wiring phal flower spikes into pleasing positions

[james mickelso]

Somewhere I posted a thread that purported to describe how to reposition phal flower spikes into more pleasing positions. For most of the flower spikes I see two schools of thought. The most common is to let the flower spike grow in whatever position it grows. Some folks even put in something to help hold the flower spike up. In Japan I've seen shows where the flowers have been grown straight up and where the flowers start on the spike, they are then brought downward to show off the flowers to their best advantage. Here I am trying to bring the flower spikes to a more pleasing symetry by using copper wire to bend the growing flower spikes into a flowing shape. I shaped and grew bonsai for around 40 years and this is a technique used to reposition branches to make use of their shapes.