What on earth????!!!!! My phal changed color

[gardengirl13]

Maybe it is a mutation. But why would it take 3+ years to show?

There was only one plant in the pot. I've had it for 4 years now, so I know this plant pretty well I think. For a beginner.

No one has taken care of my orchids but me. My husband would own up to killing one, and would replace it with something better. As I said I really don't like the white and purple phal so I wouldn't have bought it myself. And the white one was my favorite as it was the first orchid I bought that rebloomed for me, and all my phals are now in bloom an the white one isn't here. Well it is, it's just now purple.

The jacks is the color of the bottle. It's purple. Very close to the purple of the flower. This is why I'm thinking it's the fert that did this. Before I started using it the buds were a whitish green, yes they were very small, but all the purplish phals I have had a greenish purplish color even when they were very small.

As of this am the flower still isn't open all the way so it's hard to see as it's still fairly curled. Here are the shots I took this am. Darn internet takes forEVER to upload anything here at home!









and here you can see the base of the spike and the leaf edges are slightly purple too. They've never been this color before either. The potting mix is the same as last year and it's been in this same window for 4 years.





Here's the back of the flower which you can kind of see is more white.

[TeresaE]

Originally Posted by Rowangreen

Phalaenopsis can change colour a bit due to different culture, eg different temperature or light levels. However that's more than just a bit... a bit of veining maybe, but the lip has gone from white to dark pink. And difficult to tell yet, but it looks like the proportions are different: the top one looks to have much larger petals in comparison to it's lip.

My explanations:
You mixed them up.
There were originally two different plants in the pot.
Someone swapped them for a joke
If you ever left someone looking after your orchids, they killed the old one and swapped if for a new one.

LMAO!!! I love your explanations. They actually make sense. Unless it's a cross...I think sometimes they do that as well....flower one way here, another way the next time. I am so curious now I am going to ask our resident Phal expert at our next meeting.

---------- Post added at 05:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:44 PM ----------

Oh and just for the record...if you want a "FOR SURE" white orchid then look for a Phal. amabilis. :-)

[gardengirl13]

So I just got off the phone with the place I bought the orchid from. One of the employees said it may have originally been a purple orchid, that turned white due to lack of proper nutrients and now that it is happier it's turned purple again. Could this be true? Could it have been white for 3-4 years due to lack of nutrients then turned back to purple?

[PaxTea]

Can you remember seeing a hint of purple, ever? My white mini-phal is faintly purple on the back of the petals.

I take it you never fertilized it before? You could always stop fertilizing it and see if the next few blooms go back to being white.

What was the nursery doing selling malnourished plants?

For what it's worth, I believe you that it's the same plant. This is very strange, though.

[camille1585]

I doubt that theory. A nutrient deprived plant will make smaller blooms, less blooms, or maybe no blooms. Making the bloom itself takes a lot more energy than just producing the pigments.

I can see how the base of the spike looks like it's been dyed by the fertilizer, but the bloom color just seems too perfect and natural looking to be the fertilizer. But at the same time, it or a mutation are the only explanations that could make any sense at all to me. Why not stop fertilizing with the purple stuff, flush the pot out really really well and then see what happens to the youngest bud. If it's fertilizer related then the coloring will be much paler I'd presume. I don't think it's fertilizer, but it doesn't hurt to try to eliminate a potential cause.

[gardengirl13]

Well it's not the nursery that grows them it's a garden center that orders them then sells them. It was white when they got it as I bought it soon after they got it. I also don't think I believe that theory.

I stopped using the fert and went back to my old one two weeks ago, so we'll see if the newer blooms are paler. I flushed to pot real well today when I did my watering, so we'll see what happens. Otherwise I have no clue!?

I hate to say it since I loved the white so much, but I really don't like this color at all! I'm almost hoping it's somehow the fert since that means next year it'll be white again!

[Bolero]

No way is this purple orchid the same plant as the white one.

[NYCorchidman]

no way that is the case. obviously the person you talked to had no idea what he or she was talking about. Nutrient too much or too little, either way has nothing to do with color change.
It may affect the number of buds by affecting overall growth of the plant.

Pay very close attention to the picture of white one on your very first post and see the shape of petals where they meet the dorsal sepal. then compare that same part on the purple flowers.
They are not the same plant. I think somehow it got replaced somehow.

Are you sure no one ever tended this plant ever???
Do you live by yourself? Have you ever gone on vacation and had someone visit your place? family member, friend, neighbor?

I mean anything is possible, but this would be bizarre!

By the way, the back of the flowers showing some white is actually present on almost all phals regardless of colors.
Some really dark rose pink or lavendar pink (whatever you call that color) may have no white on the back of the flowers though.

I have a very dark purple Leopard Prince in bloom. Back of the flowers are completely white.

[Stray59]

Gardengirl:
Wow - you have so many people in a quandary now! I hate to say it, but the color change you have shown is just not possible from the same plant. It's not just the color, but the overall shape of the petals, etc. - that just does not happen. But you are soooo sure of this being the same plant that it makes me want it to be, for your sake.
I hate to be the one that brings this up, but how sure are you about that husband of yours? He is in the home and thus has the opportunity to do a switch-aroo. Do you have any truth serum around? or, perhaps some thumb screws?
You obviously have a great dislike of this coloring, so maybe God is just screwing with you - but that would take us back to the thought that the plant changed colors, and again, outside of heavenly intervention, that is just not possible.
I would just take this as another reason to purchase a new orchid - or two or three. Get a really nice pure white one - MARK IT AS WHITE and let someone else enjoy this purple striped one - and mark this up as one of life's great mysteries.
BTW - what other color phalae's do you have? Could one of them be the white-one-that-got-away?
I hope you work this out - something like that can drive you nuts! If a solution is found, let us know - you have a lot of us quizzing over it now!
Steve
P.S. - You have a VERY healthy looking plant here - obviously you know what you are doing when it comes to growing Phalae's!

[silken]

It is also very close to April Fool's Day! Does hubby or someone enjoy an elaborate joke? Or maybe we are the ones who are being tricked???