I think the main reason nurseries use a peat-based mix is to reduce weight for shipping. There's very little nutrient value in peat but it makes a great blotter for holding quantities of force-fed nutrients in an environment that bears little similarity either with a garden or with a home. If you are just buying 'colour spots' as some sort of living bouquet then the fact that the plant will become root-bound, run out of nutrients, become excessively thirsty, doesn't really matter to many because it was only ever intended to be temporary. As soon as I buy anything that's not a Sarracenia, planted up in peat, it is taken out and shifted to what is, for me, a 'regular' potting mix - one based on composted bark with the addition of pumice or quartz chips to increase drainage. I'll do this even with plants I intend for the garden because if the peat dries out it is extremely hard to rehydrate and the plant can drought to death in the midst of plenty. Too, it seems to encourage wicking if any of it is left above the soil. I prefer my plants to be sturdy to stand up to my climate (windy and wet - often). I don't want juicy and vulnerable. I do want a very active root mass for anchorage and food foraging. Peat doesn't doesn't do that once a plant is older, in my experience. Plants grown in a gardening environment are usually going to be treated 'unnaturally'. They'll be watered when it's dry and fed to produce more than would be 'natural' and pruned to balance production with replacement and renewal. 'Civilizing', I suppose. I agree on the Citrus and the Clivias. They're both inground items in this zone and, guess what, their roots roam - with no diminishing of their productivity.

It's a bit late to answer, sorry! If you cut the pike off, cut it after the second internode. That's the places along the spike that look like they will make a new stem, but don't. If the spike is damaged or broken, that's where the new spikes will come from. The damage sounds like poor packing and poor handling, both. Spikes frequently need a stake to keep them standing up - the weight of the blooms will make them droop, so if you have to stake it to keep it alive, that isn't a problem. large leaves can be a bit droopy, too. That isn't necessarily abnormal. I hope you'll try another orchid after this one has bloomed! They're great plants.

Nat Gardner, I think Softmentor means simply that some trees will hold their fruit for a number of months after it is ripened before it will naturally fall off. For example, a juice orange might have set fruit on blossoms that opened in March of 2007, and those fruit might have ripened in December of 2007, and yet they might very well linger on the tree into May of 2008 if you don't pick them. Despite this, the tree will still flower again in March of 2008, give or take a couple or three weeks, depending on the seasonal conditions. Others will correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think you are really stressing the tree that much if you leave part of the previous year's crop on the tree after it starts to flower and set new fruit. The old fruit, already ripe, are probably not drawing that much out of the tree as far as nutrients are concerned. Of course, eventually the old season's fruit will either fall off, or you will pick it and notice it is past its peak. One thing to remember is that ripe fruit on the tree will possibly raise the risks of insect pests and disease, since things like fruit flies will find the ripe fruit, and fungal diseases will potentially also show up. Don

Hi Voldemort, welcome. Could you let us know the growing conditions, do you use lights or a window? Indoors or outdoors? How often do you water? How often do you fertilize? Also what is the NPK of the fertilizer? My guess since you are using one with "bloom" in the name the middle number is higher than the other two. Consider a fertilizer that's more balanced at this stage like an all purpose. What type of soil are you using and did it already contain a slow release fertilizer? Mark