Hi obxpirate, Arthur brought up a number of good points, but I'd like to add a few more. To start, Cattleyas in general enjoy warm temperatures, lots of light and they like to dry out between each watering. The temperature sounds ok for the winter, but you'll see how happy it all of a sudden looks when summer comes around. The light is a little tricky. I mentioned these are high light plants - they're perfectly happy on a south-facing windowsill, which gets a good 4+ hours of very bright sun. There is no way that regular grow lights can give as much light. I'm thinking that you have fluorescent tubes here, but please correct me if I'm wrong. The thing is, the light doesn't exactly have to be right, right now. You probably bought an "orchid in a bag", which is not yet blooming size. When they're younger, they don't take quite as much light, but when it is blooming size, to get it to bloom or rebloom, just know that you will need more light. This can be achieved simply by putting it outside for the summer, gradually and in a protected area. And there's your watering. STOP SPRITZING. Let me repeat - STOP SPRITZING. Cattleya NEED to dry out between waterings. So, for example, water today (only if it's dry), under the tap, and let the water run through for like 30 seconds, that will be plenty. Let the water completely drain out and then leave it alone until the medium is completely dry. There are several ways to tell when it's dry - the pot will be much lighter, you can stick your finger down the side or you can use the skewer method (get those wooden skewers at the grocery store, stick it down in the medium and if it's a little moist coming out, don't water). And you need to make sure that it is dry everywhere, not just on top of the medium or along the sides, but in the middle too. That's why a big pot is not a good idea, since it just takes longer for the middle to dry. Orchids actually like to be underpotted - find a pot in which the roots JUST fit, no bigger. Spritzing and overwatering leads to rot. Those pseudobulbs are wrinkling because they're not getting enough water, but that could also be because all the roots in the pot have rotted and so it didn't have roots to take in all the water you were giving it. My advice to you is to take your Cattleya out of its 4" pot, take away a bit of the surplus medium and just plunk it into a smaller pot. Water it thoroughly only when it's dry, NO SPRITZING, and keep it in a warm, bright spot. Most of the orchids available at Lowes and those kinds of places are not too picky about humidity as long as you're not in the desert. BTW, your instinct to repot your orchids when they're done flowering is good - it's at this stage that they go from flowering mode to leaves and roots mode. Repotting gives them a little kick to get them started. But you have to learn to let go a little. Orchids thrive on benign neglect and they're pretty tough, considering they come from jungles. I've included below some culture notes which I think will be more useful to you. They were developed by the Canadian Orchid Congress for inside growers. I hope that this all helps and that your Cattleya makes it. It doesn't sound like it's too badly off, though, so it should. Cheers, Julie Here is a link that might be useful: COC - Cattleya culture notes

I was just looking over Hawk Hill's offerings and noticed their opening statement. Hawk Hill Orchids is located in Pacifica, California, a coastal town about 10 miles south of San Francisco. The climate is wonderful for growing Andean orchids and other cool growers. In fact, two other orchid nurseries renowned for their species collections, Hanging Gardens and Golden Gate Orchids, are located on the same hill as Hawk Hill. The question 'What grows well for you?' is really a question of geography. Tom Perlite of Golden Gate Orchids, grows Dend cuthbersonii in that location like I grow Dandelions on my front lawn. There are exceptions and during the 5 years when I did not have a greenhouse, I experienced a few of these. Epidendrum raniferum,which is a warm grower, tolerates our cold winters quite well and has grown really well. Now that I have a warm GH, I still leave that one outside as it's doing so well. I'm going up to San Francisco this coming weekend and will get a few cold growers like some of the Odontoglossums, Dracs and Masdies. Bottom line, it's all a matter of geography. Nick

Is there any other information on the plant labels such as another word after Phalaenopsis or Bakerara? As for care, that depends on where you are in the USA and sometimes newly acquired plants might not need repotting for a year or so. So maybe the best thing to do is nothing other than provide good growing conditions. Your Phalaenopsis is probably a hybrid.....a mixture of species. Your Baker ara (that's how to say the name) is a mixture of species from these related Genera. Oncidium, Brassia, Miltonia and Odontoglossum

As far as light, place close to a bright east window or sit it back (1'-2') from a bright west or south window. If possible, they like an outside eastern exposure when temps stay above 55-60 day and night. Ease them into the outside light if you go this route or they will sunburn. As far as repotting, if it seems to do well in the spaghnum media it is in currently, when repotting I would pull it from that clear pot and put it in it's new drainable pot (@1"-2" in diameter bigger than current pot) by just adding spaghnum to fill in around the sides. If it is not thriving, then I would remove most of the spaghnum and replace with a bark mix or something else that would work for you. Watering spaghnum when crunchy works for me, just don't let it stay crunchy for more than a couple of days. Good luck, Bob