Need help with my Beallara Tahoma Glacier

[Jazmin]

Hi! I am new to this forum, I was hoping to get some help. I love growing plants and flowers and am usually pretty successful. I like to "rescue" plants from the grocery stores and give them a new good home
About four months ago I rescued this orchid plant, poor thing was looking very sad. I brought it home and have had no idea which kind of orchid it was because it had no flowers. So I put it in medium light, kept it moist, and gave it lots of love. Finally, I got results! It sprouted new growth and all of a sudden, it started flowering! I was so so SO happy to see this! Of course, I was just leaving town for three whole weeks when it started blooming. So I left my baby in charge of the neighbors. Unfortunately, that was a bad idea. Looks like they only came over once or twice and drowned my baby :'( So now the flowers are totally dead (I really did almost cry when I got home and saw this). Luckily I got a glimpse of the flowers and at least now I know its a Beallara Tahoma Glacier (at least, I am 90% sure it is.) So, now that the flowers are dead, I'm not sure what to do. Do I cut them off? If yes, where should I cut? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I looked everywhere online but got lots of different answers. Please someone help me! (Thank you)

[james mickelso]

What type of media is it potted in? What type of pot ids it in? Can we see some pics? How many pseudobulbs does it have? What condition are the leaves in? Are the pbulbs firm, soft, wrinkled, or yellow? Beallara lose their flowers after about 4-6 weeks, the plant rests for a month and then throws new growth. The roots are very fine and numerous. The plant doesn't like to be repotted unless necessary. That's why all the questions.

[WhiteRabbit]

You can cut the spike as far down as you can without difficulty.

Blooms on these usually last about a month, I think, so losing the blooms may not have to do with any care it got while you were gone.

[Jazmin]

Hi James!
I planted it in a synthetic pot and I put the roots on a nice piece of wood I found and then covered it with bark looking stuff. I'm not sure what pseudobulbs are, but the leaves are dark green. When I rescued it the bottom of them was all wrinkly, but it sprouted two new growths that look pretty good (I think). I haven't replanted it since I bought it (about 4-5 months ago). I'm trying to figure out how to put pictures up, will do that as soon as I can (lol)

---------- Post added at 10:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:40 AM ----------

Hi Sonya!
Thanks for the advice on cutting the spike, this being my first orchid I still feel nervous about it

[WhiteRabbit]

It isn't necessary to cut the spike, but it won't do anything more except eventually die. I usually leave them til they are brown and dead, but that's just me ...

[Optimist]

An oncidium has a round kind of cactus like thing and then leaves popping out. The cactus like thing is a pseudo-bulb. it is like a prickly pear cactus like a nopal sans espina de cactus. The pseudo bulb stores water the same as the nopal. It has fine roots that bring the bulb water. The plant can live for quite some time without water due to the water storage in the pseudo-bulb. Too much water will kill an orchid. It is better to err on the side of being too dry than being too wet. Your friends watered too much. Always treat an orchid like an epiphytic cactus. Like a shumburgia.

[Jazmin]

Here are a couple of pictures

[RandomGemini]

What is it potted in? It looks like soil.

[james mickelso]

It needs to be in a coarser media like bark, charcoal, lava cinder. The size of a small pea. It can be gravel as long as it is coarse like the size of a small pea. And it would really like to be in a much smaller pot. Oncids don't like their roots to be kept wet. Just damp. The wrinkled leaves were due to being too dry when they were forming.

[Jazmin]

It is planted in bark, I had to put a thin layer of sand on top because I had a gnat infestation over the summer (they're all gone now though). I will look in to replanting it in a smaller pot, I had no idea they liked smaller places. Thanks for all the advice from everyone! This has been very helpful