How dark is too dark?

[magicatt]

Your blooms will not be ugly! It looks a healthy color to my eyes.

[WhiteRabbit]

Looks good to me - as others said, some Phals naturally have darker, or lighter colored foliage than others. I have seen darker green than yours.

And, a plant receiving too little light won't bloom.

[Orchidgirl83]

My Phals leaves seem to naturally run from almost yellow green to super dark green. So I agree that if it is giving you a spike, it must be happy.

[mamasanlzn]

I just checked on my phal.... and I have a second spike coming in. I am sooo freaking excited.

[Vanda lover]

Phals can bloom with pretty low light. Mine are all in North windows, they bloom fine. The only difference is, if they got more light I think they would have more flowers.

[james mickelso]

Phals, and many other orchids are epiphytes, and grow on other plants. Phals for the most part don't seek to bury their leaves into a media. They instead look for something to anchor the plant. Even if the media is fresh and in good condition the tendency is to spread out seeking support. Since their natural habitat is humid and rainy (during the rainy season), they spread their roots out seeking support and ignor the media as a source of moisture. Their color is dark green for the most part which means they are adapted to deep shade conditions and need the chlorophyll to gather and convert the meager amount of light they receive. I have phals who's color ranges from light green to deep green and a few which have a lot of red in the coloration. It varies with species and parents.