It is a soft-cane Dendrobium. Easy to grow and bloom in some places. Difficult in others. Here is a link. Note that the notes are written for the Southern Hemisphere. Read the notes. Ask more questions and tell the readers where you are.

Cultivation Notes. Tinonee, NSW Australia

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4539351/easy-way-to-pot-a-dendrobium-keiki?n=1 is a link showing my method. I like to leave the new ones on the cane. I cut the cane to fit snugly in the new pot with the babies attached. They continue to draw nutrition from the old cane. Make sure the cane is tightly wedged in the pot. Orchids do not like to wobble around. The roots on that plant should not be buried in the potting material. A portion can but let the roots be near the top and they know where to grow to.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4006610/dendrobium-keiki?n=5 take a look

I'm in south East England. I don't know what zone that is and Google doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind. Thankyou all for your help so far. These are probably dumb questions, but again, Google doesn't seem to agree on anything orchid related.

Does each cane only flower once? Just wondering as my dad (who only semi successfully grows orchids occasionally) has been telling me to cut the cane down to the first 2 nodes to allow it to flower again. I don't know how accurate this is though.

There are 4 keikis growing from the main stem. Do I detach and grow all of them? Or just the 2 that are up higher and leave the 2 that have roots tangled with the main plants roots alone?

At the moment, it is potted in what seems to be standard soil. I don't know for sure but it looks and smells like it. ive never fertilised it either or anything like that.

I'm suprised it's still alive. My dad told me I should spritz the leaves with water and forget about it for the most part. That's pretty much what I do, except when the soil looks baked and then it gets a good dousing. How often do I need to be watering and is he right in that I should spritz with water rather than put water on the soil?

Again, thankyou.

Forget about spraying! Do not cut the cane, it will not bloom again, but it provides food for the growing parts of the plant.

See if you can find some notes written for the UK.

Ask more questions!

More later.....

did you look at the links I provided?

The USA Climate zones are not perfect but they are better than "Sub Tropical"

which is used to describe great chunks of Australia.

They work on the coldest winter temperature likely to be encountered.

As described above you have a Nobile/Soft Cane Dendrobium which is easy to grow here because the climate is roughly the same as where the ancestors of your plant grew/grow.

You can remove the keikis and pot them up into small pots.

Encourage the new growths at the base of the plant to grow as per the notes and cease fertiliser in Autumn once the new growths are mature.

In nature the "dry season" is sunny with a temperature drop at night and the plant will get a bit of dew or a rare shower to keep it going.

Anyway, it flowered for you so you only have to modify culture a bit. Some people want keikis so they can sell them, but in my experience they are just a pain.

Rewarding, but a bit of work to keep the plant tidy.

Softcane/Nobile type Orchid Photos.

Most will flower in Spring!

Since your keiki is low down on the large cane, I would just remove the keiki and not damage the large healthy cane.

Follow Arthur M advice. Read the culture notes on your plant.

Regular soil is not proper for this plant. A mix of small bark with some sphagnum moss mixed in works for mine. You could look for a orchid mix in the store or on line.

You should repot now in a freely draining mix. Water when almost dry. Put the plant in a sunny spot. You can remove the keiki or leave it. When you repot give some basic orchid fertilizer.

Jane

One of the most popular & widely available varieties of this type of dendrobium is Spring Dream "Apollon". Google it & see if it matches your white blooms. Look up videos on Youtube for Dendrobium Nobile hybrid care. One major
thing to avoid is fertilising (totally) and watering (too much) when
dormant. If you do this, the plant will make lots of new
plantlets/Keikis next season, instead of making flowers.

Your dendrobium nobile hybrid has 2 new plantlets aka keikis (babies). You can easily twist them off and plant them in a smaller pot in an orchid mix (usually a mix based on bark chips). I add sphagnum &/or perlite to it when I pot up keikis. Removing them will not damage the main plant.

Don't cut the old stem. Your dad may be confusing your orchid with a Phalaenopsis. They are totally different and can make new shots from an old flower spike. Your dendrobium needs to keep its old stem as an energy reserve. It will put out new shoots from the base that will carry flowers.