The sad dead phals
 

Sooooo, long story short, 2 mini phals arrived in Feb with black stems and dead roots. They continued losing roots despite my best effort to save them.

The seller explained that they had a week of rain and a cold spell right after, then it got packed and shipped. So it's most likely not anything I did. (Most of the roots were dead 4 days after receiving).

I still haven't received replacement, and he asked me if they made it or not...I mean... I'd say they are good as dead. Am I right?

They can be saved but it's something that is not supposed to be done when you buy any plant...unless the price was really low.

I'd be re-contacting the seller and asking when they're going to replace them. It may be possible to salvage them, but why should you have to do that?

I would tell the seller they didn’t make it. No sense opening the door for the seller to try and weasel out of sending you replacements by claiming that the originals are still alive. No idea if they’d try that, but given the condition of the plants, there’s no guarantee they’ll survive and recover. You are owed replacements or a refund.

Look up spag and bag, or bag and spag. Also, growth hormones on the bottom area could work. I am presently getting some orchids through the mail, so I can't say don't buy any in Dec-Jan-Feb, but winter orchid buying where you need to ship through the mail is such a gamble!

Not only do they not have decent roots but they are also extremely desiccated. In that condition with no roots you should definitely consider them goners. I would ask for a refund and buy from a reputable seller in the future.

OK, I'm glad no one thinks I'm being unreasonable in asking for replacement. I contacted the seller again and asked when he can send. He said he will send, so I'm crossing fingers. I even told him that he can just send me one healthy one at this point.

Yes, they were cheap ($8 per plant), but with heat pack and shipping, it added up, so I'd like at least one nice plant out of this. In the future, I'm going to buy from a more reputable seller, and this experience prompted me to join this board to learn more! So there was good in it after all :)

Hopefully he will not "forget" to send me replacement again! He was being helpful giving me suggestions on how to save them and all that, so I hope he'll do the right thing.

Thank you everyone!

Good luck! There are so many reputable vendors (definitely read through the reviews in the Vendor Feedback forum) not worth it to patronize the "others" ... the plants may be a bit cheaper, but with cost of shipping so much better to have good odds of healthy plants and pay a little more.

UPDATE: the seller has shipped the replacement! Arriving tomorrow. He also included a little bit of "rooting hormones" to see if that can help those dying ones. I guess it's worth a shot? Hopefully new plants will be nice and healthy!

Here's hoping that the replacements are a lot nicer than the first two. And who knows, maybe you can get the first two to survive. Worth a try. Good luck.