Hello - I am a humble newbie!

[wolfie]

Hello, my name is Gina and I live in Seeley Lake, Montana. I have a total of 9 orchid plants and am very excited about them. I have mostly Cattleya's, one Dendrobium Phal, and one purebred Phalaenopsis. I lived in California in 1994 and tried raising orchids there, but didn't know what I was doing and they soon died horrible deaths. I gave up on them, but didn't throw out all of my information. Last year I was going through our local Lowe's and purchased for $5.00 a lovely unblooming DendrobiumPhal. My husband said if I could keep it alive for one year, he would buy me another orchid plant. Well it thrived. So this year he purchased another $5.00 unblooming Phalaenopsis which is now beginning to unfurl its blossoms for me. Well he couldn't refuse me, so we purchased seven young Cattleya's and now I'm scared!

My Phal and Den are in east windows that get a bit of sun in the mornings for about an hour or so. The cats just arrived two days ago and I have them in a south/west window that gets sun from noontime on. However, we've had dark dank and rainy weather here for the past week. NO SUN! My Phal's leaves are turning very dark green however, the spike is still fine except that it too is dark green but the blooms are unfurling white like a normal. There are two more spikes growing up from the base of this plant. Theya re all on humidity trays in their respective windows. I have them on a schedule to water about every 6 or 7 days.

Is my Phal sick? Should I put it in a southwest window? But then again, will the sun ever shine again in Montana? LOL

Thanks for listening!

Gina

[mayres]

Welcome to the forum Gina - glad to have you here and look forward to hearing (and seeing pics!) more about your orchids.
Very dark green leaves on a phal would indicate it could probably use some more light, but don't give it much (if any) direct sunlight type light - indirect is best. Normally a few weeks of poor lighting isn't enough to have a negative effect on a phal - in fact many people put them in places of little light to enjoy them while blooming and then move the back to a better location once the bloom is over. Two more spikes? Are you sure they are not air roots? Again - pictures are always good when describing and showing off your plants! Enjoy!

[patticake]

Hi Gina, Your Catts will probably take as much sun as you can give them in your windows. The Phal can be backed away from the window a bit. The Catts. like to dry out a little before watering again, but the Phal likes to be a little moist...(not soggy!) Keep us posted, and we like pictures!

[Rocinante]

Hi, Gina!

I lived in Great Falls for 3 years in the early 80's... and happy growing!

[wolfie]

I will try and get some photos today taken. I have some in my directory, but don't have a clue as how to upload them. There is no "browser" button.....only http codes.... I don't think you want to go to my website, although I should start a page about my orchids.....

Still raining cats and dogs here and very grim looking outside! Thank you for your advice. I was going to move the Phal to the south window, but I don't think it would like it there....besides all the catts are there! I'll leave it in the east (a bit more north than east) window which gets early sun for an hour or so.

Great Falls has really grown! As has Missoula, but Seeley Lake is still a little hamlet in the woods! One blink and you are through the town!

Thank you for the welcomes!

[wolfie]

The dark green leaves really are upsetting me. I know they are not right. There are several pictures to look at here......

The other one is my phal-den - I've cut the stalks back to a node. I hope I did it correctly.

Thank you for any comments!

[patticake]

Wolfie!!! You are in the Arctic!!! Lol! Your plants look great! It sounds like your exposure is good- Just be patient! If the leaves are REALLY dark, you can move them to a little brighter spot. They'll let you know if they're happy or not.

[wolfie]

Here is a photo of my little teeny baby I found under one of the new catts.....can it be identified or is it too small?

We are at 6,000 feet on a molehill in the beautiful Swan mountain rainge. We are very rural. And yes, sometimes it does feel like we are in the arctic. UPS/Fed-Ex won't deliver anything to us from the end of September to the middle of May due to our road being dirt and uphill with a steep cliff on one side. Their trucks just can't "make the grade!"

Anyway thank you for your comments, and I hope someone will recognize this little baby that I'm trying to keep alive. The other picture is the new Catt line up on my south/west windowsill on their humidity trays! They seems very happy there, at least they look happy! They were watered when I got them on Friday and I repotted them at the same time. I won't water again until Thursday of this coming week...... I'm saving rain water to use in watering them. I think they will go outside the middle of June on my shady deck under other trees and plants. To the right of that window I have a 15' rubber tree growing against a slider that is growing up to the big window in the loft....inch by inch... I seem to have pretty good luck with plants.......

[wolfie]

I read on another thread about a lady's Phal that looked exactly like mine! And was acting like mine as well. I've only had my "purebred" Phal for a couple of months, and it progressively was looking worse but it is flowering and growing new roots....so I took the plunge and unpotted it. What did I find? First of all it was in a clay pot - really? Inside the clay pot was a plastic pot. Inside the plastic pot was a real mess! I am so angry! Spagnum moss and styrofoam packing peanuts! No bark! No nothing! I cleaned it all out. Most of the roots were inside the spagnummoss and all rotten, green, slimy! I cut most of those off. I did find strong green/white roots growing from the rather short stem that had been in the pot. So everything came out, tons of spagnum moss and those peanuts. I repotted it in one of my clear square pots with very wet bark I had been soaking for a week. I put it back in it's original east window and will keep watching. The (what I thought were) stalks look more like big strong roots, so I will keep "rooting" for this plant to make it. I vow never to buy any more orchids from Lowe's! I noted tha Sara noticed an immediate improvement, so I hope when I got downstairs in the morning, it is perked up considerably. The leaves had been progresively more and more floppy and soft and when I bought it I noted one leaf was floppier than the other two. So I do hope I can save this baby. It only cost $5.00, but the original price was $15.00 and it deserves something better than the trash bin. Thank you list for all of the newbie threads and all the good advice on here!

[solay]

Welcome Gina. I hope your Phal. will be OK. I'm new to growing all orchids except Cymbidiums. I also recently got a bunch of small Catts. Anyway, your chids look really healthy. Hope to see more pics. soon.

[wolfie]

I am pleased to report that my Phal looks considerably better this morning. The leaves that were very soft and floppy and slightly "flat and wrinkly" are plumped up somewhat this morning! If I had known back a couple of months what I learned yesterday I would have repotted my Phal the day I brought it home. Wow! What a difference.

The baby orchid also looks a bit more plump than it did the day I took it out from under the other one....LOL I have moved it to the east window for a while to see how it does. Perhaps being such a "newbie" orchid, it needs more TLC than the others right now. Along with the phal of course.

Thank you all!

Thank you for the lovely welcome Solay!

Wolfie