February 11, 2020
Orchid Care
I have a passion for growing things (secretly, I may be a hobbit) and one of my favorite flowers is the Orchid. I’ve never been able to grow them though. Every time Louis brought me one, it died.
My best successes were roses – my absolute favorite flower – I learned from Grandma Jeanette, Joanne, Mrs. Joy, and many other gardening ladies I knew as a youth, how to make cuttings root, how to feed them with a specific mixture of leaves and compost, what to add, what not to do with them, how to entice blooms, how and where to cut the stems for cuttings for vases and long life or for propagation.
I had quite a rose bush collection before we lost our house. One bush of white roses from a bouquet. Two bushes off of my Kimberlina that got water-logged. Two Joseph’s Coats, one from my Mom & Daddy the birthday I got my house and one rooted from that bush. One Mister Lincoln from Mom and two grown from cuttings. A rose bush each from two bouquets Louis gave me. A rose bush from each of three bouquets from sisters. And a couple I bought clearance from Sams Club. I wish I had pictures of these things, but back then I wasn’t really much into pictures and figured I’d have those roses forever.
I loved, loved, loved orchids though.
It made me so sad that I couldn’t make them grow.
I borrowed books from the library, asked people, spoke to the sellers, but all the directions were so different and orchids were so expensive that I couldn’t just trial and error (although that is what happened about six poor plants).
Then the day I came back to work after my baby sister died, there was a beautiful white orchid on my desk. It made me cry because it was so pure and beautiful, like I remembered Mary – the baby who I was to protect.
My goal was to keep this orchid alive.
I had a new research portal this time… youtube! Perfection! Multiple people with videos showing time lapses, showing the results of various problems, and explaining the actual wild life of the orchid.
So:
- Dark green leaves = not enough light
- Red-tinged leaves = too much light
- In-bloom, move out of direct sun: to start blooming, put plant in direct sunlight.
- Water only once a week, take out, cover in water, soaking roots or spraying down roots to remove accumulated salts (the plants remove salts through their roots and it will accumulate and burn the plant unless flushed off!)
- Cut stems after bloom leaving two nodes & plant will flower again after 8 – 12 weeks.
I have discovered that if they are not bare root, you have to drain them DRY before putting them back in the pot after watering. This plant loves humidity but hates water logging. They grow bare-root in humid tropical climates where the heat dries them out in between soaking rains or mists.
As for my goal: So far, it’s been 6 months and it’s still thriving!
So, if you are looking to grow orchids, hopefully this helps you out!
Thank you for reading,
Type at you later,
~Nancy Tart