What do you think?

I just got this in the mail today-Phaiocalanthe Kryptonite 'Ursula'. I was a little worried about the condition it came in. Probably I'm over reacting, so I wanted another, more objective, opinion.

It is a young plant. One new growth plus one older small bulb which you can barely see in front of the picture (because it turned out dark). The longest leaf is about 8 inches. Anyway, you can see the brown on the bottom leaf and a little on one of the upper ones. The upper one also has some round yellow spots. Also the bottom two leaves are yellowing and I believe soon will fall off. Because of the Calanthe influence, I know it's supposed to eventually lose its leaves, but so soon? I've never grown one of these before.

Most of the roots look good, though. The plant was shipped Mon, arrived today (Thu). It did have a heat pack. What do you think? Is it OK? Thanks in advance for your advice.

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I looked up your plant online and found out that it is to be potted similar to the 'nuns orchid'. I also saw a picture of a healthy one and I'm thinking maybe you should show it to a local orchid nursery and see what they think. The roots look awfully suspicious and while spotting is normal on oncids I don't think the icky roots are a good sign at all. As I am definitely not a pro on this particular plant, I'd wait for a more senior member to chime in before you send it back. But in the meantime if you have some physan 20 i'd soak it and remove the rest of the spag. covering the roots. If there is black rot keep it a mile away from your other plants. Black rot can be awfully contagious. Wash your hands after you handle it, before you are around your other plants to avoid transferring any potential problems to your other plants.
Good Luck
Connie

You will find that some of the deciduous orchids will go dormant quicker when taken out of their normal growing conditions. This happened to me with a Cyrtopodium. Plant is healthy though as I believe yours is too.
The roots look OK, some broken and rotted ones from what I can see, just trim those and dunk plant and roots in a solution of fungicide for about half an hour and replant and don't over water it, if anything let it dry out between waterings from now on. Allow it to do it's thing and all should work out for you.
Deciduous orchids are always tricky for me and am still learning, but if I can master Catasetums I am sure you can with these as well.
Good luck with it and keep us updated on your progress.
Cheers

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Think I need another one!...

Thank you so much for the advice and encouragement. I've got the plant cleaned up, treated, and repotted. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it.
Oz, I love how you keep changing your avatar.

I don't know enough to advise one way or another but I think too, expectations are sometimes dictated by whether you got it from a professional grower or a hobbyist.

I know I expect more from the professional growers. My plants rarely seem to look as beautiful as the professionsal growers, IMO. But I dislike using poisons in my apt. Pesticides/fungicides tend to be a last resort.

Hope yours performs well for you!

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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons ... for you are warm and crunchy and taste good with ketchup! -- from a T-shirt I saw

After making the above posts, I did more research and learned that this plant is NOT deciduous. That worried me since the plant now looked even worse. (See 1st pic below) The vendor's warranty was only valid if you voiced a problem within 14 days of the shipping date, so, as a precaution, I decided to contact him and see what he recommended. He gave me a refund but let me keep the plant. Since then it has stabilized and has begun putting up new growths. (2nd pic)

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Are those new growths or roots? Either way it's an encouraging sign! It looks like you've brought this little guy back from the brink of death.

Good Job!
BC

I would agree - you know, it might be just "consuming" those older leaves to give energy to the new growths, that has happened to me before. This is a positive sign, but like bc mentioned above, can't really tell if they are shoots or roots....but either is positive!!

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Proud member of the Illinois Orchid Society

Sorry the picture is not very clear. My camera doesn't like taking pictures of anything small or close.

There are definitely two new growths coming from that little round p-bulb. They are a little bigger now, and the one on the left is putting out two tiny roots. I was very surprised that two growths shot up from that bulb. I wouldn't have expected it to still have so many eyes left to grow from. Also, on the other side of the bad looking growth, there seems to be a new growth now, too. I will have to wait a couple days to be sure on that one, though.

I tried taking some more pictures today, but they were even worse than the ones above. I will update when they're much taller and easier for my camera to focus on.

I am glad that it is coming back to life for you. Do keep us updated when the growth is large enough to photograph.

Cheers,
BD

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We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box. ...Hmmm? .