Phal bellina/Phal schilleriana/Phal Vio Vio

[Traci]

So I started my 3rd year of medical school today. It was mostly a lot of meetings, more paperwork, Tuberculosis testing, pictures, and orientation. Glad that I carry protein bars with me because there wasn't time to grab lunch. It was a bit overwhelming and I found out that I will be starting my first assignment in the infectious disease wards which I am very interested in. I will also apparently be assigned to trauma surgery soon so I expect many late on-call nights as that is when most of the trauma comes in.
Anyway, I tend to buy plants if I am stressed or nervous about a new change or at least go look at nurseries at plants. I bought a NOID phal at the grocery store while shopping for my Mom, and then I ordered Phal bellina,Phal schilleriana, and Phal Vio Vio (peloric) from a local nursery. I promised myself these are my last purchases until August when I am being sent to Baton Rouge, LA for a month for clinicals. Anyway, I started reading on culture and have been informed that Phal bellina is a bit picky and needs lots of humidity. Is she a very difficult species to grow? I plan to leave her in the spaghnum she is currently growing in. She is supposedly near blooming size. Also, the schilleriana is a seedling at this stage and I plan to leave that one in spaghnum too although I grow mine all in bark. I am going to contact the seller for more info but thought I would also ask here if anyone else has experience with them. Any guidance is appreciated.

[ksriramkumar]

phal. bellina and schilleriana are lovely buys. I think the cultivated species are reasonably easy to care. I opine,you should mount them in cork or tree fern. All the very best for your 3rd year and trauma care experience.

[JDT]

Traci, nice purchases. I am not a real fan of Phals, the 6 I have it has been over 6 years since I bought them so I am not one to give advise. You can always find a good reason to buy orchids!

[Chris in Hamilton]

I promised myself these are my last purchases until August when I am being sent to Baton Rouge.

Uh hu

[Traci]

Thanks for the advice Sriram. I think I might try cork. I am searching through old posts and note that I might be able to put it on cork in a PVC basket and hang it. The vendor replied back and offered to send a larger plant to me for the bellina that isn't the wild form but instead bellina "TH". The flower is slightly different but still pretty. He said it was larger and he thought I might do better with that one. We will see how it goes. The schilleriana does have a while before it will bloom.

---------- Post Merged at 07:48 AM ----------

Traci, nice purchases. I am not a real fan of Phals, the 6 I have it has been over 6 years since I bought them so I am not one to give advise. You can always find a good reason to buy orchids!

Lately I haven't usually needed a reason to buy them. I bought two a few days ago- just because. I think I do try to rationalize them though when I can.

---------- Post Merged at 07:50 AM ----------

I promised myself these are my last purchases until August when I am being sent to Baton Rouge.

Uh hu

Well at least it's a thought right?

[Mehera]

Imagine, orchid buying for stress relief...now where have I heard that before? ha. My thought is who is caring for your collection while you're in Baton Rouge? If you mount those phals they will need daily watering....

[Traci]

Imagine, orchid buying for stress relief...now where have I heard that before? ha. My thought is who is caring for your collection while you're in Baton Rouge? If you mount those phals they will need daily watering....

I have been weighing the issue of mounting them and the daily watering. David is going to take care of my plants while I am gone. He already takes care of the vandas under my direction. However he is going to learn soon how to water the paphs and then we will tackle the phals. He will have to water the dracula daily so I don't want to add to his burden while I am gone. The grower said mounted or moving them to a bark mixture should be okay. Might try the bark and then move to the mounting if they aren't doing well in bark. I cannot find it now but there was a post on here about mounting bellina in a basket with some cork in it. It was actually one of 4 options that were given. May try that if I can find the post again.

[Kauaiguy]

---- vendor information removed -see faqs on posting----

I have a few Fogg-IT misters and I have them mounted on a couple of sprinkler heads that water some of my orchids, especially the ones on my kitchen window sill outside. I don't want to over water them so this works just fine and the wind blows the mist all over the place which keeps the orchids just damp enough, and they seem to like it.







Please note that this that there is a valve under the nozzle so that I can control the flow of water in the fogger. It takes very little water to start fogging with this thing.

[Traci]

Thanks Kauaiguy,
I have seen these for sale at our local nurseries here, but have never really understood how they worked. I do like this. I have vandas, plumeria, and rosebushes outside. This may be perfect for them.

[sciencegal]

I have a schilleriana which bloomed at a fairly small size and I am guessing it is young. However, I was disappointed to see that the blossoms did not last very long. It has been fairly easy going in spite of the fact that it was in bad shape when I got it a year ago.

Good luck with the third year of torture. I hope when you finish you won't be too unhappy to find out that you will not be practicing much medicine, just following bureaucratic doctrine.