Changing the color an orchid?

[Black Dog's Orchid]

Hello all!

Quick question. I have a moth orchid that when bought had beautiful purple flowers. It has recently bloomed and now has a yellow flower instead of purple. Is this from my fertilizer?

Thanks in advance!
Black Dog's Orchid

[Maddy]

This is going to sound really dumb, but are you sure there was only one in the pot? I bought a yellow phal over the summer and lo and behold, the bloom spike belonged to a poor leafless orchid and the leaves to another one entirely. It was deliberately potted up to look like just one, though.

The one with just the spike didn't survive, of course. The second one, which is very healthy, hasn't put out a spike for me yet, so I don't even know if it's the same one...

[mayres]

I'm with Maddy on this one! I purchased what I thought was a pretty nice phal once at Lowes and when I looked it over more carefully later found out that it was really TWO phals planted in the same pot together - one white and one yellow (yellow one bloomed later). They can vary in color to a small degree basaed upon environmental conditions - like dark pink once and light pink another time, but not as different as you describe.

[Daniel S. Barrett]

I had an African Violet once that was a real genetic mutant (AKA "a sport"). it looked as though someone had divided the plant down the middle, one half of the plant had varigated leaves with purple flowers, & one half was regular green leaves with white flowers, any flowers in the middle was exactly half of each color like it had been painted. it was strange to look at. but, "sports" like that are very rare in the orchid world, like millions to one.

[prisana]

I had the same problem, and before I found this forem, I was a constant bug to Orchid Lady at her Website. My phal that was originally white with purple lip had finished blooming, so while waiting for it to rebloom, I went and got me another one, this one is yellow. A few months later the first one started its spike, only the flower came out yellow just like the second one. When you're particular with color ( I want one of each color of phals for my collection ) I was quite annoyed. Orchid Lady said it's probably picked up one of the parent's trades that was not shown originally, she said the next bloom after that could be the white. It's in spike now, so I'll see if this will correct itself...hope this helps.

[prisana]

I forgot to mention..my phal is the only growth in the pot , so what Mike and Maddy said didn't apply to my..I hope it did.. I wouldn't have been so confused otherwise. :-)

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Prisana, maybe yours was like Maddy's, with the evidence of the second plant, the one that was in bloom when you got it, sufficiently gone when the next blooming came along that it was no longer evident.

[prisana]

Cynthia, I'm not sure I got it Please bear with me here Are you saying my first plant was influenced by the second plant that's why it came out yellow ? if so, why did that happen. Maybe you are trying to tell me something entire different , I had a late night last night ..baking , and I'm up early this morning..I'm totally clueless.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody..be safe..

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Merry Xmas to you too. Wasn't planning to do much for Xmas, but found a particularly nice fresh local turkey, so I will be busy today too. Your second plant has nothing to do with anything, unless somehow they got mixed up in your memory. Your first plant may have been like Maddy's, 2 plants in the pot, one with leaves, one with no leaves, but with a bloom spike, and soon to be quite dead, like Maddy's blooming plant. But at the time you may not have thought to look at the pot carefully, to see the situation. Then, a year or so later, the one with the leaves blooms, but by now the second plant, the one with that original bloom spike, is long gone. Just a possibility. If you ever repot, look for a second set of very dead roots.

[Maddy]

I would probably never have caught onto it if I hadn't decided to pull the orchid out of the pot because it seemed to be far too wet and found out the bloom spike didn't belong to the leaves. Now I wish the surviving plant would hurry up and give me a spike so I can see what color it is.

[prisana]

Cynthia..that makes sense, but I have repotted it not long after it bloomed, cuz the squirrel knocked it over and broke the pot after it chewed on the spike. I was trimming the roots and cleaning them and didn't see anything extra .. the spike that I cut off came straight from the second leave from the bottom of the plant.. who knows what's going on. Funny, the plant didn't even come with a name tag, so I just called it "surprise"...courtesy of Orchid Lady. :-)

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Got any before and after pictures? Seems like it would be very interesting to see.

[Black Dog's Orchid]

Thanks everyone for your replies...After further investigiation I believe I have2 plants in one pot! Wouldn't have thought about that. Thanks again!

[prisana]

I wish I had thought about taking the picture of the original blooms, I wasn't really into orchids then..I was kind of afraid of it to tell you the truth , that sounds dumb but i'ts true. I just left it outside under a tree and let mother nature take care of it..much to my husband's dismay (he got it for me for Mother's Day ). Since it's in spike now, I'll take some pics , and if it grows another after that, I'll take some more. A long wait..