Except for the fact that she was stuffing sphag into the pot, the rest of what she did looked exactly the way I do things here. It was like watching and listening to myself, almost ;) Once I cut all the roots down and remove any leaves I don't like is when I give mine a good spraying of Listerine and a rinse prior to potting or mounting it.

When she was dunking the phals, I got worried about the water getting down into the crown or damaging the leaves. I once had a droplet of water basically eat through a phal leaf.

Do you think letting the water get "in" there so much is OK?

I don't dunk, I spray :)
To rinse the Listerine, I spray every part of the plant with clean water but I then hold it upside down before potting/mounting it.

She seems to know what she's doing and didn't seem concerned about the amount of water that got on the plants...I would follow her lead and not worry too much either ;)

I for one felt faint when she snipped off the spike! And to just toss it aside like it deserved the compost heap shocked me! I would at least put it in water to admire it a little longer.

I once watched a bonsai master repot a crabapple-- it was beautiful. And she treated it like a red-headed stepchild. So rough! The thing remains beautiful, though, and is blooming nicely to this day.

That's funny :lol:

When the blooms on mine get visibly past their prime, I grab a clipper and snip it off...and my husband's reaction is always the same;

:yikes:

:coverlaugh:

Yeeeeeesh! I thought those phal leaves were going to snap! And here I've been treating most of my chids like glass! Although I did accidentally knock the tip off of an Epi cane just this morning :faint: . It's ok, it started growing a new cane about a week ago anyways!

And I can definitely say that after working in a nursery for 3 summers now, and after repotting literally hundreds of plants (not orchids, unfortunately), I can understand her rough treatment. Once you've had enough practice like that, and you've gotten said practice in a business setting where speed and production are key, then you know how far you can push the plants while maximizing productivity.

And about the water getting in the crown. Yes, there is some risk, but as long as the water evaporates relatively quickly, it's really not a problem. I'm sure their greenhouse has excellent air circulation and those plants dried out long before dark. I give most of my houseplants, including orchids, a spring shower to wash off dust (even though I wipe them down obsessively, this gives them a more thorough cleaning, and everything responds well to it). My phal has never had any problems from this, nor have any of my other orchids or non-orchids.

This may sound silly but if I get water in the crown of my five orchids (all phals), I blow it out with a straw (blow, not suck-- eew). I angle it just so that it gets blast out the side and not deeper into the plant.

Water in the grown is no issue whatsoever - if it has time to dry out by evening.

I wasn't shocked at all, but I did laugh (like Vinh) when she jammed the plant back in the pot while stating to be careful not to break the roots!