Phal season has finally begun

[Fuerte Rav]

Originally Posted by Mr.Fakename

Thanks! And that's wild, I thought we roughly had the same climate and would be on the same page.
Spring bloomers were very late and had few flowers here, we've had one of the worst spring ever recorded.




Thanks, you have some very neat plants yourself! I'm expecting showier Phal soon, if I don't mess it up
This violacea has been crossed with a blue Malaysian violacea, I'm really curious to see how the blooms will turn out!


The problem with "boring Phal" is that the market is overloaded with white/pink hybrids with huge flowers/high flower count and equestris type miniatures.
There are literally thousands and thousands of uniquely registered Phal that end up being 98% schilleriana or amabilis.

They are cloned by millions and sold for cheap, in bad condition, a lot of the time with mutations, without a name, all over the world.

I think it associates Phal with starter orchids because, well, that's what they are in most cases.
When you start getting deeper into the hobby and you see all these plants with fancy names, flowers, growth habits, awards etc; it's hard justifying spending on a supermarket Phal when you can grab something much more thrilling.

Like you say Camille, people don't necessarily realise there's much more to Phalaenopsis than what they think.

I've found it fascinating to read different peoples' take on 'supermarket' phals, and the other thread talking about phals as beginner's orchids.
Take a moment and think what you would do in my position! I can only buy 'supermarket' phals, all NOIDs, large and minis. Just once there was 1 vanda in a glass vase for sale. (I bought it and it is slowly declining.) Never anything else. We have no orchid specialist nursery or vendor. No vendors in mainland Europe will ship to The Canary Islands because our post/delivery services are so dire! (An ordinary letter can take 6 - 8 weeks from the UK. One of my friends Christmas cards went via India!!)
My only alternative would be to take a 2 day ferry trip to mainland Spain and then drive to wherever I could buy a wanted orchid! This makes them rather expensive!!

So, I love 'supermarket' phals

My season here starts around Christmas (I have one large white that opened it's first bloom on Boxing Day and hasn't dropped one yet!). About half of the plants finished blooming a month ago but a lot are on repeats.





I'm very envious of all you lucky people that can make virtually unlimited choices. And I thank you for sharing your pics - I can enjoy them vicariously without the headaches!