Hi, I am new to the forum and can see that this is an old thread, but I cannot see a more recent thread on this and I also have a keiki that has grown on an orchid about half a year after we bought it (I think it is a Phalaenopsis orchid, and it seemed to do well, it flowered twice during the first six months). I have only now understood that this is a keiki - we didn't realise we should separate it when the roots started growing - and now it's about to flower AND the stem with the flowers and new leaves on it is growing in the same direction as the 'air roots' are, and not in the direction of the leaves around which the new root system has developed, so it seems impossible to separate it. How can to make sure the plant will continue to grow? I would very much appreciate advice from someone more experienced with keikis - I hope the image is clear enough. Thank you! Branislava

It sounds like mealy bugs. Alcohol on a cotton swab will kill individuals, dish liquid and alcohol and water, equal parts, as a spray. You will have to soak the medium too, because eggs lurk there. You will have to treat every few days as they are hard to eradicate.

Hello Devora, It should work, if you carefully plan, including varieties chosen, and figure on larger pots eventually, depending on the size of the plant you are putting into them now. If it's a sizeable plant now and a fast grower too, it might be better to start out with a larger pot right away. You probably ought to plan on potting up in size a couple of times again as the plant reaches full maturity. If your plants are really just getting started ownroots now, your pots might be large enough for a year or so. Eventually you'll likely need a bigger pot, though, even if the varieties are the smallest-growing kinds. For now, if your plant is really small and doesn't yet absolutely require a larger pot, the smaller pot will make it easier to insert that pot into a much bigger one, and put mulch below and around the pot you're actually growing the rose in. And on the top surface too. According to Liz Druitt in "The Organic Rose Garden", roses can have their roots damaged in hot climates by actually contacting the inside surface of a very hot pot that is baking in the sun. Some materials and darker pots might be the worst for root burning, but I'd guess even the best would not be as good as having an insulation around the pot you've planted the rose in. If you don't have a large enough pot quite yet for functioning as the outer protective coat, perhaps just wrap some bubble wrap on the outside for now? Anyway, both pots need to have water holes in the bottom, and then you'd probably want to sit that into a large pot saucer to protect the surface they're sitting on. If your plant is really small and doesn't yet absolutely require a larger pot, the smaller pot would make your control for proper amounts of water easier; too-large a pot can make it easy for the soil to get too wet (because there are no roots to take up the water on the outside edges). A guess as to some of the varieties you might be thinking about: besides some others, most teas, noisettes, and chinas would probably work; they tend to work in hot dry places like Arizona here. Modern floribundas differ so much in heritage that you'd probably need to get specific information about local success with particular varieties there. According to Liz Druitt, you can likely grow any rose in a pot, if you are willing to put the required effort into it. But some varieties are so large that the pot needs to be huge, and you'd still need to go overboard in trying to keep it sufficiently watered. You're going to need a lot of water when it's hot, more than you might need if the rose were planted in the ground. I've no experience at all with growing roses under your conditions, but theoretically it would seem better to me to water deeply when you water, or at least to use that strategy some of the time in your overall watering scheme. You can have a salts buildup inside the pot that a slow drip might not be sufficient to help get rid of. This could result in a soil that is too alkaline, with needed nutrients insufficiently available to the rose. Also, if it's terribly, terribly hot, the amount of water coming out of the drip might not be sufficient even if you're not worried about a salts buildup. A drip in concert with a deep watering a couple of times each week might be a pretty good strategy, but if you see the soil getting dry, you might need to switch to a deep watering every day, or even twice a day. Roses seem to prefer an Eastern exposure if they can't have a Southern exposure. But some roses can get along better without morning sun than others do. As a guess, it might not hurt to select varieties with some shade tolerance, as well as heat tolerance. The Woodland Rose Garden site has a large list of shade tolerant possibilities: http://www.woodlandrosegarden.com/rose/shade1.htm Also Rogue Valley Roses has a good-sized list of shade tolerant rose possibilities, including some that you might not find elsewhere. I've included a link to the Rogue Valley advanced search page where you can pull down for a list of shade tolerant varieties or very shade tolerant varieties. You'd need to check up on heat tolerance separately from shade tolerance. A guess as to types to avoid: Damasks and Gallicas. Maybe Portlands. You don't see those varieties planted very often in the South here, so perhaps they need cooler weather? Just a guess: that most of the varieties being grown and offered for sale at the Antique Rose Emporium and Countryside Roses would work for you. It can get pretty warm in southern Texas and Mississippi here, though it's not as dry as Israel. Well, that's all I can think of. Best of luck! Mary Here is a link that might be useful: Advanced variety search at Rogue Valley Roses

It doesn't look okay to me. The leaflets seem to have curled which can happen with too little water. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's had too little water in the pot, it could also be damaged root system. Damage roots could also be if where you bought it they had recently repotted it. Do you know if it got very cold at some stage? It can be difficult isolating the problem as there could be a number of reasons. Using a wooden skewer to push down into the potting medium can show if there is enough moisture deeper down. If the skewer comes out clean it'll be too dry. If it's wet down there you'll see that when you pull out the skewer. Other than that, as palmsandsnow said, you just might have to wait a few weeks to see.