In good conditions Phalaenopsis blooms will last ages. If you purchased the plant with all blooms open, perhaps those blooms had opened some time before sale.

On the other hand the blooms could be dieing because of adverse conditions or the roots are damaged because of too much TLC.

Moderate temperatures and moderate humidity are needed.

Thank you. That makes sense. I knew when I bought it that all the blooms were open. I don't think I've been coddling it too much. Will it use more water because it has/had so many blooms? There wasn't any water in it when I pulled out the inner pot (clear)

My feeling is that there was some environmental factor involved. Normally the flowers would wilt and drop one at a time stating with the lower ones and moving up, the same sequence they opened in.

This looks as if one side wilted all at once. Why will be almost impossible to say. Maybe that side of the plant was in a hot window or next to an air conditioning vent? Maybe the stem on one side was damaged?

The store likely took 2 flowering plants and stuck them in a single pot for sale. So it is also possible that one reacted to the stress of reporting by dropping its flowers and the other didn't.

I used to keep orchids outside (until I learned the following). When an insect gets inside and wiggles around, it will pollinate the flower causing it to wilt and close eventually becoming seeds. Any possibility of that happening with this one?

The plant has never been in a window or next to an AC vent. In fact it's been right there the whole time I've had it. But the idea that the stress of re potting affected one of the plants might be right. I've killed lots of orchids in the past, and you're right, the blossoms usually do fall off one by one. This one does look like it wilted all at once. The leaves still look ok, so maybe it will be ok in the long run.

It's been inside all the time, so I don't think any insects could have gotten into the blossoms.

The most common failure of most orchids is too much TLC (usually water)..just saying.

Shouldn't both plants be affected if overwatering were the problem?

Do two people necessarily get a cold at the same time if they're in the same room?

But the two people might have been in other places at another time. These two plants have been in the same place and received the same treatment for about a month.

Orchids die a slow death. It can take months and even years to die despite looking "healthy". I've killed my fair share like everyone else on this forum.

Blooms wilting all at once often are a bad omen. Crown rot, bacterial rot, root rot could all be culprits. If they were my plants and I wanted to try to save them, I'd cut off the flower spikes, pull the plant out of the pot and it's media (likely moss) and repot in it's own pot in bark.

This link may help http://www.aos.org/orchids/culture-sheets/novice-phalaenopsis.aspx

Thank you for the link. Re-potting into two pots sounds like a good idea.

I live in a small town. There is an Ace Hardware, Home Depot, and Walmart here. They might not have orchid medium. Is Amazon ok to buy from? There are two nurseries not far away.

Truth be told, I mail order my media....because I'm not in a small town and there's still only relatively bad media here.

Media-Amazon maybe, but there are better places. This is what I use: http://www.repotme.com/

Actually me too Judy...I like their mixes.

Thank you. I ordered from Amazon, but I liked the sound of the repotme media, so that's what I ordered. That and some slotted plastic containers. I noticed that a few blossoms on the other plant is wilted today, so re-potting them is probably all I can do right now. The leaves still look good, so that's a positive.

it may be best to just chuck them and get fresh healthy plants and pot them in appropriate media, research growing needs (aka water and light), and go from there.

Not that phals can't be rescued from bad situations...

But the leaves still look good...I cut off the stems of the bad orchid and I removed the wilted blossoms of the better plant, but it does imply a fungus or virus, or something not obvious. I'd like to try to keep this orchid if I could. It was the only one like it at the store.

I'd wait this out a bit and see what the PLANT does. It's entirely possible that, unbeknownst to you, before you bought it, the flower spike was bent or damaged in a non-obvious way that caused the flowers wilt. If the leaves look good, and what you can see of the roots looks okay, and the plant is not either bone dry or soaking wet ... just let it be. Let it sit for a few days, a week, and see what happens. There's no need to further traumatize the plants by pulling them out of their pots immediately. Enjoy the flowers that remain.

I agree with dannie. Repot and give them a chance to recover.

Jane