I’m curious if we have amongst us anyone with a passing knowledge of growing orchids.
You know, the indoor kind you see at the flower shop.
I am not by nature especially good with plants. My houseplants are all of only the most hardy variety, and attempts to grow veg, even hearty beginner types all seem to fail miserably. I am persistent with my flowers but still forget to water and let things become fiercely overgrown. In short, I’m not actually a classic green thumb. Far from it!
But three years ago I was gifted an orchid for Mother’s Day, lovely. But my first thought was, “I’m gonna be watching this plant die a horrible death!” So I did indeed take care. To the best of my limited ability. By which I mean, I read the tag and tried my best. And was surprised that it seemed to survive.
The bloom did indeed last for a couple of months. So far so good! But then I went away for 9 weeks (not recent), left it the to the dog minder. I live where winters are cold, And not too sunny, forced air runs for months and we have a woodstove! While it didn’t bloom the next year, it did continued to NOT die. And then it bloomed again! Huh, imagine my surprise!
Fast forward to June when I got another at my Bday. Beginning of Aug I suffered a loss and was sent another. (From dif people!)Those are both still in bloom as I write.
A week ago I was in a flower shop and impulse bought a smaller one!
(WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?)
They are all making new leaves and the first, has a new bud to bloom on, emerging! It’s been in the same pot 3+ yrs now.
What do you think? It can’t be this easy, right?
I am beyond confused to be honest.
I adore orchids, and keep several all the time. My green thumb with them is varied as is my luck getting them to rebloom and I’d would welcome tips. Through experimenting I do know that they need a lot of light to keep blooming and the blooms last longer if they have that. Other than that I know not to over water (they really hate being wet) and that’s about it. I do know they don’t like heat and mine do better in spring/fall than hot summer (I don’t have AC, but I live near the ocean).
I’ve gotten several to bloom a second time over the course of a few months (not a year) but after the second bloom for me they’ve seemed to go dormant and I give up on them and get another. I’ve found I have much more luck with the large orchids in lighter colors. Small, delicate orchids seem to hate me and the blooms don’t last and never rebloom. I do feed them Miracle Grow orchid formula (though looking at the NPK, it’s just a heavy N formula, nothing special).
I’ll be watching this thread for tips, though I don’t stress that much about an orchid since you can buy a decent, very pretty one for like $25 and they last for months (the large ones anyway).
I have grown different sorts on occasion over the years, and my only consistent successes have been with Phalaenopsis. I mostly have gotten the $5 out-of-bloom specials at the local garden center.
The phalaenopsis it is, I think. The small one I bought on a whim, has small flowers, mixed purples. The two I recently received, are both the same, large white blooms with yellow in the centre.
The oldest one, now unexpectedly sending up a blooming stalk, I can’t even remember what those flowers look like, colour or size! Guess I’ll see soon enough.
I have several orchid plants in our enclosed patio. All I do is feed them monthly and patiently wait for them to bloom. My father used to raise them, and had dozens of plants.
