Most of the current crew pictured below. I have one more phal still hanging in the window. It will bloom today or tomorrow. It lost a few of its flowers to bud blast when I moved it to a colder window, for reasons I can't remember. I wound up buying a Dendrobium phalaenopsis because, of course, it was on sale. But on reflection kind of a boring choice so I'll maybe try those Cymbidiums next.
Regarding the collective mitten appearances -- I brought them into the house on September 28, so looking at the historic data (
https://www.accuweather.com/en...), that looks like a month of daily twenty degree drops. That was what I was shooting for, in hopes that it would trigger blooming. One instance isn't quite science, so I'll do it again this year, but as I mentioned all of the outdoor phals were in different conditions of all sorts, and then moved into the house into different conditions again (Different aspects, etc.) So it's the thing I can point to asking myself 'why did all these orchids in all of these different conditions decide this is the big year'? We will see on year two.
After bringing them in, mittens started appearing between September 28 and October 28. They have been going into bloom slowly; the first one being the white one in the bottom left corner which has been blooming since New Year's Day. One of them, not shown, which I have mounted on a bit of Mountain Laurel, did not bloom, but I think it didn't feel quite stable in the mounted arrangement -- it takes time for their roots to cleave to the wood and for them to feel stable.
I wound up not using supplemental lights, but hung them in windows. They likely would be more prolific with better light, but it's February and they're in bloom and I'm happy.
Bonus picture of an orchid mitten for those who haven't come across the term; it's just a cutesy way to describe differentiating a root from a spike.
