New buds with no roots?!

[jen.kirsten]

Hi everyone, in my never ending quest to keep an orchid alive I have run across an interesting issue. I have a Phal which I brought home about one month ago. It was packed in soggy moss so I re-potted it into bark. As I've stated in my previous posts, most of the roots were rotted so I removed almost all of them-- to say the roots were in bad shape is an understatement. All said and done, ti had about three decent roots left. Since being in it's new mix (bark) the blooms have stayed beautiful and there are two new buds which are getting larger. The only problem is the leaves, they have been droopy and I credit this to the poor root system. I did not pre-soak my bark so I have been keeping a close eye on the bark and have watered it every 8-9 days. Yesterday I noticed the leaves looking remarkably worse than usual so I removed the plant to see what was going on...NO ROOTS LEFT. The few healthy roots that were there previously had turned very hard and brown and were totally shriveled up. The crown looks fine. Basically, I am wondering, how is this plant keeping it's blooms and new buds with no roots. I am baffled!