(Phal) yellowing leaves and flower drop

Hello Orchids experts,
I hope you can help, as you're my last resort before I publicly proclaim myself as an orchid killer

two weeks ago my sweetheart gave me a Phal with three spikes with blooming flowers and six buds

I watered it for the first time a week after I got it, but now, 6 out of the 9 blooming flower closed their petals and are about to fall, I have also lost one of the six buds, and have three of the remaining buds looking pink and soft (i think they are going to fall off too)

the good news however, is that, ONE of the buds opened into a full orchid flower and looks nice

the leaves look green except with the bottom one which turned lighter in color (has lettece color now) after i watered it

what am i doing wrong?? is it dying? it is pretty awful to see all these flowers wilting, and not havin hope to see the buds bloom

help please


God bless

Hi Rara, and welcome to the forum!

Don't panic! Flowers can drop for lots of reasons - many rather harmless.

While the flowers are lovely, the plant is the first priority. A healthy plant can lose its flowers and still bloom perfectly next year.

The first thing to consider is whether your 'pot' has drainage. I'm seeing many florists and chain stores selling orchids in attractive vases that have no drainage. That's a sure problem! If that's the case, then yours needs to be repotted ASAP. It's not scary, and we can help, but I'm not going to get into it now.

If the flowers have been open a while, they may just be dying back. If the ones closest to the stem are fading, then it's probably just the end of their blooming cycle.

If most of the young blooms and near opening buds have shriveled, then they done what we call 'blasting.' A change in conditions freaked them out and they gave up the ghost. It doesn't hurt the plant, and you can possibly reinduce the spike to bloom, if the leaves seem healthy enough.

Post a picture if you can - it will help us guide you.

Hang in!

Julie

to the forum. Julie is right on with her advice. If you have a digital camera, then post a picture. If you can't post a picture, then we'll be happy to guide you via your descriptions on what to do next.

__________________
Diane

"NA BEAN DO'N CHAT GUN LAMHAINN"

We need sticky threads on the most FAQ!

Julie

Are you screaming at me?

Working on a solution. It may take a few more days as classes are still meeting for the next two weeks.

Welcome Rara! (Our 800th member!!!)

Cheers!
BD

__________________
RVO's OrchidTalk Forums - "Bringing People Together" Help support our Community: Donate or Become an OrchidTalk Subscriber today!
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? .

BD,

I would never scream at you! I'm just feeling like we've all been typing up answers to a lot of repeated questions with all the new members lately (800 - wahoo!!!!)

It's hard for newbies to know where to look for these answers on their own. (Heck, it's hard for me to remember were they're hiding...)

Maybe make sub-forum of FAQ's that's read only. When we feel something is worth moving to it, we could suggest it to you. Diane's repotting threads might be of that ilk.

Thanks, BD for all your hard work! (and Yoda too!)

Julie

thank you everyone
I have attached pictures of my poor orchid
u will notice that two buds are nice looking others are probably blasting

i will post later the pictures of the leaves

and I wanted to tell you that the pot has a circular opening at the bottom with a diameter of about 5-7 cm i guess that's 3 inches

thx all again


God bless

Attached Images

    

the leaves

Attached Images

  

To me the leaves look great! The flowers appear to be blasted, but it could just be they're dying off naturally. Either way, there's no much you can do. The plant appears healthy and that's what's most important.

Julie

I have a sub forum idea in mind. It just takes a bit of programing & that takes a bit of time. It would be helpful if someone could flag the messages/threads to be placed into the sub forum and pm the list to me.

Cheers!
BD

__________________
RVO's OrchidTalk Forums - "Bringing People Together" Help support our Community: Donate or Become an OrchidTalk Subscriber today!
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? .