hi sue and thanks for the kind post. i was away for a few weeks and left the plant in the hands of a non-orchid house-sitter. i am back home now and the buds are going beautifully (i will post a picture as soon as possible), but i think the plant got a bit too much sun while i was away. a couple of leaves discoloured -- one turned a reddish-pink and has dropped off and another is slightly brown. but the buds seem to be going strong and i desperately hope they will go all the way. i have been waiting more than three years for these. sorry to hear yours are not being so obliging. hope something else is giving you some pleasure in the tail-end of winter.

I think it depends on the cultivar - some grow new spikes happily from the first node, some from lower nodes as well, some don't grow any new spikes from the old one. It's worth waiting to see what yours does. I THINK I get better luck waiting to cut the stem until after it shows what it wants to do by starting to grow, but, then again, maybe it's just procrastination and laziness! If you look through old postings/FAQ, you will get a lot more info on what the phal. needs to grow new spikes. And then, sometimes it doesn't work, despite doing everything right - I think they 'have notions'!

It wouldn't hurt to cut the spike and let the phal concentrate on root growing. The spike will probably die anyway as a response to stress. Cut only the roots that show no green upon watering (brown and mushy). Let dry in pot c no media for a few days and repot into appropriate size pot c proper mix. Keep humidity high and water only when roots lose their green color.

thanks all. i'll decide this weekend. the plant just grew a huge new beautiful leaf, so, it's clearly doing well. i'm not so sure it is going to rebloom from the same stem if I leave it completely alone and don't cut it at all. So, my choice is really to cut it to a node or cut the whole thing down to the crown. Hmmm.... arthurm: i've see your pic before and read many posts about whether or not to cut the spike. I posted my thread because I still couldn't decide what to do.