Tolumnia spikes

[cabbo]

I was advised to leave the old spikes alone unless they dry up and die since they may re-bloom. One of the spikes did in fact re-bloom as you can see. Should I cut above the new flowers? And does leaving the spikes weaken the plant? What would you do in this situation?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Leaving the spikes does not weaken the plant. As you just witnessed, orchids can rebloom from those spikes.

Plants like Phalaenopsis and Leochilus carinata which is an Oncidium relative and a twig epiphyte, can kheiki from the spike.

[camille1585]

Great job! I had no idea that Tolumnias could rebloom off old spikes, so I learned something! The plant looks happy, so there's no reason why the spike would be hurting it.

[Ross]

Not all Tolumnia send out new spikes, but some do. It's a bit less common in hybrids than species. Trimming dead sections for esthetic reasons causes no harm.

[Grandma M]

Thanks for this pic. I bought 4 at a show in January. They are beautiful, one just finished blooming and the other 3 are in full bloom. I was admiring them last night with a clippers in my hand ready to cut off the old stalk, when I remembered someone saying they (can) sometimes rebloom. I didn't cut it, now I see they can really re-bloom. Thanks

Marilyn

[Ray]

If you trim a phalaenopsis spike to force it to rebloom, you will weaken the plant. Leaving a spike untouched allows the plant to determine if it has sufficient energy to do so.