Five inches. Pretty sweet. Mark the back with the date of blooming, on tape if desired. Helps keep track when you have many.

Congratulations, you have a so-called Harlequin Type Phalaenopsis. Given that nick-name because the spots and blotches of colour will vary from flower to flower.

You lucked out this time.....☺ Large leaves in orchids does not always mean large blooms. Google Phalaenopsis gigantea. Huge leaves and lots of flowers, but not large flowers. There is a good chance your plant has gigantea in its background someplace, to give the large leaves and Harlequin coloring, but there are lots of large bloomed genes there also to give the large flowers.

It was a good find.....Keep it growing, it should give you many years of pleasure.

Bill

Beautiful!

Good growing and welcome to the addiction!

Jane

Thank you guys, all!

Jane, it's not my first addiction - I am growing African Violets, so I get what you said ;-)

Bill, you sound like an experienced orchid grower. What would you say about the horizontal stem - should I tight it to the stick when I'll get the new one and when? Thank you again!

Assuming you are talking about bloom "stems" spikes. Most Phal's normally grow their stems vertically at first, and as the weight of the buds increases they will arch over. This is normal. You can stake the new spike to a more vertical position if you want, just be very careful not to break it. Once the spike begins to bloom, its pretty rigid, and a bit hard to deal with. Most people stake the spike at about the point of the first bud, and let it go natural from there. This takes the pressure off the point where the spike leaves the plant, and reduces the possibility It will break at that point.

One caution though......Phalaenopsis blooms orient themselves on the stem in relation to the sun. As the buds mature and blooms begin to open, if you rotate the pot on the bench (in relation to the sun) the new blooms will open facing a different direction from the ones already open.

Leaving the plant stationary on the bench while the blooms open allows all the buds to face the same direction, and present themselves in a more pleasing manner. If you move the pot around, some blooms will face one way, others another, creating a jumbled effect which most feel is not so pretty.

Bill

Bill, thank you so much for this info. My plant was growing on the shelf, as you can see on the photo, under the LED light, so I did not rotate the pot. The spike (the stem with the flowers buds I meant) was growing horizontally from under the leaf and I didn't know I could move it. I'll see how it's gonna bloom the second time. I will google how to propagate this plant. I would love to start a new plant. I know a lot about African Violets, but nothing about orchids.

beautylover.....Be patient.....be very patient. Orchid propigation is something you get into after you have thoroughly mastered growing them. with orchids It is a long, tedious, expensive, and demanding process. Oh, and requires a fairly sophisticated laboratory where you can keep the entire process absolutely sterile.

Now, with that being said, I have heard of some people using various hormonal treatments to try to induce one of the lower buds (joints) on a Phalaenopsis flower spike to produce a Keiki (baby plant). I have never done this, never seen it done, so will refrain from saying more about it. Hopefully someone with some experience will pick up this thread and give you some more information.

Bill

Bill, that's I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN2Hp3IMsG8. Thank you for your advices.

Polina.

Bill, this is the link to the Russian website where they are talking about the same http://www.fialki.ru/node/12530 You can google translate if you want.

Polina.

Polina, This is one process. Basically they are making one plant from each node on the bloom spike. Each of these little plants are exact genetic copies of the parent plant.

There is another process where they can multiply each of those tiny nodes many many times.....in theory, an infinite number of times.....This is how they are making all the inexpensive Phalaenopsis plants that you find for sale everywhere. Each of these little plants are also exact genetic copies of the parent plant.

Bill

The other process is called mericloning and as Bill says it has made Phalaenopsis plants less expensive. So do you really want to grow some duplicates of your plant that might take about four years of your time and will take up precious growing space before blooming?

Sorry, cannot get excited about Keikis.

Sometimes, if you are lucky, your Phalaenopsis may produce a new growth from the base of the plant. A basal keiki. You can leave that attached to the mother plant and it will mature faster than keikis formed on a flowering stem.

Some Genera form keikis readily and are a pain if you are growing for blooms.

Bill and arthurm, thank you! No-no-no, I do not want to wait 4 years to see the first bloom and take a lot of growing spaces! For African Violet it takes a year or so to see the first bloom. I think I'll keep what I have and enjoy it.

What are the very expensive orchids? I guess they are not propagated from the stem and grow from the roots. What is the difference between besides the way of propagation?

Polina, Volumes have been written to answer your last paragraph. ;Arthurm, you think they will give me enough room here to try?

It used to be that there were two types of really expensive orchids. One group was rare, very hard to find plants that were brought out of the wild and only a very few of them were in cultivation any where in the world.

The others were those plants that had been hybridized by man over sometimes many generations to create exceptionally shaped blooms, or blooms with exceptional color, or both. These plants had been shown to highly trained judges who were accredited by recognized organizations such as the Royal Horticultural Society of England, or the American Orchid Society, and granted awards recognizing their superiority.

When two orchids are crossed (pollen from one applied to the stigma of the other) a seed pod may be formed that can contain nearly a million almost microscopic seeds. If these seeds are planted on a nutrient material (agar, something near the consistency of Jell-O) in a sterile environment (to prevent mold contamination), each seed can produce a baby plant.

Each of these little plants are unique...some will resemble mom, some dad, and most will be somewhere in between. Some may inherit and exhibit a trait from some ancestor many generations back.

After about 7 years these plants will begin to bloom, and experienced growers pick the finest ones out of the multitude of first blooming seedlings. These plants are usually allowed to bloom once or twice more to confirm their characteristics before they are entered in shows or taken to judgings.

Once the plants begin to bloom, the cross can be named. The process looks like this...Cattleya Plant A X (crossed by) Laelia Plant B = Laeliocattleya John Doe. (Lc. John Doe must never have been registered before) Now all these little plants that came out of that seed pod have the same name.

If, in America one of those selected little plants is taken to a show, and the American Orchid Society judges there agree that it is exceptional, they can award it. Lets say they give it an Award of Merit. Now, the owner has the right to give that individual plant a "clonal name"...It now might become Laeliocattleya John Doe Variety 'My Best' AM/AOS. Now, that one particular plant has been singled out as better than its siblings, and has a name that defines it from all its siblings.

Before Cloning was perfected, the only way you could obtain a plant of LC John Doe Var. "My Best" AM/AOS would be to purchase it from the owner. That usually would not happen, but the owner might consent to selling you a division or part of the plant once it grew large enough to be divided. I have personally seen divisions sold for as high as $3,000.00.

Once cloning was perfected, a piece of our pant in question could be taken into the lab, and multiplied many hundreds of times, producing exact genetic copies of the original plant, and now, blooming sized plants of this plant can be purchased for $15 - $20.00.

If you wanted to, you could purchase at very reasonable prices two plants with excellent breeding records, cross them, wait for them (7 yrs.) to begin to bloom, and if your cross had not been registered previously, you could name the cross, and take the best of the bunch to shows and see if you could get them awarded, clone (could probably begin to sell plants in flasks in about 2 years) them and make your fortune selling them.

Kinda changes a fun hobby into lots of hard work, doesn't it.

Bill

Just to add to the post from Bill. In the link is a photo of Cattleya percivaliana 'Summit' FCC/AOS.

Cattleya percivaliana 'Summit' FCC/AOS

if a division of the original plant is still available, it would cost hundreds of dollars. I do not know how much the owner paid or how long it took him to grow it to blooming size. But there it was at a Society meeting in Australia thanks to the mericloning process. Was awarded Plant of the night at the June meeting ( winter here).

FCC is a first Class Certificate and is the highest award given by the American Orchid Society and other National Orchid Society governing bodies.

Wooooow!!! Thank you Bill and arthurm! So interesting information! I was amazed by orchids before, but now I just respect the hybridizers more to invent these beauties! Thank you much!

I should have said that Cattleya percivaliana 'Summit' is a species orchid and I do not know how many generations of breeding and selection it is from the wild collected ancestors.

Getting back to Phalaenopsis.....there is an enormous amount of variation in the hybrids and if you are growing those well why bother trying to grow other types of orchid.

It is a bit of mystery why this enormous amount of orchid record keeping and rules and regulations happened at Kew in England and other places. Kew has records of about 100,000 orchid hybrids.

Link is to a set of Phalenopsis Hybrid pics. showing colours and forms.

Orchid Society Phalaenopsis Hybrid Photos

Polina, stick to your violets and don't even think of orchid breeding. Learn to grow Phals, figure out your lifestyle and growing conditions, Find the orchids (there are so many) which like your conditions.

That is the beginning. If the Phals do well for you, get a few more. You can venture into Cattleyas or Oncidiums.

You didn't say where you live, what zone? That's important for advice.

I grew Phals in NY for many years under lights in the Winter. I used CFLS and trained the spikes to grow exactly how I wanted. Its easy as the spike heads for the light.

I would suggest you if you find yourself getting hooked by orchids, you join a local Orchid Society to meet other growers in your area and learn what grows well in your area and get lots of free help. Its fun and you get free plants or plants at very low cost.

Jane

Arthurm, thank you for all you advices and information! It's nice to know there are people who are willing to help.

Jane, I never wanted to start breading orchids - I am a realistic person and with my NO knowledge about orchids it would be absurd.

I live in Columbus, OH. You said "used CFLS and trained the spikes to grow exactly how I wanted". What is GFLS? It would be helpful to see some pics and know your tricks. Thanks!

I used CFL's in octopus lamps to carry many of my orchids over the dark days of winter. Most of my Phals began spiking in September outdoors. They were moved back inside by the end of the month. I used the octopus lamps and clamp lamps to continue growing the spikes on both Phals and Dends.

I took my Phals away from the windows and grew the spikes in a dark room and used the lights to train the spikes. I wanted all the buds to form in a pleasing order because I used my Phals for display once they bloomed. I did the same with hard cane dendrobiums.

If I were not using the plants for display, I wouldn't have been so fussy. But Phals can bloom for 6 months and always had them displayed in my home and office. Once the bud position is set, you can move the plant into a regular room with window light.

Not a great picture, I have better ones but can't find them. I also used lights to position Oncidium spikes during winter. You can use a window to do the same thing but have to be careful not to turn the pot as the spikes are growing. Staking the spike early (carefully) also helps to position the flower buds.

None of this is necessary. Just something I do because I grow for other people who like to display their orchids.

Jane

Hi Jane, sorry it to long to respond. I was out of town.

I can't believe you "train" the buds. And you did a good job - the plants look awesome! I will try to find more info online to do the same, but my plant had just 4 or 5 buds.