My recent obsession...

[Mammatam]

Beautiful!!! All of them! I love the ones with the purple stripes!!
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[T4tlrman]

Thanks Tammy, I didn't have a thing to do with it. I'll tell my wife she chose well, T

[78Terp]

I have a phal very similar to the white with maroon spots.

[Carolla]

No, I haven't had an avatar for 35 years, sorry! lol I do post in my sleep though... hehe

[T4tlrman]

Does that mean you had a white orchid for 35 years?

[Carolla]

Yes, I had the white orchid that is pictured in my avatar for 35 years and killed it with the wrong potting medium just a year or so ago. It was probably more like 37 years, since I'm coming up on our 38th wedding anniversary this summer and we used flowers from that plant at our wedding. I'm still pretty sad at losing it.

[Traci]

@Terry, I love the flowers especially the white one with purple spots. I don't as of yet have a spotted one. Your wife did a very fine job. I am sorta glad that David isn't into orchids as much as I am because I fear we would be wall to wall orchids and then some.
@ Carol, that must have been so sad to lose that orchid. Was it just that it didn't for example like a certain bark mix or a moss mix or was something wrong with the media?

[Carolla]

Traci - I believe it was the brand of bark mix, though labeled for Phals, had a lot of fines in it and compacted on the roots. I was told by another member at the time that the brand's Phal mix was a problem that way (after I reported the loss, it went down pretty quickly, I just responded too slowly, didn't believe that could be the problem). I know we can't mention vendors, not sure about the brands of potting media, I'll PM you though.

[T4tlrman]

GORGEOUS! I'm sure you were devastated, as I would certainly be. You must have had that baby dialed in. I didn't know that they could live that long - you must have raised a few keiki from it.
C'est la vie - "Don't let it bring you down, it's only castles burning" Crosby, Stills & Nash I think. How do you manage to use flowers from an orchid? As you may know - I don't know A LOT about orchids, yet.
Ciao, T

---------- Post Merged at 05:16 PM ----------

If Kathy was raising them she'd be full of advice for me, but hers would be doomed! She's not addicted to orchids fortunately, but she's addicted to buying them! I loved that she did it, but I was spending a lot of time on the original 2/3 and now the 8 are my "Morning Obsession".
I don't like the look of a few things on the 4 new ones. Only one is a full size phal, and it came home in tight plastic wrapping that said, "For Shiping Only".
The top of the medium, (what ever it is) is covered deep with solid moss, and a small winged bug is buried in it...
The 3 mini-phals are so thick with roots that look like they need removed. Their pots are sooo small they look like they're choked by unhealthy roots. Don't know how they've developed so many blooms and buds.

---------- Post Merged at 05:19 PM ----------

Got picture?

[Traci]

Definitely got the picture on those. Most of the box box phals I have seen have some problems especially if they spend any time in the store on a dim shelf. Some have looked fairly healthy but when I pass by the next week not so much.

Orchids can outlive us. There are some from the late 1800s that are still in botanical gardens today. I think they would have been around from even the early 1800s but back then people thought they needed to be all kept in heat houses with hot boiler pipes.