An orchid thread?

[Gremlinsateit]

Following the excellent orchid advice on the hippeastrum thread, could we please have an orchid thread?

I’m in Australia, and have dendrobiums - mostly successful; cymbidiums - hit and miss; and Sydney rock orchids - doing well outside with a bit of benign neglect.

I have successfully killed a sarcochilus, and have just bought two small cattleyas to try for the first time.

I am really not having any luck with phalaenopsis. They flower, then look very gloomy for a year or two, then die. I think it’s root rot though I follow all the watering instructions carefully.

Any and all advice welcome!

@Gremlinsateit With phalaenopsis all I do is reduce the length of the flowering stems to a bud further back, treat with benign neglect and they seem to flourish. They do need to have their roots in a clear pot, as they use them to photosynthesise, and they don't need ordinary compost, just bark. So don't put them in a decorative outer pot unless it is made of something that lets light through. I dunk mine in water (you can tell when they need water as the roots go from green to silver), leave a couple of minutes, then allow to completely drain. Your climate is totally different from mine, so all I would say is maybe keep in a bright position and out of direct sun.

Thank you, that is very helpful, especially re the roots turning silver - I had no idea about that :)

My phalaenopsis do great by being ignored and watered very, very little, so can't help with that.

My dendrobiums do great and grow like crazy, but I haven't got one to reflower yet. I quite like the leaves though, so happy to keep them around.

Cimbidiums a bit hit and miss for me too.

My favourites are spider orchids (Brassia) but they don't like me as much as I like them...

I keep the phalaenopsis by the windowsill to get as much light as possible (northern hemisphere, house doesn't get a lot of direct sun anyway), water them a tiny bit every week or so at most and that seems to suit them all just fine. Some of them flower constantly for more than 12 months. I only cut them back once the stem visibly dies away.

I've got dendrobiums to flower after relocating them to a sunnier spot, but they only seem to flower once a year and only on new growth as far as I can tell. Don't cut the 'tap' off as I saw advised once!

Have had some luck with a Cooktown orchid which has recently flowered, but they are more temperamental in my experience - I've managed to kill at least one of those off before and a Miltonia (I think). Waiting to see if a cymbidium will come back into flower as well which would be very exciting.

I do like orchids 😀

My dendrobiums also flower once a year, and they take about 6 years to get to the flowering stage, but they are worth the wait and I agree that their leaves are attractive in the meantime.

I hadn’t heard of the Cooktown orchid before - it looks spectacular.

Here is a photo of my most successful dendrobium pot :)

That is beautiful! The dendrobiums I can get round here are always nobile varieties with the flowers and leaves alternating along the stems - I'd never seen one like that one before.

I've got a phalaenopsis as a gift. It's just finished reflowering 😀 the very tip of the flower stalk is dying back, but, just short of that, I.. I think I've got another stalk growing?

I'm not the biggest fan of orchids as house plants. Not very interesting between flowers and, the phalaenopsis anyway, are awkward on a windowsill. The broad, sticky out leaves take up a lot of room.

Having said that, i want a jewel orchid, the M...? one. I've not seen any in a shop, I'm in the UK, and I don't want to buy sight unseen online or from a random etsy or ebay seller.

Aside from phalaenopsis and dendrobium, I'm not familiar with the other types mentioned though. I'll have to have a look.

@bendypines If you had a new phalaenopsis in flower, looking happy, but planted in moss from the nursery, would you repot it into bark now or wait until after flowering?

I'd definitely wait until after flowering. They can be happy in moss for quite a while.

I only have a phalaenopsis (I’m also in Australia) and it’s still flowering its head off. I would love to grow some orchids outside next.

Is it in a clear pot with at least some of the roots visible?

Thanks @CatherinedeBourgh

@bendypines it is a clear pot and I can see roots at the side. Do the roots that are above the moss also count?

Yes the roots above the moss count. Phalaenopsis roots do not need to be in soil of any kind, they are aerial roots. In the wild, the plants grow in trees with the roots dangling down. They photosynthesise the same as the leaves do, and also take in moisture. That plant looks fine, but if the moss starts to break down, then take that away and pop it into some orchid bark, leaving the side and top roots uncovered.

Has anyone managed to get an odontoglossum to reflower? I have about 10 of them and wondering what to do with them...

Thank you @bendypines !

@CatherinedeBourgh I haven’t come across odontoglossum so I googled - are they part of the oncidium family? I had some oncidium in a bouquet once and would love to grow some successfully.

@Theoldwoman for outside pots I’ve had the most luck with cymbidium as long as they are undercover and don’t get too wet. They like a lot more light than phalaenopsis.

I don't know - there was a phase where my supermarket sold them for a really reasonable price, so I got tempted and bought a couple every week. I love their weird flowers.

But I have no clue how to treat them.

@CatherinedeBourgh I had a Google, they're beautiful. Perhaps this will help

https://www.orchid.org.uk/odontcult.htm

Thanks, that's brilliant. All I'd found is the usual platitudes for orchids in general, but I know these are from South America, so the low light levels make sense.

Prompted by everyone’s good advice I just went to repot a shop-bought cymbidium that was looking off colour, only to discover that what I had thought was a mix of perlite and bark, was actually a mix of polystyrene and mushed up paper. Fingers crossed it survives!