I got one too, also at a No Frills! I'd been on the lookout since this was posted, and last night I saw two plants exactly like the one in Cheryl's photo. The poor things were practically in the doorway, with cold air blasting away at them. I picked the one in better condition.

This can't be a mistake on the part of the grower. The flowers are quite small, I wonder if this was intentional, or if it's a hybrid that turned out to be less than expected. But hey, for $10 I can't complain - it certainly brightened up a dreary winter day.

What!!! You don't like Frankenflowers??? :rofl:

Looks like you are correct in your ID. There are only so many hybrids that have leaves like that.

FYI it is a primary hybrid of schilleriana and stuartiana. Good eye Cheryl!

I'm happy for all of you who found unique plants. But I'll be honest with you, I feel this is a rather harsh post.

I personally find some of the species.... quite ugly.. but that's a beauty in the eyes of the beholder. And so, back to Phals - why hurt feelings of those who like large flowers and bright colours? :(( There's nothing wrong with NoIDs either, seriously! The plant doesn't know any difference and whether it's been assigned a mouth-full of latin/asian name in a registry - or not.

As a community, I think we need to be more careful with each others feelings. My :twocents:


"I'm so used to seeing all the flashy fuschia, dyed blue, pillowy white phals that they rarely catch my eye at all anymore. As a rule I generally don't buy or rescue them because their flowers have lost the uniqueness that drew me into orchids in the 1st place.....not those slap you in the mouth fuschia, palm sized, bubble like phals you normally see at the grocery store. Sure there were plenty of those, and the massive white discs that the, once elegant, white phals have become and the DREADED dyed ones (sigh, is there not enough brilliant colour in the orchid world? We have to dye them blue now?) but among all the hybridizing that has essentially blended anything unique from a phal into a few varieties of lacklustre throwaways ."

I bought exactly the same plant from IKEA a few years ago. It was the only time I saw a Phal with mottled leaves being sold there. The spikes branch out a lot. The flowers are cute but too small, like a mini Phal's, and they don't last long.
At least it has pretty leaves :lol:

This is a picture of my Phal:
http://i48.tinypic.com/r0zj8l.jpg

Wow beautiful and interesting Phal!

I have both a schilleriana and stuartiana that have bloomed and I don't like the flowers any more than I like the floofy phals that I can't resist, noid or not. The leaves I love. And since they are small they give me room for more orchids.
Orchids are like children- each is unique, each has it's charms. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

---------- Post added at 08:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:39 AM ----------

Gives me an idea, though- maybe I should try crossing them????

I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone with my post. I just get irritated at the mass marketed flowers that are not hybridized for any specific reason other than to make bigger flowers. I think hybridizing is an art, a little of this and a little of that and you can make something extraordinary but when you mix and match for no reason you end up with flowers that all look the same. The diversity of orchids is unlike any other flower in the plant kingdom. Isn't that why we love them? Because they are unlike anything else. Flowers that smell like rotting flesh cause their pollinators are flies, flowers shaped like birds or bugs. I have 51 orchids currently, many of them are NOID phials and other NOIDs and I care for them just the same. But I'm saddened when I look back even just 15 years ago and the phials you saw then are much prettier (in my opinion) than the ones of today. Although I tell myself I will not rescue phals anymore I still find myself walking out of flower shops with phals that need some TLC. I am an addict to the core. I'm actually moving to a bigger place in a month and a half cause I have officially run out of room with chids still on my list. A problem I'm sure lots of us have

Beauty certainly is in the eye of the beholder. Thank goodness we don't all like the same things.

Unfortunately the phalaenopsis genus has fallen victim to mass marketing. It is the latest and greatest (?) disposable house plant.

Can I ask a favor of everyone?
 

Please learn to use the Enter key and break your posts into paragraphs. Posts like the one below are EXTREMELY difficult to read. So much so, I often don't bother, and that pretty much defeats the purpose of posting in the first place, doesn't it?

Didn't anyone ever teach you that if you couldnt say something nice not to say anything at all !!!!