Hello Chris! Yes, I am very proud of you and yes, Lake Street all the way. I was told getting mine to bloom the following year would be a challenge since they push them real hard to sell when we buy them, but we proved them wrong, right? Here you go, ask and you shall receive. If I ever should move to the tropics, I will take them all with me:-) My Golden Tang. Fragrant orchids from here down. This one is just starting to open. It will smell like vanilla This one smells like chocolate. This is the one I was telling you about. It smells like vanilla/chocolate cake. Yummy. These are some of my Cattleya's I am still waiting to flower and some seedlings. Everyone of them will be fragrant. There is just a few Chris. I think I am going to exhaust all the room in my greenhouse. But, there are so many orchids you can fit in places nothing else will go:-) Mike

I've tried to change my terminology and not use "bump" because it's one of those flare words. I still don't see what the big deal is when you reply to a post to see if you can encourage more discussion on it when it has proven itself to be a popular post already. So what if it's nearer to the end than the front--they're still valid posts and still there to reply to. I personally like to read those near the end because I find things in some of them that I didn't see while they were on page 1 and some of them have time lapsed and the project has improved in effect a few months or a year after. There are those posts that prove to be ones that generate a lot of interest and then there are those that get answered for the quick question that the poster needed--and usually those have been asked several times and repeatedly answered again. They all have their place here and they all keep this place moving and dynamic. If we were only allowed to reply to posts that were on page 1 and then had to let them fall off because we were afraid of "bumping" them, I think we would have a very flat, one-dimensional forum. There would be no "history" whatsoever and those people who have come and gone and their great ideas and input would be dictated by a short term memory of all of us--the "what ever happened to that post about...". Sure we can save it and that's great but you never really get that information back. As far as anyone being annoyed by this, ok, that's fine. I'm annoyed by things in here too but that's sometimes reflective of own my personal scope/perspective on things and it's not necessarily anyone else's problem--overall, this is one fantastic forum. I don't look at all of the posts when I'm tightly managing my time and that's why I select what interests me in the header and the time/date on that header. I belonged to a kooky forum years ago where people came in and asked just general questions. There were a lot of "oldsters" there that posted everyday and it was a pretty cool place just to hang out. It was not without it's trolls though. But what really stirred things up was a woman that, I think I could justly say, had a mental problem. She was a long time member and then she would go off on a binge and come back in under several identities and be nasty to people. She even came under other member's identities and spoof them. What a nut. That's why when someone comes in like this and has just registered to "speak up", I highly suspect it's somebody that has been posting among us everyday but is just too cowardly to voice their opinions in a social manner or is someone that tends to do it to get attention in their own sad life. It's hard to take anyone's opinion seriously such as JS's. I have my suspicion's because there was a flareup not long ago--does it have anything to do with this one--JS only knows for sure. I definitely think Deb hit it on the nail (or axe) when she said this person has an axe to grind. My two cents and that's without inflation figured in!

Yes, I agree with orchid126 on all counts-- branching doesn't divert nutrients. I also agree the phals that branch are the most beautiful. Whether the spikes branch will depend on the phal's heredity, and also to some extent on the plant's maturity. An immature phal may not spike, even if it has the heredity that favors it. It's not clear whether you mean the flowers on the branch just died normally, or really did blast. "Blasting" is not a term used to describe the normal senescence and death of a flower. It's a term used to describe a flower bud that dies before developing properly. There are a lot of reasons for blasting to occur, including chills, drafts, etc. etc.

I am almost certain that the plants are some type of salvia. A neighbor has a pink variety that looks almost like yours. She has more seeds than she knows what to do with. (Each spike makes about thirty seeds.) They really don't fall off real easily do you should be able to harvest them after they dry on the plants. Also, some that fall to the ground will probably sprout. Maybe try the pantyhose on one or two spikes and leave the rest and collect the seeds. Also, you can plant the seeds and grow another batch for bloom in the fall. The frost might kill the plants in December depending on how protected the plants are. Hers are near an azalea and are perennial.