I posted this a few years ago:
The thread "Recommendations for second orchid type after phals?" in
Orchids forum
I have five phals now and four are spiking, one has a keiki also. It's bewildering. None have been treated the same, none got or get supplemental light, all spent the summer outdoors in different spots in the yard (that's normal) and came indoors September 28, after it started getting cold at night. The only commonality they have is that I drastically reduced the volume medium they are in. Some are horribly pot bound and in plastic, some are sprawling loosely in clay pots with a handful of moss and a few bits of bark, two are hanging in clumps of moss tied to a tree branch. They spent the summer in different parts of the yard...none were fertilized. They are all in different-facing windows: east, west, and south.
I did all of the things I was supposed to do, including supplemental lights, but impressed none of them although they always looked healthy (a couple were Lowes' rescues. Love orchid rescues.) No spikes. A month after they came inside, I started finding mittens. Now they are all at least five inches long. So maybe the temperature change, but I've read various things that those aren't a reliable trigger.
I have two oncidiums that I cruelly ignored during the summer outdoors, and one is spiking and one is thinking about it.
So I'm ready for a next orchid.
Setting the phal odyssey aside....
Details: I have clip on grow lights and also a full spectrum florescent set up. Not sure if I would use them but they are there.
I live in New England and it is very, very dry in the winter. I grow an alocasia and papyrus in container water gardens indoors and group many plants there together. My Oncidiums hang above that set up, so there is some humidity there unless I'm deluded. That whole section gets a few hours of a grow light bath a week.
All my houseplants spend summers outdoors, and I've developed a winter care routine which I quite like which is basically that 'everyone gets a small amount of water every Sunday' except for the phal that hangs in moss from a branch. That gets taken to the kitchen sink and thoroughly soaked each Sunday before getting hung back up. I used to handle houseplants on an as-needed basis but I'm finding that 'just do it every Sunday' is far less work.
I would like a winter flowering orchid, something fragrant or beautiful and bold in the depths of winter, and I'm interested in water culture because it's been going well for me w/a papyrus and an alocasia. I like the look of mounted orchids also, and since I'm already doing it for the phal I wouldn't mind doing it for another.
I do like plant adventures.
I think I don't like vandas. They spend a lot of time looking straggly and misshapen, but maybe I haven't met the right one.
Suggestions? (I feel like I'm visiting a matchmaker.)
