I got "schooled" @ HDepot this am.

[elaines]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

If you cut the flowering part of the spike off now it will most likely push another spike out from one of the nodes below. If left on too long it most likely won't for quite awhile.

Sorry about tangent from the thread but I read somewhere that orchids are "pre-programmed" to bloom a certain number of blossoms and that, if something interrupts the blossoming of that number of blooms, the orchid will put out new buds to replace the ones that couldn't bloom.

I got a new kitten a couple of years ago when my most beautiful phal was about to bloom. He immediately hopped on the table, took one look at that beautiful dangling spray of buds and excitedly eliminated all of them in one swipe. He snapped the spike just below the buds. The phal then put out a new branch from lower on the spike and still wound up blooming the same # of blossoms. It didn't bloom the next year, though.

Would cutting the spike of the HDepot orchid to get another cause it to miss its blooming cycle next year? Or is that care dependent? Is it true that orchids have a pre-determined number of blossoms they're determined to bloom?