For the most part I am with Mehitabel as far as advice for Silver. T-man's advice sounds too much like the standard regimen for phals in a greenhouse to be practical in a home. 95F/70% RH... whew... No offense meant but IMO a more doable line of response lies in discovering what Silver means by the previous (5) attempts with phals ending in failure. Since untold millions of phals have been grown in clay or plastic pots in bark mix or bark/sphag or sphag alone this is at least the place to start. Certainly any previous failures wasn't because s/he used pots vs baskets. For the most part nothing that wouldn't kill a Paph or Jewel orchid should prove deadly to a Phal. So, at least for some of the Phals, grouping them with the Paph's on the patio is a strategy with good odds. Putting the rest somewhere else gives an opportunity to observe the responses of similar plants to different micro-climates. But what is meant by "near" the sunny window? Chances are the phals have never been fertilized in the office but surely they were watered at least once in the six months they were there. Actually though, being underlit in an office and underwatered is a good thing as any root rot is likely to be minimal. I really think it is simply a matter now of increasing the light level in a graduated fashion till reaching a level that results in consistent growth during the late Spring and Summer months. T-man did make an observation that I also have: despite their differences the different orchid families usually have more in common than not and it is rare to have truly insurmountable difficulties with only one particular group. So the setting up of a system of minimums wasn't a problem really but minimums should be just that, minimums. My list of minimums would read more like this: 1. Light: Sunny East, West or South window with one 23W CFL lamp per linear 2' of windowsill OR North window with one 45W CFL per linear 2' OR windowless location with one 85W CFL per linear 2'. 2 Humidity: at least 30% with 40% - 50% better. 3. Tap water as needed OR 1x/wk plastic pots OR 2x/wk clay. If the water in your area requires treatment or is otherwise considered 'hard', distilled or RO water must still be supplemented with up to 25% of the hard water. A steady regimen of distilled or RO water will be detrimental in the long term. 4. Temps. For phals warmer is usually better other kinds vary. In winter phals will stall at household temps but live. In summer let rip. Avoid A/C where the phals are if possible. H

Dr. Larry: Hi,this is Bob,and I feel that I know you from your 'Consultation''s in the CSJ. Thanks for the ID confirmation on the 'fosterianus'. As one of the'northern'collectors you refered to,it was good news to read that you and Michael K. are going to be able to expand the cryptanthus offerings. We on GW think highly of Michael and his operation,and order from him often. Additionally,as mentioned in earlier postings,I assist the Staff at the Buffalo Botanical Gardens with the bromeliad collection procurement and maintenance,and currently are preparing an order for him that will be quite extensive.These new broms will be used to establish an all new display in a soon to be completed 'Epiphyte House'remodeling.I will post a few photos,to give all my friends here an idea of the building size,an also some pics of the damage that occured around the property during the surprise early October snowstorm this week. The report is that 80% of our areas trees were badly damaged by the wet 18" snowfall and winds,as the leaves were still on them,and the weight was just too much. This freak storm was caused by a 40deg.difference in the Lake Erie water temp. and the freezing air temp.,resulting in just the perfect conditions to give us so much snow in just 12 hours.Ironically,after it passed,the temperatures were in the high 60's,and all the snow melted away. Good to see you on GW,and hope to hear from you and enjoy any photo posts you may have for us. Some BBG pics; Front view of the Main Dome and the Fern house and right Dome building,housing the bromeliad collection .The left Dome [not in picture] is the one being remodled for the bromeliad and epiphyte collections. View from the South side,showing the Dome bldg.for the epiphytes nearing the completion of the new glass installation. Back side view of the 3 Domes...and a few snow piles. Typical tree damage in the last three photos

Most of this I also posted under another thread. We got down to 17 degrees at my house and the plants did not fair well. I only covered a couple plants like my newly planted weeping bottle brush tree and the big pot of variegated flax lilies by the house. My orchids, begonias, and staghorn ferns have been in the enclosed back porch for months now. Everything else was left to fend for itself though. Almost everything in my garden looks horrible right now. The big pot of bromeliads under the oak tree that's too big to move looks really bad, I'm not sure if they're going to come back. The crinums, amaryllis, and big selloum philodendrons all look like they melted. Almost everything else looks dead although I'm pretty sure most of their root systems are fine. I had a patch of native white rain lilies go into bloom right before the freeze and now the blooms are all laying on the ground. Even the flowers on my red maple were burnt by the freeze! The small orange tree in the back looks pretty bad and I think I'll end up cutting it down. It hasn't bloomed once since I bought my house over 4 years ago so that's not much of a loss. My potato plants that had started sprouting were frozen to the ground but hopefully they'll recover. The only plants that seem to have been unaffected by the freeze are the violas, dianthus, fennel, and blanket flowers. The chickasaw plum trees are going into full bloom right now as well. I also forgot to take down about 7 red glass ornaments that I had hanging in the trees outback and due to some water that had collected in them all but one of them shattered. All of my glass totems came thru just fine though.

Hippiezep, I was laughing until your last picture, then I could feel the frustration. :( Do you have other seedlings that this happened to or just this cross? If others are blooming normally and this one developed flowers then I would first look for something that might have stressed it to abort. If other bulbs are showing signs of stress, it could be weather/environment that is affecting this bulb as it was so close to opening. This is an experience I had with unusual flowereing of my bulbs... I generally don't water my hulbs. It is colder and dry in the winter and rainy in the summer- perfect for the majority of my hippies. A couple of years ago it stayed warm through the winter and everything started blooming earlier. Unfortunately, the flowers were opening close to the ground some at ground level - not pretty. The only thing I could think of is that although the weather was warm, the rains had not started and the lack of water had stressed the bulbs. The next year, with the same weather pattern, I watered manually when I noticed scapes developing and the bulbs flowered normally. Now when I have a warmer than usual winter I manually water during flowering when I notice scapes developing and haven't had the problem since. - J