It was just one small surprise out of many plants I got, and I'm really happy with healthy plants (and great price) from Oak Hill. They are great. Yes, mine probably needs quite a bit more time to bloom, but I'll be looking forward to seeing yours.

Camille, when I was in Lyon 2 years ago, it was hell hot. Well, I guess that it was more of cultural differences; warmer soda, no ice in water at the restaurants, higher temp set for the AC (or no AC) etc. But I guess people in the US waste more energy, and we are wimpier. But I enjoyed great food there!

Interesting, I understand the difference now. Mine is a pale green but not yellow green.

Indeed, that's the normal summer weather. Hardly any one has AC in their homes unlike in the US, and though we are used to it, oh how we suffer! On very hot days it would still be 100F in our apartment at midnight, and opening windows would do nothing, not a breeze to be felt. And we don't even use fans. We don't have 'cooling centers' like they're been during during the recent heat wave in the US. We suck it up. And you're right, no ice. You can't even buy bags of in the supermarket like you can in the US.

I'm mostly living in the Netherlands now, and there is no summer this year, again (and it's only marginally better in france). We get a week of 'summer' per month it seems and the rest is rain or clouds! That's why I'm convinced that my Phal pallens responded to the Epsom salts, and not the light. I think that if it had been light it would have responded much sooner, as all the other Phals started their growth in early June, which was a bit sunnier. I watered twice with Epsom salts in the space of a week, within 10 days of second watering the leaves lost their yellowness and the crazy growing started.

so does that mean that if u have pale/light green leaves, then its a Mg deficiency, but if they r yellow-y (and an alba) then thats the way they r supposed to look?

Other way around. Light green leaves can be perfectly normal. And yellow leaves is not necessarily a sign of Mg deficiency, it could also be other nutrients, most commonly nitrogen. But I fertilize regularily, so it couldn't be nitrogen related. My fert has no Ca or Mg, and my tapwater is soft, which is why I tried Epsom salts.
Excessively high light will cause leaves to yellow, but not the case for me.

Ok, thanks! thats good to know... i knew about the leaf color in relation to light, but i was not quite sure about how to tell if an orchid has micro-nutrient deficiencies... are there any other tell-tale signs that show if an orchid (in general) has micro-nutrient deficiencies?

Update:

Well it's official, my equestris is not an alba.

Attachment 71912

It looks as plain to me as all other equestris' I see on pictures. Although, I do like its coloring.

One discovery I made is that this one is extremely sensitive to light. It was sitting next to my other phals (couple of them just seedlings) and equestris' leaves started to get paler. Other phals were just fine. None of those get direct sunlight and are about 3-4 ft away from an eastern window. At first I didn't even think it was the light but the next day I saw a darker green line on one of the leaves where a stake was casting a shadow. I moved the equestris further away and it is no longer getting paler. At this point I don't know if the leaves are that color from light overdose or nutrition deficiency or something else. Hopefully it will make a new leaf that is normal.

I think it could just be getting more sun than it needs.

I like it and it doesn't look like your generic equestris as they do look like here in Sweden at least, they look more like this;
http://www.neovita.com/orkideer/bild...36660.orig.jpg

I've also noted that some varieties of equestris seem to be more sensitive to light than others. I've had to move some of mine to my "darker" room since they started getting a bit too much of a red tint on their leaves. The ones that doesn't seem to care at all are my generic equestris, Blue Lips, rosea, and the aureas, while my equestris 'Orange' had to move pretty quick, followed by 'Apari' pink, and then later, 'Apari' and coerulea. I think it's really interesting that the coerulea is more sensitive to light than the Blue Lips since they're almost the same colour... :hmm

Thanks. I do see the difference between your equestris and mine. Mine has a white 'halo' around each petal/sepal like a border with pink in center. I kind of like the more solid pink color on yours better. Go figure (always want what I don't have, hehe)

It is interesting that some of your equestris are more light sensitive than others. My older one was not (may it rest in orchid heaven). That's why I got surprised when I saw how pale leaves got (from already odd pale green and waxy color).

I'd love to see pictures of all your different equestris for a side by side comparison. It surprises me how little info I found on different equestris varieties considering it is very popular species in hybridizing.