Is this Phal growing or dieing slowly

[ArronOB]

I’ve always avoided supermarket phals because I didn’t want to grow something thats not exotic - in the sense of not common hereabouts.

Anyway, late last year a neighbour said she had a phal which was finished flowering, and how should she look after it. I told her to toss it, as it wouldn’t survive in our climate.

She didn’t toss it but gave it to me. I repotted it and put it in a shady part of our shadehouse to die with dignity. About 3 months later I looked at it and it was in fact doing well and had a spike. Over winter that spike has matured into flowers which - there’s no way round the fact - are really stunning.

It’s affected me, today I even found myself stopping in the hardware store to admire the Phals. I nearly bought one with outsize red flowers with a velvety texture. I just have one question to get out of the way first.

My question is, does the fact that a phal is able to reflower 10 to 12 months after it was bought indicate that it is growing well, or is it simply running on empty?

Is it simply dieing slowly, with one last gasp being a flower spike - although a spike with large and pefectly formed flowers?

Over winter it was inside - with temps getting down to about 12 degrees Celsius just before dawn, which I would have thought cold enough to make a phal decline slowly.

Cheers
Arron