Mine has been off and on for years. But it's really bad now... I bought one at Home Depot I believe, just a regular phal. I had it for a couple years and it rebloomed for me. I adored that plant, then we moved and it didn't like the new house and promptly died.
After a couple more years I got a bunch more, I think I had like 5 or 6. That apartment had NO light at all. One by one, they kicked the bucket. Then we moved again and I bought I bunch more. I had about 10 and got some on clearance at Walmart. Pretty much if it has a clearance sticker it's coming home with me.
So now it's been about 2 years and I have since purchased one or two more...until this past week. I've acquired 10. OMG. I got a phal on clearance at Walmart for half off of $15. Then the next day I found a lady slipper for $15 at the grocery store, Wegmans. I'd never seen one, no idea if that was a good price but around here, anything that isn't a phal is ridiculously expensive so I jumped at getting one. Of course this made me crazy for more, so I went on eBay and dropped over $100 on 3 more orchids. 2 more phals that are really gorgeous in color, one is so dark purple it's almost black and the other is a pinkish purple. One is listed as a hybrid, not sure of the other. The third is a dendrobium anosmum. That will be only my second one that isn't a phal. Unfortunately, I live near Buffalo, NY and the sellers won't ship them to me right now because it's so cold. I probably won't even get them until spring because it will be cold here until April. In the meantime I had to run back to Walmart and ended up seeing 5 phals still on clearance. They were marked down to $3.69 a piece. I grabbed them faster than lightning and they came home with me. 4 out of the 5 are white, so I decided to do something I've never done before and bought a giant pot and put them all in there, I've always wanted to do that. I hope they like it, but even if they die, the price was a steal considering they are almost always $15 around here.
I have a plant addiction anyways but I like the fact that they are pretty much one of the easier ones since they have such great drainage, I'm not really able to overwater. I think I also hoard them in hopes of having some in bloom at all times. I had gotten my first giant batch over the spring and summer of last year so as all the blooms died off, I was left with 10 plants with nothing but leaves. Thankfully I have some spikes now off of them plants. Sadly one snapped off a couple weeks ago. It was absolutely devastating. It was unusually warm and I had opened the bathroom window where that one lives. I guess there was enough wind and it blew it right over which snapped the spike. I was so mad because it was probably a week or two away from opening the first bloom. I think that's part of the addiction, is the wait to see when and how many and if the plants will spike and bloom again. I just wish it happened more often!
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