kevin's seaside orchid koosamongo

found a $5.00 orchid (bloomless) on the orphan shelf at the garden center and played with it over the weekend, getting it into this old fossil-ey shell... (leo you would have been proud of my cavalier handling of the plant and its roots )

will look better with some blooms hanging off it
(and it looks promising for that)







i will be playing with the angle of how it sits in the base...
(maybe burying bottom edge of shell so it looks less "on top of" the black sand/pebbles)

but for now this is what i gots:





i will post more when bloomed, but until then, comments welcome.

Excellent dude. That is exactly what I like to see. Orchids are not that fragile, you can really work the roots at the right time of year. Yours is a Phalaenopsis hybrid. (Phal for short) Nice work with the roots. One "little" suggestion. The small leaf just below the point where a new root and the flower stem emerge, you could have pulled that off. Doing so would let you bury the plant a little deeper and the new root would be further into the media, which would help establish it in the shell. But it will grow fine just the way it is, because with all great works, at some point someone needs to "shoot the author". (Its a quote from somewhere, about ending the endless revisions, at some point it just needs to be "done"). Since the Phal is an epiphyte, roots will tend to go all over - into the media or out into space. For errant roots you can gently bend them back to the pot, or train them into an attractive arrangement. Or just leave them. When you water, just wet the exposed roots too.

Phalaenopsis like temperatures above 60 F to keep the roots growing, bright shade to part sun. They like to go from wet to slightly damp, then wet again. So it will probably need water every 5 days or so.

The flower stem looks like it is just about ready to start growing from a couple of the lower nodes, would not be surprised if you had flowers by the beginning of February. I personally don't cut flower stems off unless they have gone brown and dried out, especially with Phals

Looking good. It will be fascinating to find out what the colors will be.

thanks leo !

if i recall correctly, the one that my mum gave me is also a phal
(you and i repotted it at the AAC gathering at mike's house... blue octogon pot)

right now it only gets some morning sun and is struggling to bloom...

maybe a bit more light ?
i do have options available for moving it...

Cool! I like the shell as a container. Makes me rethink all of the five dollar orchids I try to keep from feeling the need to rescue. Definitely going to look good with blossoms.

thanks jesse !