After TWO YEARS...I have spikes! And a strange growth...

[Blondie]

I've had a lot of flowering orchids, but I've never been the one that made it happen. I've always bought them in bud or bloom. So imagine my surprise when I discover TWO spikes today while watering.

1.) Small phal I bought two years ago when I first started out. It's never been fertilized. Go figure.

2.) Spike coming off a new phal that was almost dead 2 weeks ago from soggy moss. Complete turnaround of events after I got rid of some of the moss and let it dry up a bit. Weird.

3.) The last picture is just for fun. No spike, but it does show a strange "growth" I can't identify. At first I thought it was a spike, but it's not. It's just a small set of leaves jutting out the side of the plant? Also notice the Wee Leaf, as I call it, halfway up the large leaves. Any ideas what could have caused that?

I was almost too scared to share this news because I don't want to jinx myself, but I had to tell my orchid buddies. (Knocking on wood now!) I could have never made it to this point without my Orchid Board.

[Hedge]

Are you sure this is a phal? My only experience of side growths like this are on cane Dendrobiums ....

Hedge

[Blondie]

Yeah, it's a phal. It bloomed all over the place when I first got it last year. It was a lovely NOID purple color.

[Hedge]

Ok. Well in that case I think it must be a basal keiki! Congratulations you are about to become a Mom! don't know how you separate them though, you'll have to check out the propagation forum.

Congratulations on the flower spikes too. They have obviously settled into your environment and are enjoying it

Regards
Heather

[camille1585]

Yay for the spikes! The little leaf on the third phal is a sign that at that point in it's culture the plant was very stressed, maybe lack of water, or food or light, or something else. I had a young phal that got a bad case of mealies, and during the attack it grew a very tiny leaf. Once the problem was under control the leaves were normal sized again.
Nice basal keiki! As Heather says it could be removed once it's big enough, but I'm in favor of leaving basal keikis on the plant since you get a larger. 2 crowns means twice the spikes!

[Blondie]

LOL. I'm pregnant and I didn't even know! I hope it stays alive. The Wee Leaf was probably from some point this winter when I was a very, very bad orchid momma and didn't water enough. My house was SUPER dry, and I'd just moved here, so I wasn't used to it yet.

[camille1585]

It's always so so exciting to have a baby! I love phal keikis.
I don't think the 'wee leaf' is that recent. There are three leaves above it, so unless your plant grew all of them in the last few months, the small leaf looks like it's older than that.

[Blondie]

OK, so you got me SUPER curious. Here is a photo of the one with the Wee Leaf PRE Wee. Photo taken December 4, 2007. Then we have the POST Wee Leaf taken April 7, 2009. I can't believe I went that long without taking photos of leaf progress. WOW.

OK, so the mystery is now that Wee Leaf grew sometime in between Dec 2007 and April 2007. We just don't know when...

Oh, and I got my NOIDS mixed up. Obviously, it's not the purple NOID I got last year. Who knows what it is...?

[nenella]

Blondie, your spikes look good! I look forward to seeing the blooms do keep us posted

[Blondie]

It bloomed!!! It blooooooomed!!!