Entire plant shriveled
 

Hello everyone!

I'm very excited to have discovered this forum. I've been crazy about Orchids ever since I was first given one as a gift.

Anyway, to the point.

Today I discovered an orchid (phalaenopsis) that I thought had those poppy-ish kind of parchment looking leaves, but on closer inspection realized that the entire plant was shriveled up. I've never seen anything like it. It wasn't just the leaves, but the flowers and buds as well.

I know grocery store orchids are never in the greatest condition to begin with, but it's usually (in my experience) not so obvious.

Is this just a case of dehydration, or temperature shock? Is she savable? I feel compelled to buy her just to try and nurse her back to health, but am afraid it would be a wasted effort. If pics/more info is needed I can probably get them tomorrow.

I would remove it from the pot and check the roots. If they look really dry, soak the entire thing for a few days. Sometimes, surprisingly, they plump up. My daughter brought home a rescue that had been under-watered and I left it sitting in water for a few days, wondering what to do with it and, behold, it was perfectly fine and even bloomed.

If, however, the roots are rotten, you might want to order some cheap seaweed mix online (or buy some from a hydroponics store) and give it a good soak in that to encourage new roots to form. I have had luck wrapping a little New Zealand Sphagnum moss around the base and setting it on top of a half-filled pot of medium. You may lose the lower leaves but it will likely recover, as long as you keep it in a humid, warm spot. Good luck!

Dehydration due to rot does sound like a pretty plausible explanation, given how bad off it was. I've never heard of using a seaweed mix for an orchid. Makes sense since seaweed is so nutrient rich. Thanks for the advice!

I just started using the seaweed stuff this spring because I bought a few orchids this spring and discovered that they were rootless. I have read quite a bit about the stuff. The orchids did recover so I cannot hurt.

Don't try to rescue near-dead orchids unless they're really rare, expensive or important. This also means passing up free near-dead orchids. Your time and money are much better spent on the plants you have, or good ones for sale or as gifts.