Yes, dendrobs too had a weird blooming pattern. Den. Hollywood grew 5 spikes and only a few of the buds opened, all others yellowed and fell off. So disappointing! Over the winter I can given them either good light in the GH, or 65 deg. min. in the house. Temperature in the GH is not steady. I try to keep it at 55-60, but several days in a row the thermometer registered mid 40s. Will that cause bud blast? Thanks, Helga.

Masd Angel Tang is a very popular hybrid. It is reasonably adapted to being in collections but it is still a Masd and as such tends to want to be cool. What is the nighttime low temperature? Can you reduce it? I have found that reducing the medium temperature makes up for air temperature problems. Try watering with cold water, perhaps half from the tap and half from the fridge.

Thrips are hard to see with the naked eye. Usually you need a jeweler's loop. We 'see' them by the damage they do. Little pin hole indentations on the flower buds where they were sucking the jouices out of the bud being the most common. Once you have an infestation you need to treat 3-4 times in the first week. They are very easy to kill but they only have a 28 day life cycle and are laying eggs constantly. Without repeated tretment the new generation hatches to resume thier destruction. A minimum of three treatments in a week is necessary. If you prefer an approach needing less thought, then Bayer Ant Killer is a granular that will work as a slow release. It only ingedient b-ciferon (spelling is wrong but it is too early to go look) is extremely effective against thrips. One application will last several weeks so it gets the eggs.

B_girl: Take a look at the very end of your spike, you should see the makings of a very tiny plant there. It's very small and right on the end point. It should be green, or it may be green with a slight purple tint. If that has dried up and fallen, then I'm afraid all is lost. If you see this, cut the spike as long as possible. Cut on an angle to give the stem as much room to take up water as possible. If mom is healthy, growing, blooming and has medium green leaves, then put your vase close to mom so it's in the same conditions. Bright light for baby right from the get go. In two or three weeks (maybe sooner if kept warm) you will see the baby start to swell. It sits just like that for a while, then a very tiny leaf will make itself known. Change the water once a week or so, but if it gets cloudy, change it sooner and make a new cut to the end of the stem into the green. Once a little leaf comes in - then it's just wait and wait and wait...LOL. Once roots come in, start misting them a little once a day. Try not to wet the leaves. I use RO water to mist roots with. Once the roots are 2, 3 inches you can pot the baby in what ever works for you, for phals. And yes, all of my plants are kept in the greenhouse together, the phals have their own section so share the same conditions. This has worked most of the time for me. Sometimes the plantlet will abort (fall off) after a few days. I have lost a couple of small plants after potting. I've had one or two just sit there and do nothing. But this has worked for me more often than not by far. These little plants take off and grow quickly once they can root into something. After potting, in about three weeks or so, start with weak ferts. It's just a little fun thing to try. And if this one fails, try again next time. Nothing to loose, and maybe something to gain. Good Luck B_girl!! Pat.......