that's good to know - I guess :p

While Jerry makes a very good point it's also possible that the plants were perfectly OK to ship. These two species are both notorious as slow growers and will drag along well past when most Phals seem to explode with growth, even when they are properly removed from the flask, properly watered, given correct light and humidity, etc. I'd keep an eye on them, of course, but from what you've said of the health of the root systems it's my guess that they're simply still young enough to be in the slow phase and yet mature enough to be healthy. Be patient, and celebrate when you see a new leaf starting to appear!

I Agree !!!! I have had 2 Bellina Violacea the first I overwatered and the second I have now had for 3 years.
An other thing I agree with is that they are "slow" growers.. but once they get going they keep on growing.
What I have always tried to do is carefully watched my roots. I have found that they like humidity but the roots also need to dry out (not completely) & as mentioned by Rosie mine too definitely likes higher light. It's in a south facing window.

I would say be patient, sometimes species phals take a little longer to grow. I have a Phal. Venosa that I got at my local orchid show last february. When I got it it had two spikes growing and I thought I would get flowers sooner rather than later, but nothing happenned until a couple of weeks ago when I noticed that the spikes started to grow along with a new leaf.

Thank you so much for your replies, everyone! I am reassured by your comments about bellina and violacea being slow growers. Perhaps they have not yet reached the size where they suddenly 'take off', coupled with the fact that it is winter here.

I know that I will be over the moon when one or the other finally decides to grow a new leaf! I just hope they don't decide to die on me before they grow new leaves! I am just concerned about the fact that the leaves they have are 'ageing' as all are the original leaves the plants had when I got them 8 or 9 months ago.

Yes, I think the fact that these two plants were probably not long out a flask has severely hampered their growth. But I was just so eager to find these two for sale in the first place - doesn't seem to happen all that often over here! Bellinas and violaces seem to be somewhat of a rarity!

Mossmac

Orchid caring is about patience... I've had a vanilla orchid (Vanilla fragans) and it's beautiful, the roots have grown a lot, but no sign of new leaves... i thought root growing was a sign of healthiness, and it is, but not the only one. It's hard to mimick the natural conditions of the plants all the time, even living in a tropical area here in Brazil, with a nice amount of rain and sunshine! I'm repotting it now maybe give it a more fertilized soil... I'm very disapointed for not getting vanilla for dessert lol

More light! I have a pair of tiny bellinas and I've parked them about as close as I feel comfortable to a growlight to suplament the natural light they get from an East facing window. Mine are not quite 10cm across yet, but they slowly and surely put out new leaves and new roots.

No spikes yet though. Too small.

An update on my violacea plant! When I got up this morning, two of its leaves had dropped off. Like I said before, I had been concerned about the leaves ageing (as they normally do on phals!). Concerned in that no new leaves were growing to replace the ageing ones.

However, I have just had a really good look into the crown and I can see the beginning of a new leaf just showing! :D So that is good news! The plant only has one old leaf remaining now, so it really does need this new leaf! Not sure how much longer the one remaining leaf will stay on, as it is old and getting yellow!

Hey great that you have a new leaf, even if it only has one remaining leaf... at least it's doing something now :D