Phals galore!

Hokey smokes! My Dtps (Mary Ames x Everspring Girl) is in spike again!

I have only the deepest affection for this humble plant. Three years ago I purchased it solely as a repotting demo plant for my New York Botanical Garden class. $10 at Home Depot, back when the HD in Midtown NYC actually sold more than one flavor and size and price of orchid. (Jerks.) I had no phalaenopsis to demo so I had to purchase at least one...I ended up with three for good measure. Considering they were all flowering when they were rudely rousted from their nursery pots, even as I explained to my class this was Wrong Wrong Wrong, their survival was a bit of a gamble.

The Everspring Light is doing ok but has yet to re-flower. The Black Butterfly perished for no good reason. And this one...this one has reliably bloomed every year since. With exactly two flowers at a time. But thats ok, it's a small plant (less than 1 ft leafspan) with a short nearly horizontal spike, and the flowers last over 2 months. I have plenty of orchids who can't make similar boasts.

This year's 2 flowers did well, showed well, and the spike went to sleep. New leaves and roots appeared. And now, a new spike!

My phalaenopsis-killer days are hopefully really over. Ever since moving to this Manhattan apartment I couldn't keep the damn things alive! I still blame true spider-mite infestations for destroying them: one leaf would go pitted and silver, and then no matter how I washed and soaked the rest of the leaves the plant would go into the vegetal equivalent of allergy-shock. All leaves would go mottled yellow and drop, sometimes within just weeks of the initial discovery. Buying phals became an exercise in hope and despair, as each year's beauties flowered, began to grow and then...destroyed. The three humble HD phals were the first I'd bought in over 2 years. Perhaps the infestation starved out? Perhaps my conditions improved?

HD phals are nothing if not tough. I bought 2 more this spring, back in March, again figuring I might want them for a potting demo. The peloric Baldan's Kaleidoscope and the Royal Queen are both doing great with new leaves and roots, but what really amazes me is that both of them still have the same flowers I bought them with. (Both have double spikes too.) And BK is making new buds on one spike. I credit the cool, humid spring weather with its powers of flower preservation.

Now if the green spike on my new Tays Evergreen keeps budding and the Sogo Gotris survives repotting I'll really be a happy puppy. And I think my new Neofinetia is in spike.