I've rekindled my Orchid Addiction! Lord, please don't let me kill these!

[ItsMe122]

Hi All!
Prepare for my super long--probably with a little bit of over-share thrown in--introduction!

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?
About 5 years ago, my husband bought me an Orchid (Phal) for our first wedding anniversary. Naturally, the first thing I did was hop online to find out what I had and how to care for it. When I found out that I could potentially keep it thriving and re-blooming for years, I fell in love with the idea of having our "First-Anniversary Flower" around for a good long while.
I, being the type of person to cannon-ball whole heartedly into any new hobby, soon went out and bought at least 3 (that I can recall) more orchids with high high hopes!
After all of my obsessive research, I repotted all of my new preciousess ASAP into an Orchid mix of bark, charcoal and perlite, trimmed the dead roots (and probably got a little snip happy on some healthy ones too) and willed them to thrive. They didn't. I was devastated to see my once healthy roots continue to rot, my sweet little orchid leaves turn yellow, shrivel and fall off. I realize now that some of the loss of leaves might have been a natural occurrence from the drastic reduction in roots. But I didn't understand (still don't, really) why the roots continued to deteriorate. I probably fussed with them too much. If I was unsure about something, did I pack the bark in too tightly?, I'd pull the whole darn plant out to look at the roots and repot. I was impatient and when a few weeks went by with no signs of new growth, only loss of leaves and roots, I would change something. I might have over watered them, I might have been so afraid of overwatering them that I dehydrated them. Who knows, I guess I've blocked the details of that tragic time from my memory. I just know that eventually, I finally accepted the fact that I had a black thumb and gave up, vowing never to have another orchid's death on my hands again. I probably cried a little too.

That lasted a good long 5 years, until I saw the Blue Mystique Phals from Silver Vase and I rebounded. I told myself that I would just stick with this one and see if I could bring it around to bloom again next year. That is, until I did some research & realized that these would rebloom in their natural white coloring. Ok, that's cool and all, it's not that I have anything against the white flowers...I'm just a color gal! So, **ASSUMING** I could even bring these around again, I'd end up with white flowers. So I decided to go pick out a naturally colorful Orchid as well, to add to the collection, and see what I could do with those two. I told myself I'd only pick out and buy the 1 colorful one and that was it....until I walked by the Shelf of Death at Lowe's and saw 2 little lonely phals whose flowers had gone from their spikes, discounted to $5.00 each. One of the 2 has like 6 leaves (though the most recent leaf is definitely smaller than the previous ones) and even has a new root coming in! I figured the glazed ceramic pots alone were worth the 5 bucks so I bought them for the kittens. You know, the kittens that you see on adoption day at PetSmart that you're so afraid no one will adopt and they will have a dark fate if you aren't the one to rescue them?! I can't adopt those kittens because...responsibility. BUT! what's a few little orchids?!
Plus, the idea of keeping these guys around and having some surprise blooms next year sounded fun! See how I'm getting ahead of myself here already?

So now here I am again, I have 4 orchids. I have repotted 3 of the 4. Obviously, the 2 rescues--chopped their old spike off while I was at it--and also the colorful one that I picked out that day. It looks like a very big, nice and healthy plant but I could see some algae looking stuff on the inside of the pot, the pot wasn't 100% clear, it's a bit opaque, so I couldn't really tell what it was potted in so since one of the buds already looked like it was gong to blast out, I decided to go ahead and repot that one with the hopes of keeping the plant healthy. The 4th one that I have not yet repotted, the blue one, actually looks pretty stinking awesome as it is! The pot is nice and clear so I can see a ton of healthy green roots that have circled around the bottom. The media looks to be mostly bark and in good condition, so I'm going to let this guy chill for a bit until the flowers die off naturally and I see some root growth starting.
I pulled out some old clear tupperware containers that were in the donate box, drilled a ton of holes in the bottom and sides and repotted the 3 into a mix of bark and spagh moss. I didn't use any moss at all when I repotted back in 2010, so I've wondered if maybe those roots that had been in the mushy moss had a hard time adjusting to the bark only mix. I was looking at the newly repotted chids this morning and started worrying that maybe I threw too much spagh in the mix (I don't think I packed it too tightly though!) and have been fighting the urge to pull them out and repot again. The old me would have done it in a heart beat! But I'm trying really hard to be more hands off this time! I'm going to leave them be and try to let them tell me when they need water by judging the color of the roots, which I didn't know to do first time around.
So I guess, now only time will tell. I honestly don't know if I can handle being responsible for another Orchid Genocide...so I am SO hoping that things work out for us this time around. I don't think my husband will ever let another Orchid into this house if I kill these too. I wouldn't blame him! haha!
So please send me all your good vibes, happy thoughts, growing juju...etc. I'll take anything and everything I can get!!