Phal from Home Depot, is it healthy?

[directorstef]

Hi all, this is my first post. I stumbled across the forum Googling a solution to a possible problem.

I love orchids and never had them before, only other plants. So when I went into Home Depot and I saw all the pretty orchids, they captured me and I couldn't leave without one.

...Ok, I did. I went home and did tons of research before I bought one, then went and brought it home. It seemed to be the best one they had. It had the nicest leaves and blooms.



So here are some pictures. From what I understand it seems to be potted pretty correctly. I'm not a fan of sphag with anything, but this is all that it has right now. It is in a clear pot with drainage holes in the bottom, inside of a ceramic pot. It has 6 leaves that seem to be in really excellent shape. They're stiff, a nice green color, and about 8-10" long. Only one is not as stiff as the others. It's one of the leaves at the base of the plant. I wouldn't even consider it droopy, it's just not as stiff as the rest.





The only thing that concerns me is the bud I took a picture of. There's another bud that looks like it (in the first picture). All the buds are a darkish purple/green, except for 2 which are looking like a shriveled pink. Are the buds dying? Or about to bloom? I really have no clue. And also I wanted to know if the roots looked alright and if it really is potted correctly for the most part. If it is not, do I have to wait until fall to repot it? I don't want to annoy it. I love this plant.



Lastly, this little guy. My boyfriend picked it up for me at Walgreens. It's in a 2.5" pot and I had to cut one dead leaf and one dead bud off. It's in a clay pot and it looks like its sitting in a container within the clay pot, but its jammed in there so I cant get it out. I'm not sure what type of "soil" its in. It looks like a mix of sphag and bark but it is really hard to tell. It has a few roots on the surface that look green like my large orchid. What do I do with this one? I don't want to find it dead in 2 weeks.

Thanks everyone! Sorry for the long post...I just wanted to be as helpful as possible to help you give me the best advice that you can.