Hello all!!!

[Ordphien]

I already introduced myself in another section of the site but I figured I would introduce myself here where I'll be spending most of my time.
I'm a casual home grower with very little cash lol. So I mainly have NOID phals. They are cheap and plentiful here.
I plan on some more species and registered hybrids in the future. But I will continue to have mainly NOIDs I think.
It's hard not to!

Anyhow. As far as phals go so far I've only got 4 that aren't NOIDs. An amabillis that was given as a gift.... sort of. A blue lip equestris. As well as an orange and an aurea equestris.

One more thing. I'm new to this.
About 3 years ago a horribly abused phal, that I got at a memorial around 2 years before, bloomed for me. I hardly watered it, and had it planted in miracle gro soil. But it bloomed and grew for me.

That in turn inspired me to rescue a bloomed out phal from behind Trader Joe's. Or rather accept it as a gift from someone who rescued it from the dumpster behind the store.

That phal had a tag that said amabillis.

After receiving that plant I felt further inspired to actually research the care for phal orchids. And was immediately horrified at my mistreatment of these plants.
A huge re-potting was in order. Orchids were re-potted into bark medium in pots with air flow.
After that I started a more.... consistent watering schedule. About a year ago the little effort I put towards proper care was rewarded with 3 spikes for each of the memorial phals and a single spike on the amabillis.
My fiance tried to be funny and karate chop me and removed the spike off the amabillis instead.
After that I figured that the orchids were doing well enough that I should treat them right. I started a fertiliser regime and switched to a more pure water.
The memorial phals bloomed 3 more times that year, and all the phals put out tons of new roots and several new leaves.
Which in turn encouraged me to look into the world of orchids.
So. Around last August I thought. Hey, this is going well enough why don't I go get a few more of the $10 phals from one of the stores around here. Which I did.
Which leads me to today.
I've made two um.... Orchid buying trips since that realisation and one online order. The first trip was mainly me buying other types of orchids to see how they fare under my care.
The second trip was entirely phal focused.
The online orders were the equestris.
Now, after that long winded introduction, I would like to share my measly NOID phal collection with you all.


The amabillis btw.... I still haven't seen bloom. In the three years I've owned it.
So I'm not actually sure if it's an amabillis. I've only got the trash to go off of. It's sent up two spikes this year though. One off the spike that was karate chopped in half last year.

[Ordphien]

Let's start with some of the first phals I got.

This is one of my favorite mini phals I've gotten. It likes to bloom around 1 - 3 flowers at a time and seems to just keep on going. This picture is from when I got it in August. It's since dropped that flower but opened 3 more since. It's working on more buds but I think they're gonna open around the same time the new flowers drop.

Which seems to be a while off as the third flower just opened and the new buds are tiny.

There was, and still it's debate on the flowers colour in my household.
Botanical blue or lavender?

[Ordphien]

This is just a white mini phal. With a slight blush of pink. The flowers have since dropped off and its been re-potted. It's making a few more buds at the end of each spike. Maybe a sequential bloomer?

[Ordphien]

This is the final phal from that trip. I can now see that I concentrated mainly on orchids other than phals during that trip.
It's just a strange pink NOID. I don't remember what that type of petal is called. I might lose this one. All the buds blasted and a look inside revealed no roots. It's in sphag and bag but it's not going well.

[Ordphien]

And now we're at my second shopping trip which was only a month or so ago.

Here's what I got in a big group.

[Ordphien]

This is the only healthy phal I got. I figured I could also try my hand at rescuing some orchids.
They all come in healthy it just matter how the stores taking care of them and how long they have sat there. This is by far my largest phal in every way. Biggest flowers and spikes and plant size.
Again... a sequential bloomer?
It's since opened around 3 more buds per spike. But it's clear going to produce many more buds in the future.
The flowers are a lovely canary yellow with a.... well you can seer the picture lol.
It has an insanely sweet fragrance that fills the room. It doesn't smell of anything. It literally just smells sweet.
Thick waxy flowers.

The second picture is of a newly opened bud. It's far smaller, less saturated, and less flat than the ones that came open on it. I hope this changes once our adapts to my house.

[Ordphien]

This is my blush NOID. I have a thing for the standard three large phals you see everywhere. White, magenta, blush. But have no room for them.
So I want to have a few mini to medium sized versions of those.
This one isn't particularly special but it caught my eye right away.
Everything about it screamed delicate to me.
Overall it's about half the size of those large showy standards we see. The colours are represented poorly in these photos. The white is actually a soft cream. The same colour as old silk. The soft pink blush had s bit of a subdued dusty quality to it. The stems are very dark and the flower itself it's cup shaped. The lip is a bright magenta and yellow combo that seems subdued somehow when paired with the soft cream and pink.
I also happen to think the lip is amazingly beautiful.
The petals have the same lustre as an old pearl, and write frankly they only word I can use to describe this beauty is antique. It gives of a very delicate antique feel to me and I'm smitten with it.
It doesn't seems to be a very strong bloomer though as it only had about 4 or 5 buds per spike.

I'm in love though.

[Ordphien]

These two I'll show together.
The are two affordable mini phals that are almost identical. The difference being the colour and size.
The first one maintains a more compact growing habit and blooming habit. It's got a wonderful light bubblegum pink fleet that my camera refuses to capture. The lip is bright orange and magenta and overall this flower reminds me of a sunset.
The second phal is essentially the same.the flowers are a darker magenta and the blooming habit is taller and more open.
They both have a lovely white edge.

[Ordphien]

This one is a very compact grower that has flowers that are large. Well large to me.
It's exactly how it looks in the photo.mainly lime green. A little yellow. Diamond dusted with a spotted lip. Beautiful. This one is dying. Fast.
It's dropped all those flowers. Blasted its buds. And the leaves have gone severely dehydrated and droopy. The roots are barely there as well.

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[Ordphien]

This is my final phal. Actually I have a few more NOIDs but I don't have any pics of them in bloom.
This one is my smallest phal and blooms in this insane poofball of mini pink rounded flowers.
I love it so much.
And it has no roots. I'm desperately trying to save the thing but I'm not winning so far.