Issues related to getting your Phalaenopsis Orchid to re-bloom:

After most of the flowers on your Phalaenopsis have started to wilt, you have 3 options:

1) You can cut the spike off near where it comes out of the plant and allow the plant to start storing up energy for it’s next phase of growth, and next years blooming.

2) You can can do nothing. Just let the flowers wilt and fall off. Some plants will produce a keiki (a baby plant) from the tip of old flower spikes if you don’t cut the flower spike off after all the flowers have fallen off.

3) You can try to encourage the plant to re-bloom from the existing flower spike. To do this, look closely at the flower spike, and you will see that it appears to have what appear to be “joints” spaced every few inches along the entire length of the flower spike. The correct name for these are “nodes”. These nodes are the locations where flowers and secondary flower spike branches emerge from the main flower spike. Cut the flower spike off, about 3/4” above the third lowest “joint”. This will encourage the plant to produce a secondary flower spike from one of the previously unbloomed flower spike nodes.