Phal spikes and flowers

[Alys]

My Phals. are in spike and ready to pop into bloom. I followed some suggestions and kept them facing in a single direction so that the spike and flowers would present themselves as best as possible. That was great and all is well. Finally my question: at what point can I take them out of the window and display them? Will they twist all over the place?

[Orchidtinkerer]

er, tricky question as orchids will never like to be taken away from their growing place to be displayed. Not saying it can't be done but ideally have a small aquarium led to display it under, then the flowers will carry on growing in one direction. The problem is that the flowers can open over a month or 2, once they are open they can be displayed without them twisting but you ideally want to display them during those 2 months already. I don't think the flowers twisting is too much of a bother, worst case scenaria is that some flowers will face the opposite direction to other flowers, worse is the buds aborting from lack of light so a grow led or equivalent will provide the light it will need to carry on flowering and be displayed.

[Alys]

Thank you for your quick response and help. I wish it were better news. My orchids are up high in the kitchen window and the spikes are facing outside. It doesn't help that I'm short.

[estación seca]

The flowers will turn towards the light until they open. The spike will continue turning towards the light until all the flowers are open.

[DrDawn]

Yea, I think that will be challenging. For my phals, I have them growing on a shelf in a window in the dining room. I take them off their shelf and display them on the table for dinnertime, and then put them back. It sounds like you will have trouble taking them down and putting them back easily. They do bloom over several months, as OrchidTinkerer noted, and they will not be happy being away from light for that long.

[aliceinwl]

If you don’t want any twisting, you need to wait until the spike has stopped growing: usually this will be after a few flowers are open. Some spikes just don’t stop growing even when flowers are opening, with these staking can help minimize twisting but there may still be some.

[Alys]

Thank you. This is what I was looking for. I've spent a great deal of time getting the spikes to behave just so and I don't want to mess it up now. Nor do I want to keep them in the kitchen window facing outside.