New owner of several Phals

[Anne Bunny]

My family gave me 5 Phalaenopsis orchids a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, they left them in a cold garage (in snowy upstate NY), and after a cool car ride to Boston, all of the blooms have fallen off. I followed the instructions of some websites to trim off the stem half way, but I forgot one of them. Now, that plant is growing at the very end. Should I let this keep growing? Also, some of the small leaves on a few plants have yellowed, while the larger leaves are turning lighter shades of green. Is this healthy? The apartment is generally dry and hot, so I've tried to keep the two healthy-looking ones in the bathroom, but they don't seem to be doing much better. I water once a week and I haven't had them long enough to fertilize yet. How often do I fertilize? Is there any way to make these guys bloom again? Or am I to wait till next year? Any help would be awesome.

[uncasteeb]

Now, that plant is growing at the very end. Should I let this keep growing?

Yes let it keep growing it should produce some new flowers.
As for the leaves only time will tell if they,re damaged by the cold.If the bottom leaves are turning yellow then this is pretty normal.
A link to Phal culture might be helpful.

http://www.clanorchids.com/culture/phalcult.htm

[LJA]

The yellowing of smaller, newer leaves at the top of the plant following exposure to cold almost certainly indicates some damage. In a healthy plant, those new leaves should stay green for several years until they naturally yellow and drop off from old age, but by then, several more leaves will have grown out above them.

As uncasteeb said, it's quite possible that the plants will survive given proper care, but it may take years for them to recoup "back to normal, " so don't expect new flower spikes very soon. If the old flower spike has started to branch, you might as well let it do that so you can enjoy them, though here, we cut the flower spikes all the way back so the plant puts its energy into growth instead of more flowers. That makes the next blooming on a new spike more vigorous. Once a year blooming is typical, though, again under good care, they can bloom twice yearly, but this also depends on the species.

As far as fertilizing goes, different growers fertilize with different regimens. The usual rule of thumb for beginners starting out is to fertilize weakly, weekly. This means diluting your fertilizer to 1/2 - 1/3 the strength recommended on the package, and applying that on a weekly basis. Once a month, water with just plain water to flush any fertilizer salts that may have accumulated in the medium. That's a good place to start, in any case.

Hope your plants do a turnaround for you!