It sat in water!!!! Help!

[StefH]

Hi there everyone!

I'm a new orchid owner. I bought my orchid in mid March; it is a phalaenopsis....nice deep pinkish purple colour that I love.

When I got the orchid, it was in full bloom. I did a lot of reading for "beginners" about how to grow orchids and keep them happy.

My orchid has been growing well, blooming, and producing more buds and flowers! I've been quite pleased with it!

And actually, the day I brought it home, I broke the tip of one of its two spikes off, along with the two buds were growing there. It has just recently started to grow a new spike out of the existing spike that was broken! So, I expect to see some new buds growing. Since I brought it home, the other spike has probably bloomed about 5 new flowers.

Sounds like a happy orchid, right?

Well, even though I read about only water 1/4 cup once a week, apparently that was too much for my orchid.

A few weeks ago, I noticed some mold (white fuzz) growing on the roots, and I thought, "Wow, maybe I shouldn't water it for a while."

So I didn't water it for about 2 weeks. It really didn't seem like the mold was very bad, but it wasn't getting any better either.

Tonight, I decided to do some reading about orchid root rot. This prompted me to take the plastic cup that it sits in out of the decorative pot and check out the roots more closely.

OH BOY! My orchid was sitting in a huge puddle of water. I know this isn't good!!! But I think I only watered the thing about 4 times since I bought it in mid March. Obviously it wasn't using/absorbing the water I was giving it.

Now, I don't know what to do. My roots aren't doing well. I have a lot of root rot. I did some reading about how to re-pot with new potting matter, so I now understand how to trim the "sick" roots and clean it up. But I'm afraid to do that and then lose my flowers and beautiful, healthy spikes.

So what do I do?

For tonight, since it's Sunday night, all the stores are closed, and I don't have fresh potting matter, I removed the plastic cup/pot from the decorative pot and put the orchid on a shallow dish where it can hopefully dry out.

PS the leaves are still really healthy as well!

What should I do? Repot to save the plant and lose the flowers (I hate to do this since the one spike is growing a new spike out of it)? Trim the spikes and put them in a vase on their own, repot and salvage the leaves and the rest of the plant?

Help?! Suggestions?