[rich24uk]

Is this a new shoot? I am a newbie with orchids so not sure what to do with it 

This is will be our second bloom. I gave it a slight pruning after flowering a few months ago but pretty much left the stalks as they were. Do I need to cut those that are not budding back?

[sunshineband]

That is indeed another flower stalk growing -- very healthy looking too 

Two things to do:

1. Mist the plant (but not the flowering stem) with dilute orchid food every week. You can get one specifically for blooming, but a general purpose one will do the job.

2. If you want to have an upright stem, it will need to be trained by carefully clipping it to a small stick when it gets a bit longer. Their natural habitat is more horizontal

and if there are dead pieces from the other flowered stem, you can cut these off. If the whole stem is dead and dry cut it right out about 1cm from the base, but if there are green sections, trim it just above a healthy looking node, as it might grow a further flowering shoot from that point.

Hope that helps 

[rich24uk]

Great, thanks for the advice. I have been using orchid feed whilst it was budding and flowering. It's such a beautiful indoor plant, I want to see how long I can get it to last if I take good care of it.

[Asherweef]

I have an orchid sat on the dining room window. It's a lovely purple colour and I've done really well with getting a lot of flowers for a decent amount of time (luck more than anything). I think the challenge of orchid growing would be great but not sure if I can afford all the research time!

Will definitely be clipping the dry stems off though as per advice!