The last bud

[Yukonphal]

I noticed on Phals that I buy in bloom always have one last bud on the end of the spike that never becomes a flower. Has anyone , anywhere, ever, had this bud develop? If not , why not??

[Pilot]

Yup. Under my care I often have a main blooming occur followed the development of that last bud plus a few more. Phals will often bloom again with that last bud seemingly dormant for weeks and then suddenly will spring to life.

[Yukonphal]

Hmmm so far I've had them re-bloom after....but never that last little guy

[The Mutant]

Neither did I, and then I started to care for my Phals better than I've ever had before and so far ALL, except one but I wouldn't count it out just yet, have continued growing their spikes! I had planned to upload some pictures of one or two of them when they were finished, but I've no idea how long that will take since the spikes are growing, and growing, and growing (okay, now I made it sound like they all have spikes a mile long, but that's definitely not the case )...

[Yukonphal]

LOL yup , it does sound a little like your Phals suit your screen name LOL

[The Mutant]

I actually have four that does - three, more or less, peloric ones and one that have severely mutated flowers.

But it's great to see the spikes continuing to grow, especially on my oldies because that has never happened to me before (I thought that when all of the buds had opened that that was it - they've all proved me wrong). The really great part is that some of my new purchases are doing the same, one of them is a P. Snow Cloud with three spikes. After opening all of the buds it had when I bought it, it has now 23 flowers open AND the spikes started growing again after I re-potted it... I have no idea how many flowers it's going to have when it's done.

[jai_star]

Some Phals do this more than others. Look for a swelling at the end of the inflorescence for a sign of upcoming blooms. Two of my Phals are doing this and there are two that are not doing anything, maybe nothing will happens to those two and i will have to cut back the spike when the blooms drop. Also there is a side spike on that has stalled and is growing a new leaf instead. Phals are such funny things they can't decide what they want to do at times