No, you want high quality New Zea-land Sphagnum moss. I don't know if you can buy a small amount anywhere. Best bet would be an orchid grower who probably has a bunch and would sell you a small amount. If you were in LA I would gladly give you enough for one plant. Check with your local orchid socie. If you do switch to SM, care is totally different than in bark. You don't soak it in the sink once a week, the baster once a week is plenty as the SM retains a tremendous amount of water. At the same time you never want it to get totally dry either so if it's super hot in your area you might need a little more water. Nick

Depends on what kind of dendrobium you have. Nobile (which loses its leaves and needs a cool dry dormant period) or a phaleanopsis type dendrobe, which keeps its leaves all year on its cane. Nobile type dendrobes don't have "spikes" and bloom from new matured canes with very short racemes. A phalie type has has a "spike" from the axil of the top of the leaf/cane. After blooming, remove this completely since it will never bloom off of an old spike. Phalie type dendrobes need bright light and intermediate temps. Like cattleyas. There is no "winter mode" for them. They don't go into dormancy like nobile types. If you have any kind of freezing or frost, you might have a problem since phalie type dendrobes are not cold hardy. The plant would need protection. Only South Florida seems to be able to keep their plants outside year-round with no protection. Just a shade house. Northern Florida and even central Florida gets frost and freezing in the winter.

Hi basi, Arthur is right about this probably not being the best time for repotting (though it can be done), and as he also says, given other good growing conditions, the lack of drainage is not a problem. You will need to water with care and provide sufficient drainage yourself. I have a large Phal in a drainless plastic pot within a basket. It is also in sphagnum moss and is in its third bloom cycle in these conditions. When I can stick my index finger down into the middle of the medium (up to my knuckle) and it feels almost dry (not damp), then I know it is ready to water. I take it to the sink, pour water into the medium until water rises to the surface, and allow it to sit for 3 to 5 minutes (for thorough wetting). Then I drain it. To drain, I gently support the plant base at the sphagnum surface with one spread hand; with the other hand tilt the pot 2/3 of the way upside-down (a good trick when it has flower spikes!), until All of the water flows out. I hold it like this until it drips only once in 4 or 5 seconds. This is great for strengthening your arms :) When you water, take care to keep water out of the crown of the plant (middle of plant, where the leaves emerge) in order to avoid fungal rot. In the winter, with central heat supplemented by a woodstove (vents and stove each 15+ feet away), this Phal needs water about once every 8-9 days. My Phals grow within 4 to 8 inches of a large SSE exposure (glass doors). For two hours of the brightest direct morning sun, I shield the plants with a semi-sheer curtain (well, it's actually a negligee) to prevent sunburning of the leaves. During winter, temps near the glass are about 68-78 days and 62-65 nights. Humidity tends to be on the dry side, even in winter. During most of the year, for three waterings out of four, I use Schultz Orchid Food (19-31-17) dissolved in water and kept covered under the sink, so that it will be at room temperature when I water. For the fourth watering, I flush with a larger volume of plain water to dissolve away any accumulated salts in the medium. (Others on this forum can recommend a variety of other fertilizers they use.) Once the flowers begin to open, I stop fertilizing, as it seems to cause the blossoms to drop prematurely. I hope something here will help you with your pretty new orchid. As I'm sure you will discover, there are more ways than one for growing Phalaenopsis. Sweetcicely

bottom plant looks like a stanhopea, when it blooms, we can easily identify the species. I would soak the stanhopea and ease it off the mount and get a wire basket with coco fiber liner and filled with sphagnum moss. Stanhopea do so much better in baskets. By the size of their leaves they go through a lot of transpiration and need a lot of moisture to compensate for it. Leaving in the mount will require constant watering and not grow nearly as well. A cool thing about stanhopea is that they will bloom pointing downward from bottom of basket, so basket needs to have many openings for flower spike to push through. They are heavy feeders when in active growth and although the flowers last only a few days, a well grown plant (n a basket) can be blooming for quite a while and finally they are incredibly fragrant. I mean knock your socks off 50 feet away fragrant.... in case anyone there is allergic to plants (like I am) Pic is of a stahopea candida in basket with flower spike hanging below it, just to show how much better they do in a basket. To remove the mount, I would soak it for an hour or so, cut any retaining string or rope, then grab all the bulbs together and gently wiggle them side to side as a unit until the roots loosen off the mount. Then the bulbs can be placed on top of the sphagnum filled basket and tied with a wire through the bottom to keep it steady until it roots into the medium, then wire can be removed as plant is established into new medium.