How long should the flower spike be?

[sara903]

I've had my phal for almost a year. It was a beautiful, flowering Valentine's gift. Anyhoo - it has two flower spikes and both had blooms for months, in addition to each spike growing at least 5 more inches.

All of the blooms have finally dropped off - now what?

There doesn't seem to be any new growth, but the spikes are still green and lovely - no wilting/shriveling to be seen. The leaves are firm and green and the roots are in good shape as well.

It's getting quite long/tall and I'm afraid that there's going to be one sad bloom on the end of a looooooong spike.

Prune or don't prune? If so - down to the base?

I don't want to murder my pretty princess!

[Paphluvr]

Sara,

You'll notice along the stem below where the buds where are some nodes enclosed by a small amount of tissue. If you cut the stem back to just above the first node below where your first bloom was and have some patience it may branch from that lower node and eventually form buds and rebloom. Just keep up your usual care.

Hope this explanation wasn't too confusing. Good luck!

[camille1585]

If the spikes continued to elongate so much, do you see any new buds at all at the tip? If you have a pic that would be nice, an 'ended' spike looks a bit different from one planning to grow some more.
But if you really don't like the idea of a few blooms at the end of long stems then it's completely up to you whether to cut it back part way or all the way. Part way (like Paphluvr explains) might give you a side spike, but I'm not really a fan of doing that because it's usually a runty little spike, with not too many blooms. So totally up to you!