Phal blooming from end of spike?

[RosieC]

It was the tips I was refering to when I said some of mine do it.

I have one called Phal Sogo Lovely that had a full display of flowers, then as the first started to drop the tips of the main two spikes and every side spike started to develop new buds. In the end I had to cut them off because I wanted to repot and they were getting too long to manage. That one took it to the highest extent, but I've seen it on others too.

[camille1585]

About half of my phals continue growing from the tip of the spike. I think it's partially genetic, it's often the same ones that do that. They probably have sequential blooming species somewhere deep in their background, those species have spikes that continue lengthening and producing buds, sometimes for a very long time.

[FlyingBrunswick]

Thanks!! It's fascinating to learn more about them and glad to hear some of my others might be able to do this too.

[Paul Mc]

Ditto, some of my orchids that grow off of the old stems do the same thing. Sometimes they form new ones off of the old in the nodule areas and other times they start blooming at the very tip. There doesn't appear to be any real rhyme or reason to them, they just do what they want (for those particular kinds that I have).

[PaphMadMan]

Originally Posted by FlyingBrunswick

Thanks so much for the responses!

I'm not sure if my question has been answered - I'm familiar with branching and growing off of nodes, but my actual question was about growing further blooms at the very tip of the spike. (the smallest part of the spike at the end with blooms behind it).

Is the tiny, shrunken "bud" at the end of all phal spikes another node? I always assumed that it was an undeveloped bud!

A bud (floral or vegetative) isn't a node, but it is always AT a node, and there are probably several developing nodes and buds within the mitten-shaped tip at the end of a Phal spike. Since this spike is still in flower this is probably a case of it pausing briefly, perhaps from some kind of shock, then resuming when the plant recovered. I wouldn't call this one new growth, but I have seen Phal spikes begin to grow from the tip again months after all flowers are gone. Phal spikes are always rather indeterminate in how long they will be. As long as the growth bud at the end is still green I don't find this at all surprising.