Question
Just out of curiosity, I was wondering how one would start an new phal. orchid plant?

Answer
Hello Lesia,

There are several ways to start a new phalaenopsis, briefly here are the ways.  

A new plantlet commonly called a keiki (baby in Hawaiian) would grow from the side of the mother phal.  Once it has grown large enough and has roots of its own, it is removed from the mother and placed in a pot of its own.  Another way would be a keiki growing on a spike after all of the flowers have fallen off.  

The most common method for getting a new plant would be impregnating a flower with pollen from another flower, allowing the seed pod to mature, removing the pod and sowing the seeds.  This last method is normally done in a sterile labratory where the seeds are placed in containers with some nutrients for them as they slowly germinate and become tiny plantlets.  Once they have roots, they are placed into what are called community pots with 15 to 25 plantlets each and further grown until large enough to be put in their own little pot.  

All of the above ways to get a new plant can take from 2 years and longer before the new plant is old enough to produce blooms.  Also, in each method the new plants will be identical to the mother, the exception would be if the flower and pollen are from different phal plants.  

Hope this answered your question.  

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.