I am developing a new garden in Southern Australia. Between the house and my studio is a space which is protected by 50% shade cloth.Temperate zone, nights can go to -4 deg C, summers very hot. Location is protected from frost and wind. It is perfect, I gather, for cymbidiums which I adore but have never grown. I have just bought my first few and joined the local orchid society. The space is surrounded by steep garden with violets and arum lilies. I want to put more rocks in and add pots all over.
Any advice on cymbidiums gratefully received!
I want to use pretty outer pots and then move plants around depending on what’s in flower. In these shade conditions, are there any flowering plants you would suggest that I move in when the cyms are not in flower?
For Cymbidiums, the problem is going to be the very hot weather. Cymbidiums grow in the Himalayas, and like cold, ie, close to freezing weather for at least part of the year. They don’t like it hot.
Wherever you keep them, there should be some breeze. Still air is a problem. A breeze will help cool the leaves so they don’t burn, and dry the roots so they don’t rot. This is true of any orchid, not just Cymbidiums.
Your local orchid society will be a good resource as they are familiar with local conditions and what grows well in your area. If at all possible, you may want to take one or another of your plants in to each meeting for more experienced members to look over, until you are more familiar with the growing cycle and what to expect. Or invite someone over to look at the site first hand. They will probably be in a better position to advise you than even the most well meaning persons on the internet.
When I first potted them, I used a 50-50 mix by volume of potting soil and dry hardwood wood chips.
Now, the pots are full of mainly roots.
I also, in the distant past, potted some small pink orchids , and some large white ones (which, as I look out the window are both still in bloom). This in addition to the small spotted white rock orchids which have taken bloom in an abandoned cat’s litter box just outside my window.
Some day I plan to do some research and see if I can identify my collection.
PS: in one corner of my garden I also have growing venus fly traps, cape sundews, and some sarracenia flava
I have just bought them from the orchid society, so didn’t pot them. But I gather they all use a bark mix which the society mixes and sells to members. They told me not to use potting mix or anything fine.
I am finding all the responses fascinating. Thank you HEAPS! You are feeding a new addiction, I hope you realise. Not sure if that is against SD rules.
I am quite confused by the mixed messages I am getting from the society people, and others like here, who talk about all the things to do - potting media, repotting, watering and feeding regimes and so on, then tell me that you can’ kill cyms and just ignore them.
Does the amount of attention then determine the quantity and quality of blooms? Does the 'treat ‘em mean’ only work if you are in their preferred climate?
I keep going out to stare at my gorgeous four plants, thinking they are so beautiful, so delicate looking, that there is no way i will ever get them to bloom like this myself. All too exciting!
I make an effort to discourage tourists, so all I will say is that I have some acreage in the foothills of some mountains, abutting a national park.
I make no claim to being a gardener; I have great difficulty in remembering the names of the plants. I remember them by their character.
While I do have an interest in growing unusual plants, my approach to gardening would be characterized as “slash and hack”. In my travels around the world, if I see an interesting plant, I hack a piece off it, then plant it when I get home. Many survive, some do not.
My various orchid species just seem to thrive despite my abuse; the cymbidiums grow like weeds. They flower every year, despite my neglect. As do the others.
I have found that my being ignorant of the accepted methods of gardening and cultivation is no impediment to their thriving.
Regarding my carnivourous plants: over the years I have planted a variety of them in a boggish corner, and they seem to thrive. They flower most years.
Whoops! Senior’s moment! That didn’t come out quite as it should have.
When I was still actively collecting plants, if I found an interesting one locally, I would take a cutting. If I found one in parts distant, I would take note of it and then look for it when I got home.
I have found that if I found a particular plant interesting, then there is no shortage of other people who are similarly inclined; and are happy to provide cuttings or plants.
Regarding my cymbidiums: in the past I used to divide them every couple of years or so, and give many of them away. This is how I ended up with so many of them. For some years now I have let them “go to seed”, and this is why the pots have become root bound no longer have any visible potting mix.
As it stands now, my garden has gone wild and would be an embarrassment to anyone who would call themselves a gardener.
I don’t think anybody here is interested in knowing exactly where you live, much less in paying you an unauthorized visit.
I think several people here are interested in knowing the general climatic conditions of the area you live in, so they can tell whether your growing conditions might be anything like theirs. That would help them determine whether your success with orchids might be something they have a chance of emulating.
For example, which USDA Plant Hardiness Zone are you located in? Are you near the East Coast, the West Coast, the Midwest, etc.? What are your typical daily high/low temperatures in summer and winter? About how much rainfall do you get per year? That sort of thing.
Yes, I got that. I spent most of my career in the service and pathological paranoia is hard to shake.
I live on the east coast in a 10a climate zone. During the winter the temperature occasionally goes down to minus 1C or 2C; in the summer it sometimes peaks at around +35C. During the winter we might get two or three light snowfalls, which melt almost immediately.
I live on the up-slope side of a valley, facing into the prevailing wind. So rainfall is highly variable. But in a good year, I might get around 1,000mm of rain.
The area is rural, and my property is heavily wooded. The garden area is broken open patches between trees, so direct sunlight is patchy and variable. I have plants scattered around at random, so some get lots of direct light; others are mainly in the shade.
There is a spring in one corner, and water seepage has created a small bog. Carnivorous plants evidently like this.
My personal contribution to the survival and proliferation of the plants in my garden would be almost negligible; I plant them, then they are on their own.
Also, since I was often gone for months at a time, and the plants were left to their own devices, there is clearly a Darwinian element involved.
I have a fine looking cymbidium too, which I have treated after Grateful UnDead’s principals and is flourishing under the treatment. It sits in an ordinary plant pot in the shade inside a terracotta tub with no drainage holes. The rain falls and I don’t bother to drain it out, so half the time it’s up to its neck in water for days or weeks. No idea what it was originally potted in (I got it from my inlaws) but I recently split it in three, since it was starting to crack the plant pot, and repotted it in year-old slightly rotted bark mulch with a tiny bit of compost mixed in. We’ll see how that goes, but it’s looking quite happy at the moment.
Finding this really interesting - thanks to everyone. My climate is similar to Grateful-Undead’s. The main thing I have got out of this discussion is not to be as precious about them as I was led to believe was necessary at the talk at the orchid club. I am going to experiment!
I got the impression from the speaker that if I left them more than two days in summer - even in the shade - they would dry out and that would be a disaster. And that they must never be left in standing water. Seems that’s all a bit of an exaggeration.
I’ve been able to keep Phalaenopsis alive by basically ignoring it. The Cardinal Rule, however, is to not let them stand in water. The large, fleshy roots will absorb water and rot. I’ve not repotted my cymbidiums yet, and have no idea what the roots are like, but I’d obey this rule were I you.
