Hi Undergrounder,

Thanks for your reply. By 'anaemic looking' leaves, I mean very pale, almost whitish yellow. The actual leaves are still rigid and fine otherwise - not about to drop off/ droopy or anything.

The phals I received posted in their pots have quickly recovered from their journey. My Phal violacea and Doritis champorensis that arrived bare rooted (small plants too) are the ones that are taking ages to 'get back to normal again'. I think they will given time. As you suggested, it probably isn't all that long ago that they were deflasked.

Yes, I do live 'out in the sticks' a bit in South Australia! Hence the very slow postage! At least there isn't the heat for orchids in the post to deal with at this time of year down here! lol!

Whitish yellow leaves does sound a bit strange, maybe it was the lack of light in transit, or maybe they just grew them very bright where they came from.. maybe they were just anemically grown plants in the first place?

LOL i guess you're not -that- out in the sticks in SA.. i didn't realise it took so long for stuff to get there.

The Phal. violacea should be nice, i have a few of them, great plants but they take ages to grow from small sizes... Maybe the violacea doesn't like the cold? Mine certainly don't really thrive until the summer..

Have you ever seen a weed or grass after it's been covered for a while, or started out by growing under a tarp or board? The lack of light makes the plants extremely pale.

I think Undergrounder is right in saying the pale color of your phals is because of the lack of light during transport. As I said before, my Miltoniopsis was the same pale almost white when I took it out of the box, but in a few days with good light the leaves responded and turned a nice green. It didn't have light to fuel photosynthesis, so it had begun to recycle its chlorophyll for energy and raw material.