It looks to me like an Oncidium intergeneric hybrid (like Beallara, for one). Or just straight out Oncidium. These definitely like more light than Phals. Mine respiked in a south window, right up against the windowsill, with a white mesh curtain in the window. However, the buds blasted (probably my fault - underwatering). I'll give it one more year in that spot to see if it will bloom again. If it doesn't, or is lackluster, it will start spending summers outside. Point being, it grows well enough in my south facing window, but while it did spike, it left something to be desired. I'm hoping it was my fault, but I'm suspecting it wants more light, as the spike was very small, with only three buds, compared to the 12 or so flowers it had when I got it the year before. Did you cut off the wrinkled leaves on this one? I don't really think you need to, unless they'd gone brown and dried out. Wrinkled or not, it still uses those leaves for energy, as long as they're still green. I have wrinkled leaves too. They just look, well... somewhat embarrassing, banners in the wind proclaiming, look, I've been underwatered! But they're still growing and useful. My focus isn't Oncidium types, but this is my experience with the few I have. Two are in south windows, one is in a very bright west window. Your Phal will probably enjoy the east window, but I suspect it won't be enough for the Oncidium type.

Sorry - this probably should have been posted as a follow-up relating to a specific Vanda I have asked about here. It is just beginning to recover from chronic lack of water and has been dormant for about 7 months with no new growth other than roots. I want to give it some "oomph". Others here suggested to my question and to others using fertilizer or some other product in the water or in spag. They were right about the sad lack of water, so now I am seeking "the next step". I water it not quite every day now. It gets a few minutes under the tap or in the shower. But I would like to use the "soak it in a bucket of water" method maybe once or twice a week (because it IS trying to recover from lack of water. It is super dry). The products I have in my arsenal are: Green Light Root Stimulator & Starter Solution Green Light Rooting Hormone Better-Gro Orchid Plus (20-14-13) Dynamite Plant Food (pellets - I use these in my potted stuff) 13-13-13 That really common orchid food that comes in a little blue pouch (blue crystals, can't remember the name, but it is SUPER common). Thanks for the forumula for the water ratio. Would you recommend I try 13-13-13 or other? Perhaps I should move this post?

One reason I thought Krossa Regal is that I have no idea who donated the plant, and they may very have remembered the name wrong (Kossica/Krossa Regal??) Oh, well, I guess I will just have to wait until it grows a bit... it could be like I've seen mentioned here - the center of most hosta looks vase-shaped due to reaching for the light - the division I bought could just be from the center. I doubt I will get a bloom scape the first year - but if I do, I will photograph it and post it here. BettyLu

So sorry about the text in the OP. ;-( It was indeed a copy/paste job from one of my older posts, with a few changes. I hope you find (found?) it worth trying to figure out. Anything we add to our soils that isn't needed and finds it's way into the soil solution has the potential to limit growth/vitality. Many growers cling to the idea that a little more of this or that nutrient is better - for instance that since a little extra Fe or Mg will green up a plant, it must be good for it - true only if the plant is deficient in one or the other of those nutrients. Greener does not mean healthier when it comes at the expense of an excess of one or more nutrients. Since aquarium water contains a number of nutrients, is it necessarily a good idea to use it? So what's actually IN aquarium water - anyone know? Not with any certainty, so it's a very good bet that A) if you use aquarium water as your sole nutrition source, there are bound to be deficiencies, and B) if you combine using aquarium water with a sound nutrition program - 'because a little more of this and that is better' - you end up duplicating nutrients you don't need, which we know from Liebig's Law of the Minimum has the same potential to limit as a deficiency. If you rely on a sound nutrition program with no extra little treats, you're much more apt to end up with a lean mean growing machine. Whenever I consider anything as a supplement that my plant might need, I ask two questions. A) What will it supply that I know my plant needs? and B) What impact will it have on the soil's structure? In the case of worm castings and seaweed (other than emulsion), they supply nothing a plant needs that can't already be found in a fertilizer like Foliage-Pro, and they have only the potential to reduce aeration and increase water retention in container soils; though to an insignificant degree in the case of fish emulsion. So on two counts I would avoid them in my soils. Actually, there is a third consideration. I also tend to avoid the addition of soil amendments added for their nutritive value if I think they will promote significant growth of soil biota. I love it in the garden, but we can grow just fine in containers without courting the micro-herd. If we are going to use practices that support large populations of soil biota that break down soils quickly, why bother building all that wonderful aeration and drainage into our soils, only to have them stolen as our soils collapse in a feeding frenzy of micro-organisms? Growing in containers is well removed from gardening, and much closer to hydroponics. On a scale of 1-10, with growing in the garden being a 1 and hydroponics a 10, container culture is probably a 7 or 8, which is why a good part of what works so well in gardens (compost and organic amendments, worm castings, bone/blood/feather meals, feed the soil instead of the plant, .....) doesn't work well in containers. There's just no substitute for a healthy root system and a sound nutritional supplementation program that the grower assumes responsibility for and control over. Al