got a great deal at lowes!

[brazilianfernie]

Yep, I got 2 new phals, one was on the clearance rack for 5 bucks with really fat green roots, although the flower color is unknown.

The second phal is monstrously huge!! It is one of the fake dyed blue ones. It was 15 dollars, all of their houseplants were 50% off this past weekend!! What attracted me to this phal was the heavy amount of very healthy roots this thing has crawling out of the pot and inside the pot, AND, this plant is big, the flowers are at least 4 inches across and the green leaves are big too. It is very impressive!! It is in full bloom with tons of flowers on it- just one spike though.. I may have figured out how they dye them too, the girl said to water it with blue food coloring but there looks like there is an injection site at the bottom of the spike as there's a hole with heavy blue coloring around it.

do you think they really use just plain food coloring or is it some special horticultural chemical? Im wondering if I can just add food coloring to the injection site, if it would work? I'm just curious, i'm not going to try it. The flowers are a nice white with fuschia colored tongue thingie (dont know what it's called) looks like a dragon tongue!

Just wanted to share my pics, theyre not very good quality. I love my new phal!

[otis 226]

Hey, enjoy your great finds at LOWE'S. I pick up 'chids from there also from time to time. I've been looking for some slippers. They had some last month, but at 15 bucks for beauties, they don't last long! I was at my local LOWE'S yesterday and they did have some MONSTER sized phals in. The biggest I've ever seen with amazingly large leaves and pretty good sized blooms as well. I'm not interested in Phals of that size, but they were amazing to see, I should have snapped some pix.
Cheers,
Tony

[katrina]

I had a phal...Pisgah Cloud...that was a monster. The plant was huge...the spike would grow to every bit of 4+' and the flowers were as big as my palm. It was impressive...but I got sick of trying to find a place for it when it was blooming so I gave it away.

I mention this because if anyone ever wants one like that...Pisgah Cloud...easy to find and it is a beautiful white phal. Wouldn't surprise me if they use Pisgah for the dyed ones.

Interesting find. Personally, I don't like the dyed blue ones but I understand the appeal. They are selling like hotcakes at one of our local stores here.

And yep...I'd put money on it being just regular old food dye.

[brazilianfernie]

Katrina, the large flowers and size of the plant and amount of healthy roots was why I got it! I'm only a beginner but have had really good luck with my phals so I want to get a bunch.

Its kinda weird looking at the dyed flower...altho I have to admit it is beautiful. I really want to see it when it spikes anew on that same spike and youll be surprised at the large white pristeen flowers you will get!

[brazilianfernie]

Anky, the lower flowers on the bottom of the spike are almost white with fuschia colored tongues, They are absolutely stunning! I actually can't wait to see how bright the white will be!!

FYI: its called "lip" , not tongue...Like you I also started to take care of phals...I rescued a dried up plant in the trash...it looked green and still alive and it had a nice celadon pot and some fancy plastic butterflies on the spikes and it was actually a centerpiece maybe from a dinner party of a conference; I brought it home and watered it every other day...it liked the window sill...then I researched on how to take care of it...I went to the flower district on 28th street of Manhattan and asked around the flower shops who make the arrangements as to how to repot, water it, fertilize and make it bloom again...and I learned a lot... when I made it bloom again: I was never been the same(there is something about the great feeling that you made a plant bloom; its an undiscribable warmth)...after several years I am now collecting the largest ...rarest hard to grow plants LOL

[brazilianfernie]

Originally Posted by Anky

...after several years I am now collecting the largest ...rarest hard to grow plants LOL

That will be me in a few years! I just started with orchids about 4 months ago, but I've had a large houseplant collection for a while. I've been doing really good with the orchids after researching on here. They are all growing roots and new leaves at the moment.

[Musika]

I was at Lowes 2 weeks ago and I was looking to see if they had anything on sale, but no. But with all the phals I did find one that had one bloom on it that was fine, and all the other ones had fallen off. At one point it had 12 on it. Oh and one leaf was yellow and dried up. So I took it up to the customer service and I said to the guy, "You see this plant? You see how there are no more flowers on it? You cant get $20 for this." He looked at me, took the plant from me, and the yellow leaf fell off!! He looked at me and laughed and said, "Okay $8 it is." LOL He was funny. So lesson of this story is, if you cant find a discount orchid, find one that needs some love, and see if they will mark it down for you. The color was just an all white phal with a tiny bit of yellow in the mid. I brought it home, trimmed up and now waiting for it to do its thang.