This is a late followup, but I bought a Sogo Vivien at Trader Joe's as an unlableled plant on 1-10-2012. I had bought an identical, mislabeled one from Lowe's in April 2010 but was able to find good pix of it on the Web, and I'm convinced it's Sogo Vivien. I also bought another unlabeled Doritaenopsis(?) at Trader Joe's that I want to ID. So dark purple it's almost black. Reverse is white. Petals cup just enough to give the appearance of a white-edged bloom. Column is white, throat is purple, lip has purple spots/blotches, tip of lip is white. The peduncle is unusually thickened, especially for a bloom this small (1-1.25 inches). Much thicker than that of Sogo Vivien. Does anyone have any idea what this might be? Thanks, Charles

On the phal just cut it. Like the den. It would still draw from the spike. But with the phal the spike would be vertical in the pot. On epidendrums after the flower is done I cut it off near the first leaves. Later there usually is a keiki. Once it shows 3 or more roots cut the stem several inches below the keiki below the first few leaves. Strip the leaves and use the stem to locate the keiki firmly in the pot. Another fast, easy, and successful method for 2 more types of keikis. The key benefit is the remaining spike or cane provides 2 important benefits. Draw nutrients from the cane or spike and the keiki is firmly in place, no wobble. I'm sure it would work if you bent the spike into the pot. But I think it would demand unnecessary gymnastics getting it all lined up. Just cut it.

Hi! ^ ^ I think it could be of use to someone if I type out my experience. Perhaps a collection of experiences will lead to some form of conclusion of the hypothesis about lighting etc. It began when one of my two orchids had a nasty little pussy cat tip over it's pot. The orchid's spike severed completely off. Since my orchids both bloom at the same time I cut the spike off the other orchid. Of both the spikes, the yellow had 2 blooms (1 bud spike was 6 inches long). The purple had 8 buds (one bloom spike was 10 inches long) which is the one the cat had tipped over. I will also note that I put the purple stem immediately into water since I had heard the plant crash. I have had both spikes into a clear glass vase (about 1-1.5 cup of water) in a pitch black game room except light from the teli and monitors. To be more specific the vase is in the shadow of the "light". The temp is always around 78 degrees fahrenheit. I enjoyed the blooms for a couple of weeks and the large bloomed ones finally started to look fatigued so I pinched those off (about 4-5). The rest dropped off by themselves. I totally forgot about these stems/spikes. Here is where it gets interesting, about 2-3 month later I was dusting and cleaning up the "mess" at the sink when I noticed the yellow spike was still green at the end, the purple was brown so I cut it under water to a healthy green looking point. I had decided regardless of the various postings on the intraweb saying that a spike couldn't grow roots I would still let these two try. It now has been 5 months, the yellow has a small root growing at the end, the purple is still green. They are in the pitch black room, I change the water sporadically from every 4 days to 3 weeks with tepid from faucet. Basically when I remember the poor babies but more so at the beginning than now (which changes now I see a little root). I will also mention I was using the cities icky chlorinated fluoride injected tap water, I will now change to bottled water and watch the results.

I'm curious.....Does the main plant not have mottled leaves? What do the flowers look like? There are a number of Phal. species that have mottled leaves, but I would expect the mother plant to exhibit this trait as well as any keikis it might produce. The dark purple under the leaves...I think I see this on both the plant and keiki...are also an indicator that you have a "short line" hybrid. ( a plant that is not but a couple of generations from species) Phal. species generally are pretty good at producing keikis without any help. I notice you put hormone paste - I presume on a node of the bloom spike - so that may be a reason your keiki is not producing roots. I've never seen one that did not have enough roots to pot up by the time they had two leaves. I've also seen Phal. schilleriana plants in full bloom with blooming keikis who themselves had blooming keikis. It was quite a sight. You probably don't have any clue as to the parentage or name of the plant you have, but be advised that many of the Phal. species have a tendency to rebloom on an old spike, so I would not cut any spikes on a species or a short line hybrid until it actually started to turn brown. Let us know what the blooms look like......I'm betting they are not as large, full, and round as most Phals. you see on the market. I would also bet on light pink for a color Bill .