Phalaenopsis Brother Apollo

[cedric817]

I picked up this one from the boxstore clearance table after the blooms had fallen. It spiked two more flowers from the previous inflorescence but the quality of the flowers leaves a bit to be desired. Better luck next bloom cycle!

christopher

[LJA]

Still, if you could get that kind of spotting on a flat flower, the thing would be gorgeous. Betcha it'll bloom a lot better when it's under your care.

[cedric817]

I'm hopeful that the next bloom will have the same color intensity but with the typical phal flower shape. I'll be sure to post pictures if it turns out!

christopher

[Sue]

My guess is that this plant is always going to bloom that way. There are some clones that don't open completely, and I've been seeing them a lot recently at Lowe's and Trader Joe's and so forth. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I think they're the "hot new thing" in impulse buy retail orchids for the non-hobbyist.

They can certainly be pretty nice, and the shape is really pretty attractive, as long as you let go of the idea that 'they're not supposed to look like that!'

[cedric817]

That certainly may be the case - time will tell. When I was looking through my previous pictures, I found this one (NOID Phal.) that I bought last season in bloom. It has one spike that should open in the next 2-3 weeks so I'll test the theory with another plant for now.

christopher

[Sue]

Wow! That NOID might be the coolest of this type of Phal I've ever seen! It looks like some odd cross between a Disa and a Lycaste. If I were you I'd hope it blooms that way every year.

[Florista]

OMG...all your phals do that? Do you think it could be...well...that it might be you?

[cedric817]

While i'm generally willing to take credit for just about everything , i'm not ready to step up to this one - yet...

The test will come when the NOID phal blooms - i think it is about 2-3 weeks from opening. I'll let you know! I'm not sure if I want them to be 'normal' or not - they certainly are a bit different!

As far as I know, these are the only 2 of my phals that do this. However, I have a few that I have 'rescued' while out of bloom and have been gradually nursing back to health - I may have more surprises in store in the months ahead.

christopher

[mde]

I received one of these as a gift, and I guessed that it had come from a boxstore because none of the locations I have seen selling orchids in my area use clear pots, but I see these routinely at this store. The blooms are identical to the one in your picture with a Brother Apollo id tag. I actually love it, and had assumed it had been some type of mutation that developed the closure of the petals. I am startled by the blooms longevity, even for a Phal. Mine has 7 or 8 opened blooms, came that way back in at least late October if not sooner, and is still looking the same as the day I received it!

By the way, does anyone know who the grower is who distributes these here? Back when I got it, I did a google search, and didn't get a hit. I checked again today, and this is when I saw the posting here. Still no link to where it came from originally. I'm just curious.
P.S. Glad someone is rescuing these poor orchids. I am disheartened to occasionally see a whole table of them with obvious stress, bud drop, etc. when I'm in these chain stores.

[Gilda]

These blooms that are wierd are called peloric...giving that more than one bloom was that way..they will continue to bloom peloric. It's in the genes.

Growers discard these mutants at boxstores and Lowes and some people do like the unusual look so they buy them. I have never seen these mutants at shows ,either for sale or in exhibits.

You can get a peloric bloom from high temps /too much SuperThrive/too much fertilizer, but it is generally only one bloom..not the whole spike.

Enjoy your unusal phal...just don't expect it to change.

I bought this phal. Little Mary Cherry Blossom from Norman's in Calif. because it was suppose to be an unusal peloric...it blooms pretty much normal...
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...32716118Bjsrkn