Mica, You must realize that a post here has the potential of getting well meaning responses from orchid growers, and even responses from non orchid growers from all over he world.

First, we have no idea where you are located, or where exactly you are growing your two plants, and that is very important. You admittedly have no experience with orchid culture, so culture/plant terminology is probably not going to mean a lot to you at this point. I, or someone else could ask a multitude of questions based on your post, and you probably will not understand exactly what we are asking, or what kind of response we are looking for. This is not being critical of you, it is just a way of saying that you need to have some level of basic knowledge of orchids and their culture before you come to a forum and ask a completely open ended question for people all over the world to throw their "two cents worth" of opinion at.

First suggestion is to visit the American Orchid Society web site.....Or the web site of the national orchid society of what ever country you live in....and read about the plants and their culture. The American society has culture sheets for many different kinds of orchids with some basics on general culture here in the USA.

The web sites of companies that grow orchids usually have culture information on their plants (and lot of photos). Study those. Read past posts here on GW.

Find a local grower, or a local orchid society and visit/join them. Every orchid grower I ever met is more than eager to assist a new grower become "addicted" to the hobby. That's why we have forums like Garden Web, so us "old" growers can help new growers with questions or problems, but we can't grow your orchids for you, we can only make suggestions, or let you know what we might do in your situation. You must have enough basic knowledge to understand that what works in Australia, or the Caribbean Islands may not work exactly in your situation, and you must be knowledgeable enough to pick and choose the information that is really applicable to your growing situation.

Do some homework, learn a bit about the plants, they do in many ways, require different culture from your typical house plants, but you can grow them successfully together. We can, and are more than willing to help with specific questions, or general situations, but you need to understand the "language" going in.

Example.....Your mystery plant lost its blooms after a few days in your house......Some orchid blooms only last a few days.....some last many months (Phalaenopsis) we don't know what your plant is, (never saw the blooms or spike) and no one knows how long it had been in bloom in the store before it arrived at your home. We can't tell you if there is a problem or not, and I don't want to start rattling off solutions to what may not be a problem at all.

Study hard, and enjoy the new hobby. We're here to help where we can if necessary, and encourage a new grower at any time.

Bill

Hi Mica,
as Bill said I thik you need some knowledge about orchids. There are lots of books and webs with information about orchids cares, growth and more.
But looking your photos I think that the white one, is a Phalaenopsis and probably the sunlight burnt the flower. It´s very common that plants lose their flowers soonafter buying them, but they reflowering only a weeks after with right light and humidity conditions. I can see a new root growing and this is a good new. The rest of the roots are green as they have to be so you are on the good way.
The first photo shows that you have to spray more that plant. When bulbs are wrinkled they need higher humidity.
I hope my comments will be useful for you.