I tried to find the actual paper, but Dr. Wang was or is at Texas A & M and has done extensive research on this topic. Last go round I tried this and it works ! You must have enough light and enough was 750 on my light meter. Commaercial growers have two tricks to preventing phals from spiking 1) heat 2) light If you are hot then you need to cool the plants to initiate. This is a reprint Diana in Houston nicely shared her notes under a thread called "Phal Insider Growers info." Arthur and others added information and had questions. The following is primarily Diana's editing of that original post. Thanks Diana! I just came from my orchid club meeting where we had a local wholesale commercial phalaenopsis grower as the speaker. It was interesting but nothing special until he and Dr. Wang, our mentor and reknown orchid researcher, started talking about what was required to make phals bloom, and have more flowers, (a specialty of Dr. Wang's). Here's the scoop: 1. A phal NOT blooming can be determined by temperature AND light. A commercial grower can KEEP PHALS FROM BLOOMING until a particular time by keeping the temperature above 82 degrees. However, a cheaper way is to shade the greenhouse with 50% shade cloth. 2. To initiate spiking, the temperature must remain consistantly below 82 degrees. A temperature of 90 degrees, even for a short time, will prevent spiking. 3. To have more flowers on a spike, from the time the spike is 2 inches, until it is 8 inches, the temperature must remain consistantly between 65 degrees and 77 degrees. Day and night difference is not involved. This commercial grower gets the phals as 4 to 6 inch bare root plants from Taiwan. He pots them in 4 inch pots and grows them on for about 6 months, at which time they go into 6 inch pots. He then keeps the benches of phals he wants to spike under plastic with an air conditioner (on 24 hours a day) at each end until the spikes are 8 inches tall (approximately 6 weeks). He then moves them out until they have 4 or 5 flowers open, then delivers them to jobbers. Believe me this works !! I spiked about 300 phals I was growing under lights one year - all seedlings -- all novelty -- I gave 290 of them away and to fund raisers for charity. Prior to that I grew only in a greenhouse but I lost not one bud in my air conditioned light room. He also did a study on why that happens -- I wish I could find the study but this little article sums it up very well

Well, I resisted reading this thread as long as possible because my collection is supposed to be getting smaller. The current reframing - it's getting more refined. Like that? Not-so-clever rationalization for adding more plants BUT, they're different and almost all are lots smaller than previous ones. Blooming: - Bl. Richard Mueller, just purchased - Dendrobium ceraula (gonzalesii) - still blooming from 8/07, when it arrived - Dendrobium Mini-Snowflake (Den. aberrans x Den. johnsoniae), just purchased - Dendrobium moniliforme, Scented Moon - first moniliforme to rebloom under my care! - Doriopsisium Little Emma (Pixie Star 'Starry Night' x delicosa 'Tinkerbell'), blooming from purchase - Dtps. Kenneth Schubert 'Blue Angel' (Doritis pulcherrima x Phal. violacea), everblooming - Oncidium Twinkle 'White Cap' (Onc. cheirophorum x Onc. ornithorhynchum), 1st time reblooming under my care - Oncidium Twinkle 'Red Fantasy,' 1st reblooming under my care - Paph Estella (fairrieanum x godefroyae leucochilum 'Cabernet Splash'), 1st reblooming under my care - Sl. Marriottiana (flava) (L. flava 'Clone 1' x Soph. coccinea flavum), just purchased In spike/sheath/bud: - Aerangis fastuosa - 1st Ang. in spike for 1st time under my care! - Baptistonia echinata, just purchased - Brassavola nodosa, var. grandiflora, 1st time in spike under my care - Chiloschista pygmeas - in the middle of sequential blooming for the first time under my care - Dendrobium aberrans, 1st time under my care, after skipping the last time - Dendrobium atroviolaceum ('Pygmy' x sib.), 1st time under my care - Dendrobium Himezakura 'Sanokku' (Den. Oberon x Den. Cassiope), 1st time, etc. - Dinema polybulbon, just purchased - Dtps. Sogo Gotris (Phal. Be Tris x Dtps. Sogo Manager), 1st time, etc. - Dtps. Sogo Melinda 'Caribbean Sunset' (Dtps. Autumn Leaves x Phil. Sogo Lit-Angel) - Masdevallia Celtic Frost (Angel Frost 'Orange Parfait' HCC/AOS x glandulosa 'Nemo') - 1st & only Masde spiking for 1st time under my care! - Phal. Baldans Kaleidoscope, peloric, budding from original spike when purchased in early Sept. - Phal. Cameo, aka Phal. Windsong's Sonnet 'Pine Ridge Peloric' (Zuma Poem x equestris) - Phal. Center Stage 'Pine Ridge Cockleshell' AM/AOS - Phal. Guadalupe Pineda (amboinensis 'Pisang Ambon' x bellina 'Whitey'), 1st time, etc. - Phal. I-Hsin Salmon 'Joy No. 3' (Princess Midas X Kuntrarti Rarashati) - Phal. javanica (KF#1 X KF#2), 1st time, etc. - Phal. parishii, 1st time, 2 spikes - Phal. Penang Girl âChing Reuyâ (Phal. violacea x Phal. venosa), 1st time, and I've had this sucker since 6/05. Thrilling! - Phal. schilleriana-stuartiana (schilleriana (2N from the Phillippines) x stuartiana 'Miami Beach'), just purchased - Phal. Summer Beach (Ken Peterson x Mama Cass) - Phal. Tetra Bell (bellina 'Star of Borneo' x tetraspis 'Snow White') - Phal NOID, white - Phal NOID, yellow, 2 spikes - Polystachya piersii - Psychopsis Mendenhall 'Hildos' FCC/AOS (Butterfly x papilio) I didn't realize this many are spiking/blooming for the first time under my care. Exciting! Congrats to everyone - Whitecat8

Heather, Here's the dilemma we get into. you say the flowers are "bright green with pink centers". The photo shows yellow flowers with dark "pink" lips. (centers) I am concerned about the amount of light the plant is getting, because I see photos of lush green leaves. My limited knowledge of photography tells me that if the blooms are indeed green, then on the web the color has been shifted to yellow, and that means that the real color of the leaves has been altered also. So, I wonder if I can really say that the plant needs a bit more light?? Your west window is ok. Recommended in order are south, east, west, and north. The plant looks really ok....healthy, although M A Y B E a bit lacking in light. If the bugs prove to have lost this war...not just the battle.....that will be great. You M A Y want to adjust your growing conditions a bit in the future. If your friends come back, then I let me repeat that - I - would unpot the thing blooms and all, soak as much of the plant as possible in a contact insecticide and repot it. After it has had a chance to settle into the new home and heal the damaged roots, I would follow up with more contact insecticide plus begin a systemic routine for several rounds, then wait and see. That would be my approach if it were my plant.....I'm not recommending that, nor saying that is the only way to attack this problem. Like I said, I'm a "Kill em dead right now" kind of person, and don't have a great deal of faith in some of these other methods out there that require one to do a hunt and kill routine. I learned in a large commercial greenhouse environment, and sometimes radical treatment was necessary to save many $$$$$$$. We usually began with the radical treatment for that reason. Good luck Bill

Unfortunately, you can't grow an Easter lily as a a houseplant successfully. Plants that normally grow outdoors in temperate climates - like the vast majority of lilies - do not make good houseplants, as indoor growing conditions fail to provide sufficient light, humidity and most importantly, the low temperatures necessary to accommodate a chill period or natural dormancy. You could possibly allow the bulb to go dormant (all the foliage dying back) then chill for the appropriate amount of time in the refrigerator, but you need to avoid fruits and some veggies stored in the same frig as they give off a gas that will impair blooming. And with no guarantee that the lily experienced adequate photosynthesis to generate enough energy to rebloom. The insects in the soil are most likely fungus gnats or their larvae, a common pest of indoor plants due to excessive watering and a poor quality potting soil. They feed on plant roots and decomposing organic matter in the potting soil. If I were you, I'd give the lily to someone who had a space to plant it outdoors. And treat yourself to fresh, healthy and budded Easter lily when they are marketed in the spring to enjoy while in bloom and then discard.