WATCH IT GROW
These sweet-smelling phals like humidity, heat
Posted on Sun, Sep. 09, 2007
By GEORGIA TASKER
Name:Phalaenopsis violacea
Description: A summer blooming species from low-lying and shady riversides in Sumatra, Borneo and Malaya, the small but colorful flowers emit a spice-citrus fragrance that belies their size. Phal. violacea has a wide range of colors. Eric Christenson, author of Phalaenopsis, A Monograph, says ''It is quite likely that these differences represent . . . a more or less continuous gradation from one end of the species range to the other.'' There also are white and even blue forms. Some of the blue hybrids bear names such as 'Indigo' and 'Gaston Blue' and are quite remarkably blue. (Go to www.orchidview.com to see blue phals created by H.P. Norton.)
Height: 4 inches
Light: Medium shade, about 70 percent.
Culture: Because phals don't have water-storing pseudobulbs, like cattleyas and many other orchids, they are best grown in sphagnum moss, which suppresses fungi while holding moisture around phalaenopsis roots. Most commercial growers use plastic containers so they don't have to water as frequently as they would using porous clay, but either one works as long as you keep the medium moist.
Phals like high humidity and warmth, which are abundant in South Florida summers but not necessarily in the winter, so plants should be protected below 50 degrees if grown in a shade house. (If attached to trees, phals, like other orchids, are hardier and better able to handle high and low temperatures.)
Use water soluble 20-20-20 once or even twice a week but at one-half or quarter strength when plants are growing rapidly during the warm months; every other week during the winter. Repot once a year.
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