thanks for the comments fellow orchid lovers. Bolero i hope you have better success with the phrags in the future. I don't really do an aweful lot with mine. It just sits in a shallow tray of water. I grow it in coconut husk and the occasional shot of fertiliser. Maybe they just like the climate here. besseae isn't an easy one for me though. I have been overwatering as i thought they also like to sit in a tray of water but i think i was wrong. Many of the roots seem to have rotted and a few brown patches on leaves so i'm letting it stay moist but not wet from now on.

Does anyone have experience with pollinating phrags? i tried to self the pictured flower and i think it may have taken. The flower itself has dropped off and the seedpod part remains on the plant, is this what happens with phrags when they pollinate? I don't have much experience with phrag pollination. Most orchids that i have pollinated retain there flowers which just wither away while still attached to the developing pod.