Clint, that is a yummy little plant. Brooke, it is funny to hear you say that phals are nice looking plants without the blooms as I have just recently become to understand with all of my plants as well. I notice that at first everyone seems to buy anything you like, and most of them die and what you are left with are ones that are more or less what you can grow. And I have noticed that what I am good at are ones that I appreciate the foliage more. For me it is phals, phrags, paphs, and vandas. I do have a few stray here and there too of some favs. But the plump leaves of a happy phal and nice thick roots cheer the soul a little bit. But I do also have a succulent problem, and it is their plump leaves that get me too. I guess I am saying that I think their is a reciprosty of fondness between plant and person. And I am thankful that we are all different in those regards because I love to see other orchids than the ones that I grow, sometimes maybe more. Shani

Hi, Clara. Not horizontal, but I think the bowing in the center may be part of what I was trying to describe with the word "bloated". I think low light has something to do with it, because at Big Leaf, they recommend moving a budded phal to lower light "for bigger flowers". Last year, tho, I discovered empirically that keeping a budded phal under high light makes the flowers smaller, but the colors much more intense. I love the intense, high-light colors, so I keep them under high light til ready to open, at the corner of a stationary HID. The spikes grow toward the light. The flower that I bloomed under high light is a lot smaller, and doesn't have that bowed look. Actually looks like it came from a totally different plant. So maybe low light accounts for all of it. If so, I am astonished at the difference in size and appearance. I personally like the smaller flower more. BTW, "Purple Clara" is doing fine, will definitely let you know when she blooms, tho I realize it may be next year.

Liz, it's the very devil battling mealies on flowers. I haven't used the 409, so can't answer your question about that. But I'd like to share my experience with these devils. I've had the very thing you are talking about infecting the flowers of (only certain) phals. Someone suggested the eggs had to in the nodes so they developed as the flowers appeared. So it's possible they came from the vendor with them already there. I've used the alcohol Q-tip with no damage to the flowers. They do come back (or I missed some, or both). It's hard to get all of them, they hide in the lip, between the tepals, on the spotted ones, in the dried up portion of an old leaf, etc. The best luck I've had getting rid of them permanently without damaging flowers came with drenching the plant itself and the pot with Safer's Insecticidal. Keep it out of the sun til the Safer's is dry. Used an alcohol Q-tip on the flowers. With a very light touch, you can get the mealie without touching the flower itself. I've had no recurrence on the ones treated like this. Takes patience, but it's very satisfying to personally turn every mealie black. The ones that hide in the lip, I just can't get at without damaging the flower. They hide especially well on spotted phal flowers, and I did use Safer's Insecticidal on flowers one time. What happened with Safer's on the flowers was that about half the flowers died about three days later. The rest stayed on and are still on after several weeks. I've no idea why only half the flowers died, unless those were the ones with mealies in the lip. So far on that one it looks like I got them all, no recurrence for several weeks. Those things really are devils, and I feel for you. They hide extremely well, and you never even see them til you pick up the plant and peer closely at each flower, peeling the tepals back and looking inside the lip. Good luck. I'd like to hear how the 409 or whatever you decide to do works out.

James is right! Botrytis, not insect. I struggle with it also in Florida. It tends to attack the light colored blooms and is usually associated with poor air movement and cool nights. Nothing you can do now. Jane