Of all the orchids I have grown, phalaenopsis have proven to be the most frustrating and at times extremely rewarding, when they bloom with multi-branched spikes ( see the fabulous posts from our members in Vietnam).Under the cultural conditions in my grow area, more suited to cattelyas and vandaceous orchids, I have killed more phals than I care to count.
So now I am growing those that are able to survive the existing conditions here; namely cornu-cervi,violacea and bellina, yellows and novelties with amboinensis,venosa , pantherina etc in their parentage. Unfortunately these are mostly plants with a few blooms though they keep on blooming on the same spike for a considerable length of time. A bonus is that these plants also bear waxy flowers with very good substance.
Apart from these I also TRY to grow :-
a) Large showy whites representing the amabilisgroup
b) large showy pinks representing the schillerianagroup
c) small type, hybrids of the Doritis (now reclassified as phalaenopsis
d) novelties/harlequins
e) intergeneric esp renanopsis and asconopsis
At the moment 2 large whites and 3 pinks are surviving; (c) and (d) are gone.
I have already killed 3 Asconopsis Irene Dobkin and 2 Renanopsis.I am trying to replace the last two but they are really difficult to find here.
Michael, I hope this post might help.
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