This is the third orchid we bought (our first non-grocery store/Home Depot orchid), this time from a local orchid seller here in Vienna, Virginia, in early February 2013. It had not bloomed before I bought it, if I remember correctly. I repotted right after I bought it and kept it in moss since that's what it had been in when I bought it and didn't want it to go through the near death experience that the two previous grocery store phals went through when I moved them from moss to bark/charcoal. The plant really hadn't done much until about 4 months ago when it started growing out a new leaf and a bunch of roots. I have kept this plant near a humidifier, so it tends to stay very moist and I only water it about every 15 days or so. The last time I watered it, I saw what I thought were two new roots popping out. But when I watered it today, I realized that what I thought were roots were two flower spikes! So this is now the second phal to put up a spike for me - the first was my second phal from Home Depot which survived it's brush with death. So happy, much dancing and rejoicing in Vienna today! I just can't wait to show off my babies when they are in full bloom!
How long before these spikes have flowers on them? Will it take as long as a NOID hybrid phal, 2-3 months? And one more question: should I switch to bloom fertilizer now to help the spikes grow, or is there no reason to do that once spikes form?
Oh, and one more: is Phal Hieroglyphica a hybrid or species plant? The tag reads Hieroglyphica x sib (I think it's 'sib', cant quite make it out), which made me think it was a hybrid (newb alert!), but I've been reading up on the plant since I saw the spikes this morning and now I'm thinking it is a species plant?
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Phal Hieroglyphica in Spike!
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