It's a beautiful orchid too, two spikes and lots of healthy leaves.

Cut the spikes down after the flowers have all fallen off.

Lars, I often get more spikes on the existing spikes if I leave them alone for a while

I agree that you shouldn't cut the spike until it turns brown. I just had a Phal bloom for the third time on the same spike.

Your orchid is really beautiful.

That's one of those air roots coming out. I read to water them too. Don't count on those blooms falling off anytime soon. If you've read any of my Orchid posts you'll see I bought two in January, and it was only a couple of weeks ago one of them lost it's blooms. The other is still in bloom. Almost 5 months!

I'm leaving the stems on because when I had Orchids before they never grew new stems after I cut the previous ones off. I also noticed one of mine looks to have a shoot coming out of it.

OTOH, have you seen Lar's Orchids? Whoa.

Thanks for all the good advice, so I will leave everything alone for now. Then even when the flowers fall off leave the green spikes (what I was calling stems) alone unless they change to brown and then cut back to the closest green part.

I watched a This Old House gardening/outdoor marathon yesterday, and one episode featured an orchid expert who demonstrated cutting a phal orchid back to the I think it was 4th nodule and discussed other points of care. One could probably search their site for the very informative clip.

Thanks Indigo,

i just looked that up on this old house and here are the steps to care for an orchid.

Steps:

1. To prevent overwatering, fill a tray with pebbles, then add enough water to just barely cover the pebbles.

2. Set the potted orchid on top of the pebbles.

3. Another way to water an orchid is to hold the plant over a sink, then soak it until the water drains out the bottom of the pot. Wait until all excess water drains out of the pot.

4. Give an orchid a thorough watering no more than once a week.

5. Add orchid fertilizer the day after watering, once a week.

6. Orchids need ventilation. Use an electric fan to circulate the air and leave plenty of space in between and underneath plants. Don't bunch orchids too closely together.

7. If your orchid produces green foliage but no flowers, gradually move the plant to a brighter spot. However, avoid direct sunlight.

8. Orchids are more likely to bloom when there's only a 10 degree change between daytime and nighttime temperatures.

9. To encourage new blooms, wait until all the old blooms have died back, then count the nodes up from the bottom. Use hand pruners to cut the plant just above fourth node.

10. It's typically best to wait two years before repotting an orchid.

11. A plastic pot is useful because it retains moisture, but most orchids do well in a clay pot with side vents.

12. Orchids grow in growing media (not soil), such as sphagnum moss, perlite, coconut husk chips, phalaenopsis, diatomite, or any mixture of these organic materials.

13. When using sphagnum moss, be sure to first soak the moss in water before filling the pot.

Lyban, glad you found it! Only one thing, I recall the tray of pebbles and water is to help provide the necessary humidity. Good luck with your's, hope you have success getting it to rebloom when that time comes. I will admit I have an orchid....a faux one!!!! (hangs head)

I don't like sphagnum moss for my orchids. It retains a lot of water and can be prone to overwater and rotting roots. I like the bark mix instead.