Buddy, you're welcome. Your pot sounds like an orchid pot, so that's good. The rocks and saucer are fine, too. There's no "one right way" to grow orchids: lots of variations on a theme work. Double-edged sword. Others here use different methods. My first post and this one describe the method that has worked for me in my indoor culture in Minneapolis. My suggestion is you stick to this method till you get the Ortho book, unless someone lets us know I've omitted something or my directions are confusing. Ås for watering - more orchids die from OVER-watering than anything else. Doesn't matter which method you're using - this one's written in concrete. If the roots stay wet, they turn to mush, and the plant dies. If you've had houseplants, or lived around them or gardens for vegetables and flowers, you may know they need to get watered long before the soil gets dry. With your Phal, it's exactly the opposite. In the picture of those Phals in a tree, check out the roots. Most of them are in the air. (The brown stick-like thing hanging down is a dried-up spike [orchid word for "stem"] that had flowers on it.) When rain falls on the roots, you can see it would run right off. Those Phals live in high humidity, so leaves and roots get moisture from the air constantly. In the house, we can't provide that amount of humidity. One alternative is to put the orchid's roots in a potting medium that has air pockets. Sphagnum moss, or "sphag," provides those pockets because it's much lighter and fluffier than soil mixes for houseplants or garden soil. If the sphag stays wet around the roots all the time, the roots will rot, and the orchid will die. Also, sphag is always wetter toward the bottom of the pot than at the top - air drying it out and all. Before you water, the sphag on top needs to be almost crispy crunchy dry. Really, truly. :) Take a small amount of sphag out of the pot sometime today, if it's feasible, and set it to one side till it dries completely. If you kinda roll it between your fingers, that's crispy, crunchy dry. When my Phals aren't spiking (sending up a flower stem) or flowering, I water once the sphag on top is that dry. Really. Because I tend to under-water, they've all been that dry for 2-3 days before I watered - no ill effects. Because your orchid is flowering, you should water *just before* the sphag on top gets that dry. This is good for the orchid because, once the spag's almost crispy on top, it's still moist farther down in the pot. As for the watering method, the sphag will get completely soaked - a good thing :) - if you put it in a bowl of lukewarm water. Then stick the pot in the empty bowl and fill with water slowly to see if the sphag stays in the pot. :) If it starts rising up, don't put any more water in the bowl till it's back down again. Eventually, the water level should be a little below the top of the sphag, and the sphag should be all the way down in the pot, the way it usually is. Let the pot soak for 30-60 minutes. Then take it out of the bowl and let the water drain out the bottom before you return it to the saucer w/ rocks in it. (Mine drain in the dish drain in the kitchen.) While the pot's draining, check in all "joints" of the leaves (where they come out from the main part of the Phal) to make sure there's no water in those. Also check the two leaves at the very top down in the little "V." If there's even one drop of water anywhere, soak it up gently with a corner of toilet paper, which usually is more absorbant than Kleenex. Hang in there. This is a lot of info all at once. The routines will get automatic pretty soon. And check out that book. It's a lot more succinct than I am!

American Orchid Society Culture Notes are in the link. Here is a link that might be useful: Phalaenopsis notes

I'm new to Orchids, so hello everyone!! I came across this pretty pot on pinterest. It looks like they put a proper orchid pot inside this larger container. Good idea or bad? Does anyone have any sources for pretty orchid containers? I thought I'd ask the experts! Thanks so much!

Arkansas has its fair share of humid air. I may hate it, but my plants love it. As for watering them in the evenings, I only do this during the summer. During spring or fall, I'll water them in the mornings if the weather is going to warm up. None of this is carved in stone, I just go by experience and play it by ear. If my plants don't need watered, they don't get it. But during the heat of summer, my plants' soil dries out almost daily. Just about everything gets watered late in the evening when it's hot out. The vast majority of orchids, and even houseplants, come from the rainforests where they get rained on all of the time. So they're no strangers to getting wet. Even my state is one of the rainiest in the nation. The last time I checked, it was ranked seventh or eighth. A long time ago, I used to care about drying them off when outdoors. Arkansas can get some pretty gnarly thunderstorms that roll thru, dumping a ton of rain on us. But over time I would occasionally forget to do this and my plants would just stay wet. Eventually, I found that my plants couldn't care any less on whether or not I dried them off, so I just stopped. Now I'm not saying th at they're invulnerable to fungal infections. As I stated in my previous response, I'll take steps to minimize any chances of this ever happening. It may sound like a lot of effort, but it's not. Just a few minutes in the evening to hose them down and shake off any excess. My plants are far more healthier grown this way, rather than keeping them inside any trying to control every aspect of their environment. Outdoors, my plants thrive on my neglect. I know that I've rambled on long enough and wandered off of the OP's original topic, but I felt the need to elaborate. But don't take my word for it, let my plants speak for themselves...This past summer, I left my ponytail palm sitting in a bucket of water overnight to show that you can't be afraid to "overwater" your plants. Just so long as they're planted correctly...It didn't phase it one bit. Just as long as I flushed the soil out with fresh water after I let the old water drain away. As of now, it's currently resting comfortably inside my garage, where it will get ignored until spring. I've even done this for my huge ZZ plant; left it sitting in water overnight, and flushing it out the next morning...It's now in my bedroom for the winter. One of the few plants my cat won't chew on, lol...All of them thrive on my neglect, and all of them get watered late in the evenings (outdoors, during the summer months). None of them suffer from any fungal issues.