Wednesday, October 4, 2017

5 Important Tips to Keep Orchids Happy All Year-A Review

Orchids have become one of the most popular gifts for many occasions!  Let's Review how to keep  these orchids happy and growing.

 

Introduction

Orchids at one time were very expensive plants to buy.  Mainly it was because they did not multiply easily.  Science has made great inroads into cloning plants especially the Phalaenopsis Orchids or Butterfly Orchids.

These once elusive plants are now available to the everyday gardener and home garden.  Orchids that used to carry price tags of thousands of dollars are now within everyone's reach.
review this orchid care and tips

As you can see from these examples of Phalaenopsis orchids, they vary in color and some have stripes or dots of colors.  Some are plain solid colors while others are variegated.  There are endless varieties of this type of orchid available and at reasonable prices too.  Orchids are no longer a plant for only the rich, they are the plant for everyone!

Care of your Orchids

There are 5 really important tips to keep your orchids happy and growing.  They are not rocket science, rather, they are the conditions that will make them prosper and thrive.

1.  Indirect Bright Light
This is possibly the most important aspect of caring for orchids.  They don't want to be in direct sun.  They don't grow that way in their native settings and they don't like it when you bring them to your home.  If you have a nice sunny south facing window, your orchids will love it there, but only if there is a light curtain or shade between them and the window.

2. Watering
Most people love to go around watering their plants and maybe even letting them sit in a small saucer of water.  For orchids this is a death sentence.  Orchids are symbiotic in nature, they cling to areas in other trees where branches "v" out.  Their roots hang down from the branches and are watered during the rains.  When the rains stop, the roots are no longer wet, but dry out rather quickly.  At home they are looking for the same treatment.  Water them only when they are dried out.  Every 7 to 10 days and then do not let them sit in a pool of water.  If water seeps out after they have been watered, remove all the water in the saucer.

3. Fertilizing Orchids
Use only fertilizers made for orchids.  There is a saying in the orchid community, when you feed your orchids, feed them weekly, weakly.  Orchids also do well with a marked change in temperatures during their growing season.  If you have nice hot summers, you can find a nice shady spot for your orchid and then leave it outdoors until the temperatures start to drop.  10 to 15 degrees in temperature drops helps orchids to push their new stems and blooms.

4.  Repotting
Most home gardeners don't like the look of the arial roots on orchids.  They just seem to want to stay out of the pot instead of in it.  Most of the time orchids look like they are trying to crawl out of their pots.  But and this is a big but, you should not repot them until you see a marked decline in the orchid bark and in between the plant flowering.  Never ever repot during a blooming period!

5.  Check your Orchids often
As part of growing orchids at home, you should check your orchids often.  They do happen to come down with some bugs that will impair their looks and could end up killing them.  The worst of these pests is scale.  Again it is easy to take care of if you are aware there is a problem.  A "Q-tip" dipped in rubbing alcohol will dislodge and kill scale insects.  You can watch this You Tube video to see how to do this!

If there was just one more tip that I could add in here, it would be to make sure your orchid is in a pot that has drainage.  There are specialty orchid pots available.  Some of these pots are very beautiful and have designs that make them a really nice focal point.  How the pot looks though, is not as important as the fact that it drains water away.

So there you have it!  5 Very Important Tips to keep your orchids happy and blooming for many years to come.



If you have never grown an orchid before, now is a great time to try it. The flowers are incredible and last for months. There is no other houseplant that will do that for you! Drop me a line if you'd like to know more.

*orchid pictures courtesy of Pixabay.com



Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”


18 comments:

  1. My late father-in-law used to grow orchids, although he grew them outside but that was in New Zealand so a different climate. They were absolutely gorgeous and whenever I see orchids I smile and think of him, I've never tried to grow them myself though.

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    1. You can do it Louanne even though your temperatures and climate are different than ours, the same rules apply, so give it a go. I don't know how expensive the Phaelanopsis orchids are in New Zealand, but here you can get them for 10.00 to 25.00 dollars, so worth a chance and you just know they are so beautiful.......

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  2. I always assumed that orchids would be difficult to grow. You make it sound a bit easier. Orchids are gorgeous flowers to be sure.

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    1. If you follow these tips you can grow orchids too. I like that they seem to flower forever. I have one that hasn't stopped since January of this year. It is still getting new buds on it. Thanks for your visit!

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  3. A friend gave me an orchid when I left a job this past June; first orchid I've ever had. It is still alive, amazes me. (I have a way of killing plants with kindness, ha!) It has grown a couple of new leaves and still has flowers. I've been wondering if I should re-pot, so thanks for the info.

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    1. They like to be pot bound to a certain point, but if there are only roots in the pot and nothing else a repotting might be the answer. Ruth, most people do try to kill them with kindness. I did that for the first few I had. Thought they were a houseplant like all my others and treated them like it too! Didn't take too long for them to let me know they were NOT happy!

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  4. Orchids are indeed beautiful flowers that make lovely gifts! I have had a few orchids over the years but have never been successful maintaining them. I fear the reality is that it is a death sentence for an orchid to be brought to my home, but I do love them. Perhaps, if I had your suggestions, I might not have killed them. I suspect I over-watered them.

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    1. That is the most common error people make with orchids. They assume that they are a houseplant like all the others! They kill them with kindness when all the orchid wants is a nice bright window behind a curtain and a bit of water every 7 - 10 days...most houseplants would die with this regiment.

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  5. I love orchids almost as much as roses and have several right now. So far I have always been able to keep them alive and blooming. My son and I used to go to an annual orchid show in the spring in L.A. when I lived there. So many beautiful different kinds of them! Thanks for the growing tips. Going to print this out and give it to my friends when I give them cuttings. I always say my success with them comes from neglect. LOL

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    1. So true Heather, they are not greedy for attention that's for sure. I love going to Orchid shows too. But then I want to bring them all home and we know that's not going to happen. Right now I have 10 orchids in my home and I think if I bring one more in my husband might move out! Not a good plan, in the long run......lol

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  6. Orchids are gorgeous but I have never been able to keep them for very long. Shared.

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    1. Oh Clearissa I do hope you get a chance to try again. Keep these tips, they are the best all around. I'm sure you like many others were killing them with kindness. Ignore them and they will be much happier!

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  7. These are good tips Olivia. I have grown a lot of orchids (16 pots) in our flat before and it was all a pleasure to take care of them. Sad to say I had to give them away as we moved to Ireland. I can´t have orchids in my German home now but I have a tropical garden in my home country Philippines with lots of orchids. It is a pleasure to see them almost every year when I am in my Philippines home.

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    1. Oh Thelma that is too sad. Having all those beauties I saw in your post and having to give them away. I wish I was a recipient! Glad you get time to go home and enjoy them again. In my home country orchids also grow like crazy. Brazil has orchid sellers on almost every street corner.........well I'm exaggerating just a bit, but they are not hard to find for sure.

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  8. I've never tried to grow orchids. I had a friend who grew them in a covered glassed-in patio, but I don't have any window room. I've never been able to grow anything successfully inside the house. Maybe someday I'll try these, using your instructions.

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  9. Oh I hope you do Barbara, they are so beautiful and the blooms can last for months on end. Just don't love them too much and they will be fine. Overwatering is probably the most common error with these "babies".

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  10. I love orchids, but i can not for the life of me keep them alive. I swear I am a serial orchid killer. Maybe I'll try again and use your tips. I'll pin this for later. Thanks! :)

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    1. Oh I'm sure you can do this Erica! I was an orchid killer for a while, and then I learned the tricks to keeping them happy. Every time I watered my other plants, I would ignore the orchid. It only got watered on Wednesdays.....then it happened, they started to thrive.

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