My mother's orchid.....
was a gift earlier this year for mother's day. I found her at the farmer's market near my shop and thought she would be a perfect gift. Then, since the price was so affordable, I picked one up for myself. Both were regular medium sized phalaenopsis complex hybrids, a common sight in grocery markets and home improvement stores. They were in full bloom and looking spectacular, so much so that I couldn't resist grabbing a couple more (at $6 a plant, irresistible). Hence my original collection of 3 phals.
Now the gift went over very well and my mother was quite pleased with the display. She took the orchid home after a thorough watering and easy care instructions. I visited mom at her home a month or so later only to find that someone had filled the orchid pot to the brim with soil and drenched her with water. By this point, the flowers had dropped off and the tip got bud blast. It took little to convince my mom to let me take the poor thing home to fix up which I did right away with a repotting. I took her with me to the shop that my mom and I run together and there she has stayed on the top of a cabinet by a window.
Its taken the plant a few months to recover from the shock of changing medium twice. But the worst is over and she has recovered completely. In the last couple of months she has put out lots of new root tips and a couple of brand new roots.
Only, not all the new roots were roots.
One was a flower spike!
I came back from Christmas break to find the root tip I had left behind had grown into a very promising flower spike!
Her growth as really taken off and Rudy, named after the previous shop owner, is finally established in her pot. Since she is my mother's orchid, I left her in bark medium with a top layer of sphagnum moss. I don't really count her as being part of my collection but since I'm the one who cares for her I want to track her progress. Especially when its one as fun as a first reblooming after purchase.