Blc. orphan: inflorescence "stalks" fail to develop; dry and die

[awharvey]

A couple of years ago I bought a Blc. orphan at a botanic garden sale. I was told it had numerous "inflorescence stalks" (not sure of the term), but although the plant overall seems quite healthy, these buds all eventually become dry and straw-colored (as in the photo). Although I'm still very much an orchid noob, I have gotten Vandas, Phals, and a Dendrobium to rebloom, but tweaking the usual culprits (substrate, fertilizer, light, and temperature) seem to have had no effect. Suggestions? Thanks!

[Roberta]

First, Welcome!

Those are sheaths, and sometimes a plant will just "decide" to not produce flower spikes, and makes "blind sheaths" . The plant does look healthy, so odds are good that it will bloom eventually, Can you tells us a bit more about your growing conditions? Watering, temperature, light, etc.?

[awharvey]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Can you tells us a bit more about your growing conditions? Watering, temperature, light, etc.?

Sheaths! Thanks for the term. As for conditions, we've got a sunroom, so relatively bright light; it has a mini split set to keep the room at 62°F in the winter, whereas in the summer I don't think it gets above 79°. The plant is now in a pretty standard orchid mix in a translucent orchid pot (bark, charcoal, some sphagnum), soaked in a dilute fertilizer mix as needed, on average probably weekly. I will say that its stems don't look quite like other Blc pix that I've seen; where these photos show slightly thickened green ribbed stems (pseudobulbs?), mine has thinner tan paper sleeves covering the stems.