Houzz Logo Print
alyssa_schultz75

Help! 1 Dying Orchid 1 Thriving

8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago

As an anniversary gift in 2015 I received a moth orchid that I got to learn how to take care of and it was doing fine. After I learned that you actually need to fertilize them, I started doing that every other time I water and now it is thriving! It has just reached full bloom as of today.
However, my husband's mom received a different species of Phal during the summer from a student and gave it to me to take care of. I'm effectively killing it, even though I am treating it exactly the same way I treat mine! I've looked for care everywhere and from what I can tell it may be a butterfly orchid?

Here's what I have done to try to revive it:
I noticed it had some rotting roots, so I waited till the blooms fell off and cut the spikes down. I cut off all the rotting stuff, making sure to leave 2 healthy looking ones with the little nodes on them, then I repotted in orchid medium (just bark).
It perked up a bit and new, healthier roots started growing, so I continued treating it like my other one, except that the new pot has holes that dry the medium out WAY fast. I water it just a little more than my thriving plant because of this, but the mediums look to have about the same moisture levels.
Now it's been a few months since I repotted, and the leaves are starting to really limp and don't look firm and almost glossy like they should.
The only reason I've kept it this long after trying all this is because it has started to grow a new leaf that actually looks quite healthy! It stopped at almost an inch out of the base about a month ago.

So, what else can I try? Any help is greatly appreciated as my green thumb mom is also out of ideas.

Comments (6)