Help with a very important orchid

Hello all! I'm brand new here, but figured this might be a good place to receive some guidance with my orchid.

A little background: my wife's mother passed away unexpectedly last year after a brief illness, and when we went to gather her things in her room, we found an orchid that had been given to her during her stay in the care facility. We took it home, and, in an attempt to preserve something that reminded my wife of her mom, I started taking care of it.

I don't exactly have a green thumb and it has had an occasional issue (broken leaf, accidentally snapped aerial root, etc., but we got 9 blooms this year starting in May that just fell off a day or two ago, and it just grew a big new leaf. Overall it appears on the surface to be relatively healthy.

I know it needs to be repotted and to have some of the dead roots trimmed away, and I've purchased all the materials needed and watched countless YouTube videos about what to do, so hopefully that will happen in the next week or so. What I'm really wondering about is the following:

I know nothing lives forever, and I would really love to propagate this orchid so that my wife can always feel like her mother has a little bit of presence in the home. It is very very important to me that this orchid stays healthy when doing this, however.

What should I do, and how do I go about this?

Also, would somebody confirm that what we're caring for a phalenopsis orchid? It was not labeled, and probably purchased at a local grocery store.

Thank you all for any help you can offer!

 

Thank you! I purchased a couple of new mediums. One is this one. Phalaenopsis AAA Gold Imperial Orchid Potting Mix

The other is this one: Better-Gro® Phalaenopsis Mix

Do you recommend one over the other?

One of the leaves (bottom most one) has started to yellow on the tip slightly. It has lost and regrown a couple of leaves over the last year or so. Is that not normal?

 

Also, for identification purposes, this is one of the flowers that just fell off.

 

Thank you for the thoughtful reply! I've seen YouTube videos of people propagating new orchids from cut pieces of flower spikes, or using keiki paste. Do you have any experience with that, or do orchids simply reproduce when they "decide" to?

It looks like the pot it's currently in is more moss than bark. Is there any issue with repotting into a more bark-based substrate from a moss based one? Do you prefer bark over moss in general?

 

Gotcha. The mix that I bought from that company seems to be pretty high quality, so I'm hopeful that it will be useful for potting. I live down in texas, where it is exceptionally dry, with very low humidity. Would that impact the decision on what substrate to use? It isn't kept outside, but it is on a windowsill where it gets some pretty good indirect light. I know that the pot it is currently in is primarily moss, but that might also be because it's inexpensive or easy.

I truly have no idea what the parentage of this plant is, though I imagine it's nothing fancy. It was likely purchased in a local grocery store, as it came with a little insert saying to water it with two ice cubes, and with very little other instruction.

Honestly, I'm mostly just afraid of screwing it up. I've heard horror stories of people inadvertently shocking or killing their orchids when they repot them, and I really don't want that to happen.

 

Hello all! I'm repotting my orchid, and trimming dead roots. Most of the roots actually appear fairly healthy, but I'm unsure what to do with the one pictured here. It is brown and spongey up top, but green and full near the base. Should I cut it or leave it?

 

First attempt at repotting. Does this look okay? I went to a larger pot as all the roots were crammed into a little 3 inch one with no aeration.

 

Great, thank you. There was one other small root that was brown on top that I trimmed away. That shouldn't be a problem for it's health, right? It really had primarily healthy looking, firm roots with only a couple dead ones. Just want to make sure!