| Nope - you're fine. Whether to cut the blooms off at the base or just above the last node on the spike is a personal choice. Phals typically only bloom once per year for about three months give or take - which in the northern states is starting spikes in late fall early winter and flowers about three months thereafter (many just starting to bloom now). Commercial growers can force them to bloom at other times of the year by controlling their environments in greenhouses. If you get them spiking out of season for your area they may take a part of a season (thus skipping your normal blooming season) to get back on track for your area. Cutting the spike back to the base encourages the plant to build up its energy (leaves and roots) for the next bloom cycle while cutting the spike at the node "may" lead to a subspike with fewer and potentially slightly smaller blooms than the initial spike. Whether you purchased your phal during the normal bloom cycle for your area might have some influence as well as to whether you encourage it to set a subspike versus put its energy into another large spike or two during the normal bloom period. Note - this is just when MOST of the phals in my area do. There are genetics in some that cause them to bloom later (summer instead of late winter/early spring) and bloom longer.  |