Mike's phal Naples Night

[mayres]

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.

[mayres]

The original reason I purchased this plant was because Jerry told me that the foliage was beautiful. HE IS RIGHT!

[patticake]

Don't give up on the sad one- The new one looks good!

[jerrymeola]

I hate to think I paid more than 12.50 for the one last year. It was a new hybrid then and they were getting top dollar,

[mayres]

How about some updates on this little guy???????
This was one of our project plants back in April of 2008 - that was about 17 months ago!
How are your plants doing and have they bloomed?
Looks to me like we have at least the following people growing this - Articuno75, Kid A, FlaCo, Shiningrock, PhalPal, areleng, Patticake, Myorchd, Normkp, Bird Song Farm, brandank, & Sharyn. I'd LOVE TO SEE PICS!!!!!
Sad to say mine has NOT bloomed - but has grown and LOOKS very healthy. Since the leaves are so beautiful on this plant I have not started complaining - YET! :-)
Not a good time to take a picture - at night with artificial lighting, but wanted to set a good example of at least attaching a pic with my update.
Come on group - lets see 'em!

[fred]

looks great Mike
thank you so much for the update
sadly no bloom yet .. I don't think you will have to wait to long the leaves are gorgeous

[patticake]

It looks great, Mike! I'll post mine this weekend. It bloomed last year, but not this year as of yet. I'm starting an additional night job, so I may not be on as much, but will try to at least every other day-Your plant looks VERY healthy!

[NancyG]

Your plant looks great. Mine is growing and looks alot smaller than yours but healthy with new roots and leaves. Didn't bloom for me last year but have high hope for this coming year.

[Stelios]

it sure looks greatly cared of.
Congrats on making it to thrive. Don't worry for not spiking yet, it will start sending up a spike in October, i promise

[solay]

Very healthy plant. It looks like it'll bloom anytime now. I don't have one of these but the leaves really are beautiful.

[hulaorchid]

It's looking great!! Love the leaves!!

[Sharyn]

Good for you Mike........you got your's going! Mine was doing very well until this summer. Unfortunately, due to pressing family issues, I was neglectful and found out VERY quickly that this one will not tolerate getting too dry, not even for a short time. So, you guessed it, I let it get too dry. After I rehydrated it, within a week I noticed that the leaves started dropping off, one by one, until there was nothing left. When I emptied it from its pot, I found all the roots dried up.

This is such a lovely phal. I may try another one. The foilage is so interesting and the blooms are gorgeous. Hope the rest of you are having good results. Good luck.

[mayres]

Lookie Lookie!!!!
I was counting the number of phals that have spikes yesterday (25) and came upon this in the process! BOY WAS I SURPRISED!!!!!!!!!
A BIG RED SPIKE ON MY NAPLES! YAHOO!!!!! Finally

[mehitabel]

An overlooked spike is a wonderful surprise!

Very beautiful plant. I love the red underside of the leaves and the red spike. Lovely.

[patticake]

Yes!! It looks good!!

[NancyG]

Hoping mine blooms for me this year. Yours looks good.

[Breezy79]

Congrats on the spike! The foliage is beautiful! I can't wait to see it bloom.

[amersault]

congrats on the spike indeed! i hope my Phal Naples Night Mayres, Jr. goes into spike too

[HeatherAnnn]

Wow that is a real pretty Phal!

[dorothea]

congratulations on the spike!

[mayres]

I was going to wait until this was totally open - but couldn't stand waiting any longer! LOVE IT !!!!

[Dendian]

Beautiful foliage and georgeous flowers - one for the "list"!

[Julez]

Very Pretty flower. Well Done Mayres :

[mayres]

Took a pic of some of the blooms in its normal growing location under my T5 light fixture - probably not the best way to show it off (I'll do another when it is in FULL open bloom soon!) but I thought the colors were great nonetheless!

[psyc1210]

Lovely Mike!!!

[kmarch]

Thanks for the updates! Fantastic growing! I wonder how the other orchid-growing project participants are doing with theirs?

[mayres]

I'm wondering too Kevin! Come on folks - lets see 'em!????

[Tarad]

Wow Mike gorgeous!

[Julez]

[jerrymeola]

I found one rather beaten plant last year left over from the project - too poor to sell to anyone. It has recovered nicely and is a good looking plant now. It does not surprise me you have flowers earlier in Oregon as your days get shorter and cooler sooner than Florida. Day-length and temperature trigger the flowering of Phalaenopsis.

It is a shame that the growers are no longer producing this hybrid. If you want to try to self this plant I will have the seeds processed.

[patticake]

Mike, it looks great! Mine bloomed last year, but nothing this year. The plant looks healthy. I think it may need more light. I have mine in a window, and it's gotten several plants in front of it! If I put it under lights in my basement, it's too cool I think. I'll just keep it healthy until I can have a place with proper conditions for it. Thanks for the great shots of yours! It's just beautiful!

[Azure]

Very pretty! Great growing. That's a very striking combo of the pink and yellow.

[lmartiny]

That is a pretty Phal. It looks pretty colorful around your house.

[NancyG]

Your plant looks great! Wow what a beauty!
Mine still has not spiked. It looks healthy, has lots of leaves, good roots but no flowers. It gets good air circulation, fertilzation etc. Some early and late direct sun. It is outside. What else does it need to bloom?

[mayres]

Nancy - sounds like you are on the right track - good culture = good blooms eventually. Look forward to seeing yours in bloom eventually as well.
Jerry - your selfing suggestion sounds interesting. I wonder what kind of progeny we could expect? Have you heard of this plant being selfed before? After our show in mid march I might consider trying it. Wouldn't we have to do mericlones in order to get duplicates?

[kid a]

Wow stunning! Mine has done nothing yet, I think I have phal problems, they grow great they just don't boom for me haha! Mine seems to lose as many leaves as it grows each year lol!

[berkeleysgr8]

I'm so sad that I killed my Naples Night. What a gorgeous plant! I do have a schilleriana in double spike right now... so it's a similar treat. Good growing!

[mayres]

Okay - finally bloomed put this weekend!
Two pics - of entire plant/spike and then closer pic of blooms only.
One NICE plant! Thanks to Jerry for introducing us to these!

[kmarch]

Mike....wow....that is one gorgeous phal!!! The flowers are so uniform. Very well grown and flowered! You are Phal Master!!

[NancyG]

really beautiful!