I have an earlier experience with this plant unlike the rest of the forum members. I purchased one of these last summer from Jerry and it arrived with all rotten roots and just one tiny remaining root. I emailed Jerry and he said he would replace free of charge (which he did for this project - didn't that just work out wonderfully?!). Anyway, my original plant evidently lost its crown too - it never did grow another leaf at the crown, but sent up a little basal keiki that has not done much in the past few months. This plant may be waiting for warmer weather to "take off"? My project phal arrived on Thursday 4/3/08 and is seen as the middle plant of the three of my project plants.
I left it in the sphag it came in for exactly two days. Then removed it and planted in coir mix.
Here is a pic of the plant today - two weeks later - this plant is WAY more vigorous and healthy looking than my first plant last summer!
As an FYI - here is a pic of last years sad plant and this years today side by side.
