Yes, I suppose they would do that in nature, unless there are little fairies with stakes and butterfly clips that live under the leaves! I realize that I might accidentally break the spike through my own clumsiness, but I wonder if the weight of it alone would break it - after all, they are cultivated hybrids, and the spike has been supported all along, so it might be weak. Ah the dilemma! I do have a truly wonderful life - I can afford to worry about these matters!

Actually this fertilizer is made for orchids, and was told this once, but I did some extra digging and found that my fertilizer is quite high in nitrogen. But, what would you suggest instead of my 19-31-17 fertilizer? Also, I know the advice I've received here is to just leave alone. But is this because repotting my phal from its current sphag to sphag/fir bark mix NOW would harm the blooming process? Is it possible that by being extra careful, my Orchids buds will still bloom?? Also just an update on my orchid's state, it looks a lot better (I didn't repot it yet, just didn't water it), the spike is healthy again and the drying of it was reversed (???)! Unfortunately, the dormant spike above did not survive... Does anyone know why the drying/reversing issue happened to the spike??? Could it be the weather? We were steadily in the negatives (about -3 to -5 Celsius, or 26 to 23 Farenheit) for a long time, but suddenly, 3 days ago we started getting abnormally high temps of 9C or 48F, and today we reached 14C/57F! It normally only gets to 2C/35F in early March, and it was a sudden change. Could that have been the reason? thanks!

Well, it has been 2 months and I'm almost there with the first bloom opening from this spike! Just FYI about the original post, the one on the right was a spike, the one on the left was a root. So I've only got one spike. The bloom on the opposite side of the spike from this pic has just cracked open slightly. I was hoping this one wouldn't have white blooms because the other orchid I have is white. From the color of the outside of these, is it obvious what color they are? Clearly it's a light cream color, so does that mean I have 2 white orchids now? Although there are some hints of color here and there. I was hoping for more color, but what can you do.

I think chill for us and chill for the plants are two different things sometimes. They like to have a 20 degree drop from daytime temps and nighttime temps. When it's uber-hot, sounds really good to me. I'm glad somebody else has found Osmocote fert. to be useful. I use the Dynamite version (the one in the red package). I just have way too many things going on all at one time to stop and mix up fertilizer everytime I water. The only ones I don't use it on are the Dends.Just remember the more leaves you grow during the summer is a potential for more flowers on the spike next flowering season. Some plants naturally put out more spikes than others,they are just more floriferous.Happy growing. ginnibug