If it's a Nobile you probably had many beautiful flowers right on the stem when you bought it and you 'll probably never see it bloom again. They require a dry, cold winter rest. Minimal to no water from Thanksgiving to Valentine day. Despite doing that, many hobbyists in my area cannot get them to bloom again. If that's what it is, withold water until you see flower buds appearing then water and fertilize heavy. I have gotten them to bloom but never in the show stopping manner you see in the commercially raised plants. If it's a Phal-type or hard cane Dendrobium it has a stem with leaves and had a spray of flowers emerging from the top. The best thing to do for these is to move to Hawaii. All the hotels fill their lobbies with them they love it there. They don't like Southern California all though people do have some success with them. Maybe a 50% reblooming rate in our group. Need to be kept fairly dry in a small pot and get lots of light and warmth. If the plant has a tag let us know what it says. There are other types of Dendrobiums but I doubt you got one of these at a big-box store. Nick

We (my orchid group) just bought a warm growing (they label them as either warm or not) nobile from EOoM. We bought 18 plants of one cross and almost everyone of them was large and either in bud or bloom. Beautiful plants and the price was great. EOoM has never let my group down on plant quality. And they have great customer service.

Bevo Bravo! Don't give up, take the experience. Always good to have. It will not be a waste. the reason why you are seeing condradictory info and Flame wars on an anotherwise docile board is simple. Old school growing vs new school growing at the indoor level. ("Junk Culture"/"fast food" Culture (care) vs "Enlightened Culture") The CFL has revolutionised growth. CFL's (compact flourescents) are now quite affordable and have revolutionised indoor growing. We can almost compete with an outdoor grower, sometimes even a g/h grower. There are many highly skilled people on the board. Hang in. Howard_A is the top end where light and health is concerned with indoor growing. You may want to put him into the GW search engine and read his back posts. Also CFL's I wrote one called Big Bertha. You wrote a lot, fantastic, no laughing, write a novel if you like. very cool! Lets see what you've got. You have taken some excellent steps in getting on the right track. I live in Chicago, I can identify :-) You are probably still underlight. What kind of light is it and where is it placed? We talk in footcandles (fc's) lumens to a lesser degree, watts and kelvin. Anything you can tellus will help. Humidifyer, great! Paphs are a different recovery process than phals. They also like higher light than you think. 68º is a bit chilly, but a 42w cfl or 2 will help with that. The "spag and bag" just doesn't seem to work with paphs. Their roots are really different. Here's what may work: I use a mixture of seedling bark, a little bonsai pumice and a little peat. very open very fluffy, fine mix. Spag may be too water retentive for paph roots. You kind of want to picture the forrest floor. Kind of fluffy decayed leaves, sandy soil, little chunks of bark. The plant will need a fairly open mix and good air. Get the plant on top of it securely. Mist only at the medium once or twice a day and wait. Paph roots will take forever. But really that is your best shot. Without excellent light the spag and bag is going to rot the paph further. I have tried the saucer method outside. It lead to rot. We just don't have the light and heat air movement to sustain that method up this way. Orchids like a wet/dry cycle. For an ailing paph lets call it a little wet/just about dry cycle. It's a lot to get your head around. It will take some time. Orchids are a bit different than dirt plants. Water is not a help to them, like it is a dirt plant. They are not cactii either. They are tropical and do need light, lots of it. They will react after they have been underlit for a time. Slow acclimation to increased light. Keep going, you are on the right track!. Clara

I guess I'm not as offended by the advice on the tag as others are. A Dend is a plant just like a Poinsettia. Both are equal in Gods little kingdom I would think. How many of us have tossed a Poinsettia after it's reached that really ugly state and not given it a second thought? I must admit I have a huge bias against these grotesque monsters of nature. In my book the only time I can tolerate them is the week before Christmas and Christmas Day. The minute that passes, into the trash they must go. Nothing more obscene than a Poinsettia stick hanging onto a couple of those red leaves in July. OK, I've digressed here a bit. Would anyone think ill of a person because they didn't want to go through all the special treatment necessary to bring one of those back to it's full glory? Reblooming a Dend might be easy for some folks, but isn't for everyone. Nothing wrong with trying though. Nothing wrong with tossing it either. Kevin