PHALAENOPSIS - ROOT OR FLOWER SPIKE

Some years ago I had twelve phalaenopsis orchids.  They lived on mostly east-facing window bottoms and bloomed constantly and then rebloomed.  When I moved into an apartment, one by one they died.  I will never know why.  It could have been simply moving them, or they didn't like the light, or perhaps I watered them too much, or too little, in my desperation to make them survive.  After the last one died, after the Phalaenopsis that had flowered non-stop on one spike for more than 13 months (it flowered 13 months for me, and I bought it in full bloom) gave up the ghost, I gave up on them.  I was grieving, ok?  Some time later, I moved yet again to where I am now and I bought two more white phalaenopsis orchids, the same, or similar, to the one that had flowered for such a long period.  They lasted weeks rather than months before the blooms dropped and yet they were on an east-facing window.   It was so disappointing. Anyway, once those two new phalaenopsis orchids had finished flowering they remained healthy with strapping green leaves but a phalaenopsis without flowers is simply not worth the space.  So, I have repotted them, and fed them (I always did feed my orchids), and supported them on canes to keep them more upright, and they are now sporting tiny little growths at the base and a lot of activity in the pot.  But it seems that they are just more roots. 







Phalaenopsis orchid root

Apparently roots have a smooth, rounded tip and new roots can emerge from the side of leaves as you can see above and below.  I mistook the image in the top photograph as a spike.

 

Of course, my orchids were very happy at being repotted and you can see that doing so has stimulated new root growth within the pot. 

 

But what I want are flower spikes.  They may well come now that the orchid is being so active.  It's best to be patient about these things.   Spikes tends to emerge from between leaves, and the end of a spike is notched, irregular rather than perfectly rounded.



If they don't flower this year, they could be chopped up and dug into my garden border before winter.  That should encourage them to get a move on. 



12 July 2013



As I mentioned in a later post than this, on 12 July 2013, repotting the phalaenopsis paid off and one orchid is producing a flower spike.   It is very easy to tell the difference.  The end of the flower spike is not smooth and completely rounded but has a notch or a little bump.  See?





Phalaenopsis, beginning of a flower spike