My current Phal booms

[RosieC]

My phals spiked late in the spring rather than over the winter and have been in bloom over the summer. Some have dropped the flowers now, but I still have four of them in bloom. I also have lots of new spikes starting now after a cool spell in August.

I have shown this first one before... but it is still in bloom 3 months after it first opened and has had arround 30+ flowers for most of that time!


I also showed this phal when it had just one flower in Jul. It's had 5 cute flowers for most of the summer and they are still open. They are not as good substance as some but still pretty.


The flowers on this one are quite large at 10cm accross and has been looking good with 7 flowers. This one has been open about 2 months now.


To be honest I'm not such a fan of this last one, it's a little too spotty for my taste. It's also not the healthiest plant but it has flowered despite that. The flowers are actually too heavy for the stem and it bent under the weight and had to have several clips to make it hold upright. It seems to have held the blooms despite that.

[Call_Me_Bob]

LOVE the first one!

[Queenslander]

Hi Rosie, my Phal has been blooming for at least 8-9 months. I bought it in bloom in April this year. Same stalk, just keeps going on and on. Even though the flowers have dimmed a bit in colour. It even has 2 new buds, plus little keikis growing on 2 of the nodes. Is this a record or what?

[Melody]

Wow Rosie those are amazing! Especially that first one.

Do you have any idea why they produced spikes so late?

[trdyl]

They look wonderful!

[rangiku]

Rosie, the first one is amazing. Wonderful growing. What kind of phal is it?

[quiltergal]

Lovely blooms Rosie. Some of my Phals bloomed very late this year also. I blame it on the cool, dark, damp spring we had. Things didn't really start to warm up until the end of June!

I also think if you leave a Phal. in bloom beyond June (unless of course it's supposed to bloom in summer) that it takes the plant longer to get ready to bloom again throwing it's growth cycle off. I prefer mine to go through their growth cycle in the summer because I think the roots and new leaves are a little more robust.

[RosieC]

Thanks everyone.

Originally Posted by Melody

Do you have any idea why they produced spikes so late?

I kept my house quite cold last winter and I think they all went dormant instead of spiking. I was quite worried that I had no spikes at the end of last year through to early spring. Then as the weather started to warm up I got several of them spiking, and they went on to flower over the summer.

Originally Posted by rangiku

Rosie, the first one is amazing. Wonderful growing. What kind of phal is it?

I'm afraid it's a NoID. Bought it as my second ever orchid at a local garden center. It grew like crazy for the last two years and has flowered twice in the previous two years, although only the once this year... just tons of flowers and open for ages

Originally Posted by quiltergal

Lovely blooms Rosie. Some of my Phals bloomed very late this year also. I blame it on the cool, dark, damp spring we had. Things didn't really start to warm up until the end of June!.

Yeah, as I said above it was cold in my house over the winter and I think it was when it warmed up in April/May that they started spiking.

Originally Posted by quiltergal

I also think if you leave a Phal. in bloom beyond June (unless of course it's supposed to bloom in summer) that it takes the plant longer to get ready to bloom again throwing it's growth cycle off. I prefer mine to go through their growth cycle in the summer because I think the roots and new leaves are a little more robust.

I think you are right. Mine that didn't spike in the spring were those which had been in flower late last year (mostly bought last year in flower). Many of those are now spiking now after a cool spell in late August.

I like them to go through growth in the summer as well, but I think several of mine are off, and I will take what I get with flowers