I would love to trade some tall bearded iris for a purple orchid tree. My irises have just begun blooming in the past week or so. I have some that are a light lavender color and others that are lavender on top, and dark puple on bottom w/ yellow tongues. They'll probably be ready to transplant towards the middle of next month. If this is okay w/ you, how many orchid rhizomes do you want to trade for your tree? If you're on facebook, I have some pictures of them there.

The orchid in the picture a couple of posts above at one time was called Aerides vandarum. It is very cold tolerant but difficult to bloom. But that is the thing here, without a name it is hard to give advice, one thing is certain, lots of light is a must for all the "vandaceous" with terete foliage. The plant in the original post is horribly over potted, in fact it might be better grown on a tall mount.

I agree with the heavy pruning. I have three of them--all planted in the ground. There's one with red flowers. It had a strong and damaged branch close to the middle of the trunk. I sliced half of it down and, the tree kept throwing out new shoots at a fast rate and the leaves all look very green and healthy. I was worried about the other two showing sick looking leaves. The last summer, both had many long and straggly branches that were bordering our driveway. They had a good "hair cut," and since then, they have grown a lot faster than before. One of them which is the smaller sized one still has some sick looking leaves that look like they have been munched on. My guess is that younger tree tend to be a little weaker. I'm planning to clip off all those bad looking branches of leaves and see how things go from there. But, definitely trim it back to encourage new and healthier growth.

I've been growing orchids for at least ten years and I still get confused by info I find on-line. Unfortunately much of it often being contradictory. More of my two cents worth: your plant has a new pot, size should be OK for another year. Watch those escaping roots, as long as they stay nice and silver green in color with greener growing tips they are happy!!! Misting them with a hand sprayer will make them even happier . it will appreciate moving air from a nearby fan and bright light. Temps the same that you and I enjoy. Feed every week or two with a 1/4 strength plant food ( orchid food, IF available). These are ideal conditions for the plant. They will usually grow/bloom with much less than ideal conditions. Be careful to NOT let water sit in the crown of the leaves. If water splashes in there just blot it out with tissue. It's best to water/mist early in the a.m. If that will work for you, then excess water has time to evaporate. Relax and enjoy your plant, after all you've grown it already for well over six months!!!