Question
Please, would you give me some advice??

About a month a go I received a beautiful Phalaenopsis orchid plant from a colleague, and it抯 the very first time I ever have a living plant, and I have no experience in taking care of any kinds of flower plants ever.
It was very beautiful, with 7 fully-bloomed pink flowers grazing on its stem. I couldn抰 stop staring and adoring the beauties.

At first, I put the plant near the glass window, so it can get some indirect sunlight, but then I thought it might be too hot for it (I live in the Middle East where the sun can be very hot), so I put it inside on my desk.   
The room抯 temperature is ranging between 17 ?23 celcius, with the air-conditioner constantly on. Humidity is pretty low, because of the A/C.
As advised by the person who gave it to me, I spray it with some water once every 2-3 days. And I faithfully did so.

After about 2 weeks, half of the flowers started to wither and fell off from the stem. Then about 2 weeks later, the rest of the flowers withered and fell of too.
Now what抯 left of it is the stem / spike (all green & healthy) which has a tiny little bud at the end, and 4 green leaves.
I have no idea what is wrong, or why did the flowers withered away. I抳e been frantically searching any info from internet. But the more I read, the more I get confused.

My questions are:
-   Can I still save the plant? How?
-   Can it grow flowers again in the future? How long will it take?
-   What kind of fertilizer can I use to help it grow?

I hope you would share some knowledge about growing orchids, it will be truly appreciated. Thanks very much in advance.


Regards,

Midori Obata

Answer
Thank you for your questions Midori.  Undoubtedly you have the type of orchid called a phalaenopsis orchid, commonly called the "moth orchid".  From your description, your plant seems to be healthy and should be fine. Since a moth orchid flower typically has a life span of 4-6 weeks and, since, when you received your plant, it was already in flower, it would be normal for flowers to begin falling at this time.  The good news is that you appear to have the type of moth orchid that retains its green flower spike after the flowers fall. That means additional buds and flowers can form both at the tip of the old flower spike and/or as branches on the flower spike.  If the flower spike gets too long after a while you may cut it off above the second or third node (ie joint) of the flower spike and it may send out a new branch from the node just below your cut.  In addition to more flowering from the old flower spike, plants often develop a new flower spike annually from the base of the plant. This latter process usually occurs in the spring.

As for the lighting, the light should be bright enough to leave a shadow on the leaf when you place a finger, pencil, etc, between a leaf and the light source.  If you need more light, you could consider supplementing with a plant light closer to the leaf.  The plant can grow fine with a fairly low light level but requires a higher light level for good flowering (for flowering there should be enough light to produce a light green leaf color).  Your room temperature range is fine as is the misting. Try to do your misting early in the day to be sure the leaf surfaces are dry by dark-- although, with your low humidity, I expect this may not be much of a problem.

Your friend may be able to advise you on repotting your orchid. The usual recommendation is to repot these after each flowering in a special fir-bark based orchid potting mix.  They need an "open",freely draining, potting mix which permits air movement to the roots as well as preventing the potting mix from remaining too wet. Orchid potting mixes, usually being primarily organic, tend to decay, producing smaller perticles which hold more water and allow less air movement to the roots. Since youe plant appears to be healthy at this time, you may be able to delay repotting until later.  If you experience leaf drop, this suggests that the potting mix has decayed to the point where root rot is setting in.