| My recommendation is to stick with the weakly weekly plan using fertilizer marketed for orchids - takes all the guess work out of it. Typically the majority of phals will be spiking in late fall or early winter - so if yours was forced by the grower to bloom "out of season" - it is possible it may skip its normal blooming season (which should be now) and then get back into the normal schedule thereafter. I wouldn't ever put an orchid in a warm "DARK" place. They need light to photosynthesize and grow. All environmental factors are necessary to get it to grow well - nutrients from fertilizer, light to photosynthesize, water, and heat/warmth. Provide the right amounts of these and you are 95% of the way there! In the normal season a cooler evening is part of what triggers them to start setting spikes - but if you stay cooler for too long they will stall and do nothing - almost seems like plastic plants - no leaf growth, no roots, no spikes, no nothing. I kept my phals too cool last winter and this is what I experienced - suspended animation. Give them some light, fertilizer and warmth and they will take off...............  |