But it all worked out last year.
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My first attempt at air layering. It’s on a spindly, droopy dracaena branch. I don’t know whether it will work, since the area I’m trying to root is actually above the leaves.
(Yes, my houseplants live in the bathtub for the winter)
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Moth orchid starting to bloom. Crappy photo doesn’t do it justice.
This baby is tough. It survived severe neglect as the last living thing in my SIL’s house after cancer finally outlasted the available treatments and was one of the last things I carried out of there. I repotted it, it sulked for months, and then in January the flower spike appeared. Bitey Kitten knocked it off my desk where it lives, which cracked most of the leaves, but the flower spike was undamaged. And today the first one opened.
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Phalaenopsis orchids are pretty damn tough. all of ours live outdoors year-round due to the tropical clime and they turn brown, drop leaves, grow new ones and bloom more each year. a cold spike will encourage them to set blooms (one or two nights in the 50F range).
yours is beautiful, i think we may have one similar in color on one of the palm trees. they all bloomed earlier this season when we had a couple of cold snaps.
if you are going to keep ut in a pot, don’t overwater! they don’t like to stand in water. mounting to a fibrous substrate that stands in a pot is an option, since your climate probably does not allow for permanent outdoor mounting . set her outside in the rain, too. they thrive on rainwater over tap water. collect rainwater and keep a jug or jar handy for houseplants (especially orchids).
i’m a sucker for all types of orchids and grow three different types: phals(like yours) are actually tough, hardy and beautiful. Dendrobium sp are not so easy and i have one that i manage to keep alive somehow and Vanda sp are bare-rooted epiphytes that get most of what they need from the humid South Florida air. a little spray of dilute kelp water on the roots keeps all of them happy and healthy.
sorry to carry on so. you probably already know all of that and i’m showing off. but there are some who say i am an “orchid whisperer” given how many derelict grocery store bag babies i have nurtured into thriving beauties. i just love them and hope you get that satisfaction with yours!
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Nope and nope 
I am a complete newbie with orchids, so I am thrilled to get advice from an orchid whisperer! Pearls of your wisdom, please!
I repotted it in commercial orchid mix in a glazed orchid pot with vent holes in the sides. I water it after it feels good and dry through one of the lower vent holes by soaking it thoroughly in a small bucket just deep enough but doesn’t let the water touch the crown, then I leave it to drain completely, so that no more water spills out when I tilt the pot. During the winter months with forced air heat drying everything out, I set the pot on a bed of pebbles with water (not touching the pot itself) and misted it daily to try to give it some humidity. It had the prettiest leaves until the kitten knocked it over and half of them split or tore 
Temperature- and humidity-wise I could put it outside now, but I don’t trust the critters, especially the damn chipmunks, not to destroy it out of spite. They almost killed my gorgeous, salmon-colored, non-specific inclusive winter holiday cactus a few years ago when I gave it what I thought would be an outdoor holiday that instead turned into a botanical slasher film plot.
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I recently purchased a Phalaenopsis at the grocery store, just for the hell of it. It was cheap and I figured if I kill it, I’m only out a few bucks. So it’s good to hear that they are tough. I still haven’t found the “groove” yet.
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Ok Chief Florida Man, where do I cut the flower stalk? The tip is dried up.
Also, there’s a root tendril poking up. Cut it off? Try to root it? Or just ignore it?
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Mulch site rescue. Turns out it’s a vinca.
Next time your city replaces a telephone pole on your street, ask nicely for the old one. You’d pay big money for this at the landscaping store!
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i cut them at the base. this year one of them came back with multiple forked spikes. typically, they will not flower on the old spikes, but grow new ones - in my experience.
as for the root, keep it damp, not wet - (kinda that one word that will get blacked out here) so that it stays green. it is healthy. dilute kelp nourishes roots when spayed on. it may be time to consider mounting your orchid and allowing it to send roots where it wants.
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this pretty got mounted to a rough post at the back porch just the other day. it is also Phalaenopsis. i love the “ink spot” markings. sort of the Rorschach orchid:
and here is the same one at night with a dramatic little solar-charged spotlight:
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Hoyas are wonderful plants. We have one that’s been kicking around my family for probably close to 30 years. It’s in bloom right now, too. That’s always exciting.
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That is quite dramatic!
No concerns about the toxic preservatives used in wooden telephone poles? Or is that one so old that they would have all leached out already? (I’m assuming that it was, at one time, treated with that nasty stuff that they use/used.)
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Just look at i….
Oh, right.
Sorry. Nothing to see here.
Damn…
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There’s an “oooh, nana! Hoya!” joke in there somewhere.
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Creosote and oil-derived stuff is carcinogenic, and some of the stuff which was legal in the 1980s turned out to be extremely toxic when burned. So, be careful what you get.
Same is true for wooden railway sleepers, BTW!
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Well, I’m not growing food here. It isn’t creosoted. My guess is probably something similar to what they use for treated southern yellow pine. As long as I’m not using it around a culinary garden, seems OK.
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That’s kind of what I was thinking—next to the driveway, not much going on there. I don’t really know much about it. Someone in my neighborhood had a bad experience when a new one was put in at the edge of their yard. The odor was very strong and they said the family felt sickened when they were out in the yard near it—but that was a brand-new one. And yours does look very (very!) well-weathered at this point.
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my neighbor has a lot of gumbo limbo trees in his yard and they mount their orchids in (IMO) a brutalist manner using zip ties! oi!
detail:
just goes to show that these Phals are actually tougher than most people think.
of course we are very lucky to be able to grow them outdoors year-round. growing them indoors is more of a challenge, i concede. since they are resilient, with any amount of care and understanding what they need, no reason not to have them indoors!
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