Is there any hope for this orchid?

[Kris Wilton]

Dear Orchid Doctor,

I'm afraid my partner and I have totally killed our orchid (a
Phalaenopsis, I think). We bought it 8 months ago, when it had many
lovely white blooms, which lasted until maybe about 6 weeks ago, then
fell off one by one. Since then, it's 4 large leaves have also fallen
off one by one - some after shriveling and getting yellow, the most
recent dropping off while it still looked green and healthy.
Meanwhile, it developed a bunch of tiny buds over the past few weeks -
but now those have also shriveled and fallen off. So now there's only
one leaf left, and it looks pretty bad. We'd been told we should water
it just about a quarter of a cup, or less, every two weeks or so - and
it looks like there's definitely a bit of extra moisture in the pot
right now (it's in a glass pot with no drainage).
Is there anything we can do?

Many thanks,

Kris

[orchid doctor]

Dear KrisK

It is essentially impossible for anyone to keep an orchid healthy in a
container with no drainage hole over the long haul. And depending on
the potting mix used, the addition of a quarter cup of water to a pot
every two weeks is likely to cause problems as well. Plants such as
these, sold by florists and big box stores are intended to be used as
long lived flower arrangements and than discarded. Long term health of
the plant is not a concern of the distributer or retailer.

I would say that a Phalaenopsis (what I am pretty sure your orchid is)
which has lost all but one leaf, and that leaf is desiccated, has
little chance of surviving under less than perfect conditions. And
should it survive, it will be unable to (or should not be allowed to)
bloom for a number of years. If you want to try growing orchids, start
again with another, healthy plant. Purchase one that comes in a proper
pot with drainage holes on the bottom. It may be kept in an attractive
cache pot between watering, but every time it is watered, should be
brought to the sink, thoroughly moistened and allowed to drain for a
while (30 minutes at least) before being returned to its cachepot.

To get a good idea of how to grow these plants, go to
http://www.orchidsanfrancisco.org/doc.html and click the link for
Phalaenopsis. By the way, in the next few weeks i will be migrating
this group to Yahoo, at which point documents on basic things like
watering and feeding, and repotting will be accessible again (Google
no longer supports documents on their groups).

Sincerely,
Dennis