Environmental Effects on Flower Quality

[jrod]

First, a short story... I bought my first orchid about 5 years ago. It had pretty cool white flowers with well-marked, dark pink candystripe pattern. When it bloomed the next time, though, the flowers were pretty sad. They were a very light pink all over, with almost no candystriping. It's currently spiking for the third time on my back deck, and will be opening its first new flower in a few weeks.

Now, the question...

How much have y'all observed environment and plant health to play into flower quality? Is quality fairly constant, or can it be fairly variable?

I'm sort of wondering if I'll ever get those cool flowers back. All of my plants seem really healthy now, and I'm hoping to get some awesome flowers from the 3 Phals I have in spike, inlcuding this one. Keep an eye out in the coming week for photos of my growing area...

[orchid-man]

you forgot to attach the photo

[Diane]

Conditions absolutely can impact blossom color, form, count and even shape (usually either deformed or small).

[jrod]

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm posting a quick shot of my growing area in another thread, sort of a "show us your growing area" thread. Hopefully all these flowers will turn out awesome...

[uncasteeb]

Growing conditions make a huge difference to flower count & colouration.
This is Oncidium Twinkle "Fragrance Fantasy" grown in the windowsill.


& the same plant @ the next flowering when it had been in my growroom.

Colours have not been altered.
My cousin has a Phal Sogo"Grape" that when i bought it was a deep red & had largish flowers.18 months on a new spike has flowered & the flowers are far smaller & are heavily spotted red.The difference is the plant has only just got enough light to keep it going.I,m sure if i grew it the flowers would be back to the deep red.
The flowers on my Phrags change as the seasons change.It seems the bigger the diurnal change in temps promote much more colourful flowers.
I have heard it said that if you keep your Phrags @ the bottom end of their temp range when they are flowering this will give you much deeper colours.
My pschopsis papilio(Boris) flowers last far longer in the greenhouse than in my growroom , probably due to the much highr humidity in the greenhouse.

[jrod]

wow, what a difference!

[Piper]

That is a remarkable difference, Steve, but I'd buy it. I've seen dramatic changes in flowers when I move plants between rooms.

It's all about finding what they want most.

Julie

[jrod]

I just thought I'd share some quick photos of the NOID in question...





It's nothing spectacular, but I think it's nice enough to keep around =) Golly, this was my first orchid ever!

[Brutal_Dreamer]

That is a beautiful first orchid!

Cheers!
BD