I'm sure we've all dragged home our fair share of unidentifiable hybrid phals over the years. For many of us, that's where it all begun. You just pop in at the supermarket to get a bread and some milk and voila! somehow a flowering phal ends up in your trolley. next thing you know you become like Scrat in Ice Age every time you see a NOID phal until they've taken over your house and life and you're officially orchid-obsessed.
I'm sure we've all killed our fair share of supermarket phals over the years as well. Here on the African Farm, NOID phals are exposed to some kind of brutal darwinism and survival of only the very fittest. They're over-watered, sunburned, overdosed with fertilizers and seaweed extract, then exposed to drought before they're drowned again, and when the greenhouse fills up and I'm in need of space for those orchids that actually HAVE a name, the NOIDs are the first ones that will have to give way.
And still, despite all of the brutal handling and mistreatments, now and then you really DO find a winner. A plant that you can (literally) put on a pedestal and have everybody stop to admire. A plant that seem to strive despite everything that you have put it through. This is my monster wonder-phal!
Sorry I did not clean her up for you. She still got lime deposits on the leaves and looks a bit shabby.
This phal was bought on one of those supermarket incidents about two years ago as a normal sized phal in a normal clear plastic pot. Today it's potted in a self-made pot of a five liter plastic water bottle, because I didn't have anything else that was big enough for the roots.
This is the second flowering. The spikes are close to 70 cm tall and at the moment 25 flowers are open. Five has already faded and it has around 50 buds not yet opened up. It will be interesting to see how many of them that actually will open. I think this is close to the max number of flowers that will be open at any given time though. Today I noticed she's developing a new spike.
You got to give these NOID phals credit. They are the PERFECT beginner orchid. This plant has sunburned leaves and have been tossed around as a dog toy and half a year later, this is how it re-pays me.
As I'm getting more experience and as my collection grows I discover that I pay less and less attention to the NOID phals. The named species in the greenhouse is getting most of my attention. Still, now and then it's worth giving them a bit of attention and appreciate them.
Hail to the NOID phal!
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