updated to us his spike since last week. You'll find some pretty common interests there. Now you said you sit by the orchids and listen to music. Yes, that's a great idea! I do like Sarah Brightman and I can do that while I'm day dreaming over my orchids too....

I was surprised to discover that my rescue orchid is not just some kind of random mix-match no name not recognisable plant. Yeah, it is probably sold in thousands and nobody cares what it its. But I did, and I found out that that hybrid is called ''Baldan's Kaleidoscope - Golden treasure''.
Its a offspring of Phalaenopsis Hausermann's Candy ÃÂ Phalaenopsis Daryl Lockhart
Kind of proud of myself right now.

This post was edited by rgebczynski on Tue, Nov 26, 13 at 7:57