Pulling off dried leaves and sheaths on blooming plants.
 

Hello all,

I have an Angraecum magdalenae that is blooming on two spikes with 4 flowers. I noticed it had some dried out remnants of leaves at the bottom and I pulled them off (with some effort needed as they were quite stuck on there). Does doing something like this while the plant is in bloom decrease the amount of time the flowers will be good? Does this count as a major disturbance?

Pulling leaves that don't come off easily can break off the top of whole plant. It happens frequently with Paphs. Magdalenae isn't that big a plant. I don't do that for any orchid.

Okay and I was worried about decreasing the flowering time from moving it around so much. I think if I broke the whole plant I would… I don’t know what I would do. Something not good.

I hope it is fine. Nothing broke from what I can tell and everything seems quite stable. Now I guess I’ll spend the next month worried I did something to it.

If you broke it you'd know. Don't sweat it. Just leave dried parts to fall on their own and then remove them.

I have taken off sheaths or leaves that seem water logged or ready to come off. I also remove them if they are obviously keeping a new growth from peeking out. I do not like to excavate too deeply, but if I see a "baby-bump" I want to really monitor it because I have found that if you keep the area around the tiny new growth a bit wetter, it grows out better. I have never seen "clean ups" to have anything to do with flower length, unless perhaps you cut into or injure the plant.