Plenty of news, some good, some... interesting:
1) It's not a Phal
equestris, it's a hybrid. I learned this from an experienced grower, at a meeting of my OS, when I showed my plant. I admit I was a bit disappointed.
2) I contacted the nursery I bought the plant from, and I found out that it has an ID: Phalaenopsis x Veitchiana X
equestris, where x Veitchiana =
equestris X
schilleriana (a hybrid occuring naturally). This makes my plant 75%
equestris and 25%
schilleriana. It makes sense: the petals are slightly rounder thatn in
equestris, and the flowers are a tad bigger and visibly flatter.
3) I detached and potted 9 keikis and kept 5 keikis on the mother plant. With this occasion I finally had an accurate count: 14. I hadn't even been able to count them accurately before
4) Found new homes for 3 keikis, still have 6 potted in sphagnum and doing great. It's been the perfect opportunity for me to try sphagnum, which I had been avoiding like the plague. Used correctly, it can work extremely well (a first for me!).
5) The 5 keikis that are stil attached to the mother plant have grown 7 spikes (first pic). And during the 10 days since the pic was taken, all but one of the spikes have bloomed.
I'm considering registering this hybrid under the name "Phalaenopsis Pegasus". It really look slike it's going to take off and fly
6) The potted keikis have continued to grow their spikes. No bud blasted (yet?), and two of them actually bloomed. These little plants are barely 7 months old (second pic).
And to think that to me it seemed so unimpressive when I bought it. It was my wife's favorite, and I only bought it to please her.
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