Question
The florist who take charge of my office's flowers gave to
me an orchid he was about to throw away... knowing that
orchid need a different way of potting, I gave the orchid to
another florist near my home to re-pot and after a day I
brought it home. I guess it was more than a month ago.
A few days ago, noticing a bit of moss on the sphagnum moss,
I decided to cut a bit of the sphagnum to make the root
breathing and I made a funny discover: the florist planted
the orchid in normal soil with sphagnum on top of it and of
course the roots are in a very bad state!
My question is: what I should do now?
I believe I have to re-pot it urgently, but it's still
blossoming even if it lost two of the smallest blossoms
leading me to thinking that the plant is obviously
suffering.
I didn't see all the roots, since I have yet to find the
material to do the potting, but I saw that two of the roots
where completely rotten, the green part being brown and
spongy and the white inside uncovered...
What I should do if there is no other good roots underneath?
Is there any way to save the poor thing?
癬_?br> I can always buy I new one, I know, but I would like to try
to save her first!

Answer
Andrea, good for you for wanting to rescue this plant.  Normally, orchid plants should be repotted after each flowering, but you may need to make an exception and repot this plant as soon as possible.  In the process of trying to save the plant, you may sacrice the current flowers, but that is a choice only you can make. Locate a source of orchid potting mix that is fir-bark based.  Then soak a portion of the new potting mix while you are unpotting the orchid. Rinse off the orchid roots and preserve those that are firm and green as these will form the basis for future growth. Some phals have aerial roots and these can be potted into the fresh orchid potting mix as well.  Remove the dead rooots before repotting.  Repot into a plastic pot with lots of air/drainage holes in the bottom. Once the root mass is positioned in the new pot add the fresh, now wet, orchid potting mix tapping the sides of the pot to settle the new potting mix about the roots.  Then set the repotted plant and pot aside to drain off the excess water.  Do not water for at least a week or until the fresh orchid potting mix is nearly dry.