Orchids! Hey, we all love them. They’re reliable; their blooms last a long period of time, they’re beautiful, they come in multiple colors, and their name, yeah, comes from the Greek word – get this – the Greek word that means testicle! Did you know, though, that there are over 20,000 different varieties or different types of orchids out there? Pretty much almost every country in the world has a native variety of orchid. There are many ones that come in, as I mentioned, different bloom sizes and colors, but even fragrant ones. We saw those in Turks and Caicos – a native fragrant Orchid. But out of the 28,000 different varieties, the most common ones you’ll find at your grocery store, your garden center for sale, that are the easiest to grow, are dendrobiums or phalaenopsis orchids. Phalaenopsis, also known as the Moth Orchid. So, if you’re looking for the easiest one to grow, it is indeed that phalaenopsis or the dendrobium.
How do you pick the best Orchid for your home? First thing that you’re going to do is, of course, look for bloom power. It’s not only the flowers, it’s the amount of buds, so it’s the blooms that are yet to come. If you have any blooms that are starting to fall off, that’s an indication that’s a little bit older. Not an older Orchid, but the blooms have been there for an extended period of time. Next, what we’re going to do is to look to the leaves. We look at the leaves and we look at the color. The color of the leaves doesn’t necessarily have to be a deep green. As a matter of fact, you want it to be a lighter green. But on the leaves, we’re also looking to make sure that there are no spots, maybe even damaged parts, and especially no sticky substance, because that’s a sign of an insect.
Now, with the roots themselves, you can see these are aerial roots that are sticking out of the top that are here. Those roots, if you just gently touch them, if they’re firm, they’re fabulous. If they’re dry, and if they’re mushy and or gray, that’s a sign of overwatering or underwatering. We’ll talk a little bit more of that in orchid care.
Where is the best location for an orchid inside your home? Sometimes people think you want to put it right in front of the window. No, it’s in a bright room, a room that actually has bright natural light but is away from a window. The key is you want to keep it away from drafts or any cold temperatures. The other thing that we want to keep these plants away from are heating vents or fireplaces, anything that’s going to alter the temperature. So, a nice bright room away from heating vents or the radiator or the fireplace – a beautiful spot for an orchid. Orchids…
How often do you water them? What do you water them with and when is the best time? Okay, first off, you see a lot of marketing out there where they’re saying, “Ah, two ice cubes per week!” Hey, that’s the volume of water on the 6-inch pot. But an orchid natively grows in tropical areas, in trees. In tropical areas, do they have ice cubes for water? No, no. So, that’s the volume of water. What you want to water is with room temperature water. So, I’ve already filled up my watering can, and I let that stand so that the temperature of that water can then just get right to room temperature. In terms of the volume, as I mentioned, it’s just a little bit of water that you’re giving them, and that can be once a month to once to twice a month, depending on how long our daylight hours are. So, in the winter, once a month, in the summer, once every other week. They don’t need a lot of water. What they do need is humidity. So, if you want to have an orchid that thrives in your home, the type of moisture it needs is the moisture in the air. It needs at least 30 to 40 percent humidity. So, adding a humidifier to that room where your orchids are is really great. Another step that you can do is, on occasion, you can mist your orchids. So, you can mist your orchids on occasion just to put a little bit of moisture on the foliage because, a reminder, they’re in rainforests in trees. Rainforests are very high humidity, so orchids love humidity. But the other thing in a rainforest is it doesn’t have stagnant air. In a rainforest, it has a little bit of air circulation. So, orchids will really benefit if you do have some air circulation in your home – either a fan or even if you have a ceiling fan put on at a low rate of speed. Fantastic. So, high humidity, a little air circulation, and watering with room temperature water. That’s going to be a happy Orchid. Humidity is not only good for the Orchid; humidity is also good for you. That increase of humidity in a home is better for your skin, will improve your breathing, and will make all your plants that much happier indoors.
Do they need food? Yes, indeed. Orchids are going to benefit from having a feeding, but it’s a light feeding. You’re going to want to do it either once to twice per month, so every other week. There are many different Orchid foods that are out there, water-soluble, which you mix in water. I really like the ease of this one because it’s just a plant food mist. So, all you’re going to be doing is just misting around the roots and the leaves themselves, a couple of little sprays, and that’s it. You do that once to twice per month, you’re going to have a healthy, happy phalaenopsis or dendrobium Orchid.
What to watch out for? Common mistakes or problems you’ll have with your orchid. They always say that our eyes are a gateway to our health, but when it comes to an Orchid, the gateway to seeing into the healthy Orchid is the leaves and/or the roots. So, first off, if you take a look at the roots of an orchid and those roots are ones that extend out, they’re called aerial roots. What you’re looking for is you’re looking for a firm, fleshy root that has a slight green color to it. If those roots are gray and if those roots are feeling and appear to be dry, that’s an indication of not enough water. Another indication of that as well is these droopy leaves that you’re seeing at the same time. Another thing that you look for in the roots, though, is if the roots themselves appear to be, let’s say, gray, or even mushy and or moldy, that is showing just too much water. So, the number one killer of most indoor plants is kindness and too much water. Now, with the leaves, an orchid leaves, you always want that color to be a little bit of a yellowish to light green tinge, but we also don’t want the color of that leaf to be totally yellow, which we can see on that bottom leaf that’s there. What we’re looking at the leaves as well is any indication of marking or sticky substance. So, if we take a look at this Orchid, we’re seeing that number one, the leaves are drooped, number two, you can see the leaves are shriveling, we can see indications marking the leaves, and if we look even closer, we can actually see a little powdery substance that’s there. That powdery substance that’s there is indeed mealybug. So, with this guy here, we’re going to need to use a horticultural oil, bug-be-gone, which is an insecticide, and even using an alcohol swab. Dab that alcohol swab into a little bit of alcohol and just dab it onto the mealybug, and that will control it. But the key is always look at the leaves. If there’s a problem with your orchid, the leaves will tell you the story about what’s going wrong. And the number one thing that generally goes wrong with orchids is either too much water or too little water. And any time that you have a plant that has an insect and or a disease, you don’t want it to be close to other plants. So, I got a quarantine, you know, that word quarantine. Good news is they don’t need to be repotted that often.
When should I repot my orchid? It’s usually every three years depending upon the variety of work that is, but for most common orchids, it’s about every three years. Now, when you’re repotting an orchid, the key to the success of an orchid, back to where they’re grown in their native home, they’re grown in trees in tropical rainforests. And because of that, they’re growing on the bark over the tree. So, what you’ll see when it comes to an orchid soil, you’re going to see a high percentage of bark within that mixture, because that really allows the airflow and air circulation around the roots and allows that humidity to stick and stay around the roots as well. So, when it comes to orchids, you can’t just use a good old potting soil. You need to use a soil formulated for orchids that has a high percentage of bark within it. Now, when the orchids finish blooming, you want it to rebloom.
We get it to rebloom. So, there are a couple of different options when it comes to an orchid. And first off, when they finish their bloom, it’s about the stem and or spike that’s what that’s called, that the flowers are on, that’s the spike. You have the chance or the option to remove that spike totally. So, you can go right down to the base just on top of where the plant is and remove the spike. The other thing that you can do is you can go along the plant and look to a node, and the node of those little bumps that stick out of the side, and we can just prune above that node, and that’ll actually stimulate some additional growth and stimulate flowers. If you’ve seen no nodes on the stem, you’re going to remove that stem totally. After a while, and this is going to take usually a few months before it’s going to send a new spike up, the key is we want to allow it to dry out a little bit further. We want to stress that plant a little bit, and we want to put in a room where the temperature is a little bit cooler at night. That cooler temperature at night will really help it. The next thing it’ll do is it’s going to set up some flower spikes. Those spikes, of course, will have the buds that are on, and then that will then move over into those buds starting to swell and eventually will open. Most orchids can rebloom with ease. And the number one reason why people can never get an orchid to bloom is they’re just giving it too much water, too much fertilizer, and too much care. That’s meaning that the plant focuses on its leaves. If you see an orchid with two deep green leaves, that’s an orchid that’s been watered too much and fertilized too much. So, what you’re trying to do is cut back on the water, cut back on the fertilizer, cooler nights, and it’ll stimulate that new flower spike.
Why are orchids better than a bottle of wine? This is how I’m going to close this off. So, a bottle of wine costs about the same price as an orchid. Orchids, their blooms last months on end. You can get them to rebloom, and you can have that same plant for years. A bottle of wine will give you a hangover, last a night, and sometimes you have some bad decisions. So, next time if you’re looking at a bottle of wine, maybe buy an orchid. You’ll be healthier, and you’ll be happier.
