Newbie Phal owner - branched and new flower spikes

[hannahc]

I bought a couple of Phals in full flower in July/August. After the flowers dropped I trimmed the stems to just above what I though was the second node (although I think it might actually have been the third node).

A couple of weeks ago new stems started branching from the highest node, which had me delighted. I watered the plant and fed it using miracle-gro just before leaving for a week to visit my family for Christmas.

When I got back, I discovered that my Phal had thrown up a brand new flower spike in addition to the branches from the old spikes, as you can see in the picture.

My question is, should I cane and leave to grow all three spikes? Or should I cut the two old ones down to the base of the plant and leave just the one?

The plant was a garden store classic, it lives on a north/north-east facing windowsill in London. Unfortunately I don't think I can post photos directly but I have put pics on my Picasa album: https://picasaweb.google.com/HannahC...eat=directlink

Thanks for your help!

[WhiteRabbit]

Nice! There's no reason to cut the old spikes. The new one MIGHT have fewer blooms than it may have otherwise ... but, it might have just as many.

I'm not good with Phals however... I'm dure that others with more experience with them will chime in

[mattryan]

I agree with Sonya. I personally would leave them, your plant looks healthy and it is growing another so enjoy

Cheryl

[hannahc]

Thank you both so much! I'll leave it with the three spikes.

Cheers!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[PurpleOrchidLover]

What a nice looking Phal! I think you are lucky!