Orchids: To cut or not to cut?, 3 by drdawg43

drdawg43 wrote:
I think I read somewhere that if you plan on showing your orchid (Phal.) for judging, the old, spent spikes should be cut off at the leaves, and only newly formed spikes should have flowers. Now IF you want to have more and more flowers each blooming cycle, after the spikes have finished blooming, cut the old spikes off down to green. Cut off all yellow-brown (dead) spike tissue. The spike(s) may die below your initial cut(s), so you may have to make cuts several times. I have included some pics of my Phal. The first pic was taken over a month ago and the others were taken today. There are three old spikes, and these spikes branched further. There are 28 flowers/buds on these three old spikes. Two new spikes formed, and there are 17 buds, with more forming, and only one of these buds has opened. The old spikes budded out and flowered at least three weeks before the new spikes did.