Thank you to everyone for your quick responses. I will stop misting; I simply followed the instructions on the card that came with the plant because I honestly don't know better. I study art conservation; my knowledge of plants is limited to how to extract pigments and dyes from them, which of course I don't want to do with plants I keep for enjoyment


Nagurski- I use tap water, but the water quality here is insanely good. This town is situated a few miles past the south end of a beautiful mountain range that happen to be volcanoes that have been dormant for thousands of years. As such there is a lot of natural filtration and the basalt rock the water flows over to reach us has very little calcium, but is rich in good minerals. Even the farmers here use the water direct as it creates rich soil. Again, I dont know much about orchids, but I never thought it was a bad idea to use the water the farmers use as their livelihood depends on that water being ok for plants. Is this an incorrect assumption?

Kelly- Thanks for the reassurance There actually is one yellow leaf on the plant with the keikis, but it is the absolute bottom leaf is actually yellow and shriveled. I figured it is because that leaf is blocked by all of the other big healthy ones so it gets no light. Should I remove that leaf or just leave it be?

Trish- Thanks for the advice!! I was wondering what I should be doing with that dried up spike. How close to the plant should I trim it? As for the turning, the plant with the dried out spike is leaning so much that its roots are coming up on one side, which is why I began turning them. At first I just let them be, and the ficus as well (which was a disaster, half was huge and bushy the other half almost died, so lesson learned lol), but as the window they are in is facing west they also get too much sunlight on any one part of the plant if I dont turn them. The Germans build their houses like kilns, 2 ft thick sandstone walls, even the heat radiating from the walls after an afternoon with the sun beating on them is enough to make plants (and humans) unhappy. They are great in winter because the heat is held in the walls once they get warmed up, but sadly physics also works in the summer... The temp doesnt seem to be a problem, we do have very warm, humid summers, and in fall it is much cooler here at night, so they should be ok with that. I was just surprised they lived through this last winter, it was harsh and some days we had a high of -15. They seemed to be ok and bloomed anyhow, but I suppose this is a good time to ask if I should be doing something for them in winter. I have to wrap the ficus in plastic and place it near a warm inner wall to stop it from dying. The bamboo couldn't care less lol. I cant wait to have 6 orchids around, now that I seem to have outgrown my plant killer days I love the color and light they add to the room. When I have more space I can see my plant collection growing....

To all- Thanks for explaining the keikis. Now that I know what they are I found a bunch of wonderful threads explaining exactly what to do with them so I should be ok on that front.