Any advice on Miltoniopsis Augres "Trinity?"

[Bmorepaph]

Hi, I am new to this forum. I have recently become addicted to orchids, and have acquired a mixed collection of about ten plants. Primarily Phalaenopsis and paphs. One of the plants I acquired is a Miltoniopsis. I found it in the store when it was budding and the clerk told me it was a Miltonia. It wasn't untill I looked up the name on the sticker that I found it is a Miltoniopsis and is more of a intermediate to advanced plant. I so far have had pretty decent luck with it. I am using compact flourescents and am keeping the medium fairly moist but obviously not soggy. I have increased misting because I understand this speices has a high humidity requirment that sometimes is hard for some growers to meet. The leaves meet the "healthy" description that I read about. It has begun to bloom, but rather unevenly. It seems that some of the buds need to be helped along because the petals at the top of the bud seem to get stuck together. Is this normal? Also once the flower has unfirled for a few days, the bottom petals become rather wilted looking. How long do the blooms last. My Phalaenopsis blooms seem to almost take on a waxy plastic like appearence for sometime. Is there a way to make all of the buds on my Milt. open at the same time so that all of the flowers look fresh? Sorry for the lengthy message! Any advice would be appreciated!

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[Ross]

I had a different cross a while back and at first it grew like gang-busters! Then this last spring it started doing as you have described and even worse. I threw mine away. Don't have time for plants that don't like me.

[Bmorepaph]

Yeah, I have done some more research and have found that most likely this is a humidity problem. I don't think these are very suitable house grown plants! Apparently they thrive in 80% humidity. It is continuing to bloom, and really does not look that horrible. I'm gonna try to get the humidity as high as possible. If anybody else has advice it would be much appreciated! Thanks

[Gin]

Hi , I have several of them, the humidity runs about 60% the one thing I do not do is mist them, try that on a couple of buds to see if they open better . Mine also bloom here and there some of the buds are older then others so they open sooner .. Welcome to the forum .. Gin

[Bmorepaph]

Thanks for the suggestion Gin.I purchased a warm mist humidifier yesterday to replace the cool mist ones that I feel are useless. I ran the system overnight and so far I am able to consistently keep the rph at leaf level at around 54-55%. Hopefully I can get it just a little bit higher. I want to see condensation on my windows! I am a little confused regarding your message. Do you mean that you do or do not mist the buds? Also the leaves of the plant are a nice green color, but not all of them are as erect as the others. Is this normal. Thanks for welcoming me