Never a lost cause! Looking at your photos, I note that there are several healthy white roots sprouting. The leaves are dehydrated because they are not getting water because, as you well know, most of the roots rotted. I would suggest the following: pot in clean New Zealand Sphagnum moss if you can find it. Let them dry out between waterings so as to not dry out the roots. Make sure your pots have good drainage and DO NOT sit the pots in standing water. Water thoroughly at the sink when you water, drain completely and then let them go about a week before you rewater. You will notice that the pot gets lighter when the media has mostly dried out. Orchids are epiphytes so their roots need a lot of air. Most plant roots need air; however, orchids need more than most. Finally, until the roots get going, you will want to keep the humidity moderately high by, for example, placing the pots on a tray of moist gravel (but do not insert the pot into any standing water under the gravel). If you must mist, mist the gravel, not the plant. A ziplock bag, partly open at the top, will also help conserve humidity. Note: I am a judge with the American Orchid Society and have been growing orchids for a really long time (more than I care to admit). I've also killed more than my share of Phals. The best way to kill a phal is: 1) standing water in the crown (major no no); or 2) soggy media at the roots (what your plants suffered from). Good luck. -A Here is a link that might be useful: The Wayward Hawaiian

Sadly, bacterial crown rot is one of the toughest things to get rid of. Back in the old days, some of the big growers used to use a dithane M45 paste but I believe it is no longer for sale. The tetracycline they sell at feed stores, in a paste works sometimes. However, the easiest thing to do is, when you see those evil clear patches full of bacteria, cut the leaf back past the clear area (if possible) and douse the cut with rubbing alcohol to sterilize out the bacteria. If you succeed in stopping it, the plant, as was pointed out, will often send up a basal keiki or sometimes a new leaf from the crown, depending on how far down the bacteria went. Here is a link that might be useful: The Wayward Hawaiian

Hmmm, just bagging leaves sounds like a good idea. And I'm guessing the sphag may be too wet as well. I watered it with a bit of DynaGro KLN and fert before bagging it. I think I'll open bag the roots, spray with some Physan, and just bag the leaves. I'm really impressed with its new leaf. This poor little guy has been through a lot, going from double spikes to almost rootless, mediumless, almost waterless when I couldn't devote time to what looked doubtful. But it's barely lost any leaves, is still nice and green, and growing. Still, it most certainly would've been dead if I'd left it at Trader Joe's, as I doubt anyone else would've said, hey, nice yellow flowers but most likely suffering from root rot; let's take it home on the cheap and see if I can learn something by nursing it back to health. More likely, it would've been, hey, nice yellow flowers... wait, why'd it die? Or nice yellow flowers, but it's prob got root rot... not buying it. Which is prob what I would've said if I weren't determined to bring a non-pink non-brown orchid home that day... oh well. Can't say I didn't know what I was getting into.

Thank you meg. Preparing for a trip. Very busy. I'm not familiar with placing a picture in my message on this page, so thank you for giving the path via the Photo Gallery.I know it's time consuming for people to go back and forth tracing down a photo, therefore inserting it here would be the most convenient. Once upon a time... in the past.... I could retrieve a photo from my files on the Preview Message page. Now a Web'Host'is required and posting a photo has become complicated. Helga.