Tag: Phalaenopsis

Orchid bloom alert! Earlier I posted here about a phalaenopsis orchid I purchased from a local store that had an odd leaf structure, which I later realized was a terminal orchid. And voila, she bloomed after all. In fact, this one bloomed so large and so fully, that I’ve had to stake the plant three times to continue to support the weight of all those blooms!

I’m not sure yet if I will try the methodology of using a growth paste for orchids to try to generate a keiki, but for now I’ll just enjoy the gift of blooms for as long as they last. I’m watching those additional blooms to come to see if I might have to add still additional support to hold this heavy spike up as the remaining blooms open.

I picked up this interesting phalaenopsis orchid from a Lowe’s store before I learned what this type of plant is. Having tried my hand at a number of orchids prior, it struck me as interesting how the spike rose from the middle of the leaves and crown and I brought it home. Later on, I learned this is the unfortunate malady of a few orchids: Terminal spike.

Terminal spike is essentially when the spike happens to grow out of the middle of the crown and leaves in such a way that no future leaves can grow, thus limiting the life of the plant. It will eventually die after this point.

There are different schools of thought on why orchids produce terminal spikes. Some say it is because of a deformity where the spike, is pushed into growing out of the middle of the leaves due to an unknown obstacle to growing out of the sides of the crown like it should (toughened exterior or such). The jury remains out on this, but it all seems to make sense based on what I have read so far.

That said, all is not lost. Several terminal spike orchids, in their last bids to live, will send out a keiki from the spike. If you are interested, you can find out more about these here. Some growers will apply a hormonal paste to the spike to encourage this growth so that they can clip if from the dying plant later to start a new plant. It is still a roll of the dice if it will work in each case, but one has nothing to lose in trying.

This lady seems to be working hard to thrive with what she has left so I think I will let her tell me how this is going to go. It just goes to show though, that you never quite know what you will end up with when you take home one of the “orphan orchids” from the discount section – sometimes you are in for a learning experience and pleasant surprise after all.

I’ve started a hobby of buying discounted orchids after they’ve lost their blooms on store shelves and are no longer deemed attractive. Usually sellers will steeply discount them and leave them to dry out as they can’t afford to care for them for their multi-month resting period vs. displaying more attractive plants in bloom to sell.

This little one is a miniature orchid called Younghome Little Snow. While the leaves may grow slightly, the small stature of the blooms and stalks will stay ever small (per what I’ve read). This one began losing its blooms weeks ago and I elected to snip the stalk when it was down to the last 2 so that it could go ahead and start regenerating leaves and resting. (This was also a discount orchid with a sun burn on one of its leaves).

I’ve kept the stalk in a cup with water and the blooms are still going strong now several  weeks later – very surprising! What makes it even more unique is that these snowy white petals with the slightest hue of pink and yellow are barely bigger than a quarter. It’s such a sweet little plant; petal-perfect in every way 🙂