The Orchid Garden

Spikes

Question:

I have 5 phals I bought in bloom last winter. They bloomed again, after the intiial blooming, and now they just have a bare spike sticking up. Now, what do I do with this spike? Shall I cut it off? If they bloom again next January, will they send up another spike? What is a keiki? Thanks Margaret — Ottawa, Ontario CANADA

Response:

I have 5 phals I bought in bloom last winter. They bloomed again, after the intiial blooming, and now they just have a bare spike sticking up. Now, what do I do with this spike? Shall I cut it off? If they bloom again next January, will they send up another spike?

        You can cut them off.  I usually wait until they have dried out to do this, for a number of reasons – mainly because they have the potential to bloom again off the same spike.  A nice but not necessarily to be expected phenomenon. What is a keiki?

        It is Hawaiian for "baby".  Properly pronounced "Kay-kee", as I learned when I had the luxury to go to Hawaii.  I still pronounce it "kee-kee", as do most people I have met.  Americans aren’t known for going out of their way to pronounce things correctly.  In reference to orchids, it is a baby plant produced vegetatively (asexually).  A clone of the parent plant that originates on the parent plant.  In Phals, you often see keikis forming on infloresences where you would expect to see a flower.  You can use plant hormones to artificially manipulate this process.  Nobile type dendrobiums are infamous for producing keikis instead of flowers if you fertilize them too much! Rob  Rob’s rules to live by:                        | Send me seeds!   (1) There is always room for one more orchid. |   (2) There is no rule 2.                       | Future starving PhD.    (2a) When one has insufficient credit to buy |    Rob has a homepage (ooh, high tech!):  http://pubweb.acns.nwu.edu/~rhalgren

Response:

Filed under: Orchid Flower

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