Orchid SOS

[feelingalittlehorse]

So in a moment of temporary amnesia, I forgot I was the Houseplant Antichrist and bought an orchid in the summer. I also promised myself I wouldn’t get attached to the little blighter seeing as I seem to suck any photosynthesis out of the air I reside in- but here we are.

Said orchid bloomed beautifully on two stalks, then a third and is currently blooming (slowly) off a fourth. But the first three all died off and I was left with deadened stalk. I did some further reading around the subject and trimmed the stalks back to the next healthy node. However, they have remained like this ever since. No further evidence of growth- just chopped off gently trimmed stalks.
I water her regularly but not too much (once a week in the winter, twice in the summer) she is housed in a bright but not in direct sunlight spot, I have her in a pot that leaves a gap at the bottom to aerate her undercarriage and I whisper sweet nothings to her daily but nada.

Is this the inevitable end? Or will some growth start reappearing from the stalks? Is there anything I can do to rejuvenate her? I worry that when these current flowers die away, I’ll just be left with a stick in a pot- and no-one needs that.

Any wise words from the plant whisperers among you?

I've had orchids come back from death's door - keep nurturing it as you're doing and it might reward you with more blooms! The stick in a pot thing isn't necessarily a reason to give up on it unless the plant is obviously dead.

I hope you have some replies from orchid experts about fine-tuning the nurturing.

Keep going. They go for periods with no flowers, but last for years and will keep coming back with flowers regularly if you treat them properly. Some of my supermarket beauties are over ten years old. I have half a dozen or so and usually have a few in bloom at any one time.

For watering I think it is better to take them out their decorative pot and sit them in their own watery tepid bath that comes near the top of the pot for an hour and allow to drain completely before returning to the decorative pot. Every 10 days or so in winter and weekly in summer.

Orchids cope better being too dry than too wet oddly. So don't panic that you'll kill them with under watering.

And don't forget to give a spritz with an orchid food in the summer months.

Oohhhh thank you!!!!! I have hope!

@Zippedydoodahday do you do that instead of actual watering? I’ve been trickling the water down the middle over the base of the leaves (if that makes sense) rather than sitting her in water?
I did not know re orchid food. Back to the tinterwebs.

For watering I think it is better to take them out their decorative pot and sit them in their own watery tepid bath that comes near the top of the pot for an hour and allow to drain completely before returning to the decorative pot. Every 10 days or so in winter and weekly in summer.

Similar here. I have two growing flower spikes, but I don't know what I did or didn't do to trigger them to do so...

Yes, I only bath mine. Never water.

See my success story here! https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/gardening/4888117-orchid-help

The flowers usually come from a whole new stem, only sometimes from the previous one.
Yes to giving them a bath occasionally, using rainwater if possible and some food per instructions.
The condition of the leaves is the best indicator to how the plant is doing, not flowers.

The middle of our winter isn't the best time for strong enthusiastic growth in houseplants. Wait a few weeks, and fingers crossed. As long as the previous stems are still alive, they can still sprout. One of mine actually grew a new baby orchid on the end, complete with little dangling aerial roots and everything.

If this happened. I think I’d cry with joy and pride.

Have you removed the outer (decorative) pot and kept it in the clear pot? I usually sit mine in water once every few weeks and tip out the dribbles of water from the little holes.

I was told by tv gardener David Dominey to let the stalk go brown to the bottom and only then trim it. That way it should grow a fully healthy stalk back instead of a spindly one from a node. Mine have been blooming continuously for a few years now doing all of the above.

Thank you everyone! I’m going to try the occasional dunk instead of the watering. And prayers.

I’ve got mine on-a bright but slightly chilly spot on the kitchen windowsill (having read that a cool spell can stimulate flowering). They’re both producing new leaves and new roots. Some roots at least should be plump and a clear pale green. If they’re all a bit dull and slightly shrivelled, I sink the pots to the rim in water, and stand them by the kitchen sink so I won’t forget them. In due course I empty and drain them and put them back on the windowsill.

One of them, in addition to the horizontal pointed shoots that will become roots, is producing a vertical shoot with a knob on the end. I’m not tempting fate by suggesting what that might be. Certainly not in its hearing.

My phalaenopsis is sprouting a new flower stalk from near the end of the one that had just finished flowering. I initially hoped it was a baby orchid. I have a friend who has several orchids one of which has a well grown baby and she's just left it dangling there! Drives me crazy.

I water my orchid by soaking, sometimes with some orchid food added, it but I set a timer otherwise I think I'd forget to drain it.

I have a baby orchid! It is called a keiki, which is Hawaiian for...baby/child. I've kept it lovingly and nurtured it carefully.

And the mother plant STILL has not reflowered!

They're tricky things, I think. Sometimes they reflower and sometimes they just don't. They're sort of grown as disposable plants, which makes me sad and determined to keep them.

Mine didn't flower for years, but it does now. Dunno what I'm doing differently. Nothing, as far as I know.

That’s why I do mine at the kitchen sink.

Sorry, stupid question. Do you just submerge them up to the top of the little plastic pot?

I'm a bather not a waterer... I leave it in its decorative pot and soak it til it's sitting in a bath (in its pot). I leave for about 30 mins, empty the water from the decorative pot and let it drain for a few minutes on the draining board til no more is coming out of the clear plastic pot. Then back in it goes.

Once a week. While they're not flowering they're in the spare room, when they deign to flower they're brought out

I've got one that's over 8 years old now and I'm an unintentional houseplant serial killer. I do the bathing and have left her in the windowsill she likes best which is the east facing bathroom window. I like to think she enjoys the steamy air when we have baths and showers. I've repotted her twice into bigger (plastic clear - not very attractive) pots with orchid bark and she's flowering again now. She seems to flower around December / January. She was a housewarming present when we moved here over 8 years ago.

Oh gawd, something else to consider! Will i need to put her in a bigger pot?!?

I've had a non flowering orchid for over a year ....read about coffee grinds so put a spoonful on with water and it's starting to bud 2 weeks later

Yes. You dont submerge the foliage

No. They get a lot of their requirements from their aerial roots. These are epiphytic orchids, growing in the niches where a tree branch comes out from the trunk, living in the collection of debris there. Totally different from the terrestrial orchids like our native ones, spending a lot of their life completely underground.

Thank you everyone 😌

I have almost 30. Some are years old. They don't get soaked or bathed. Winter, every 2 weeks,on the draining board,water poured through. They hate wet roots. I have one which has been flowering continuously for 18 months, just dropping its flowers now. They are fed when flowering or have active growth. Dead dry brown stems cut off at the base. Green stems,cut just below node. They hate central heating,dry air,sun. Come may,they are in open hanging baskets underneath fruit trees in shade, giving them their normal habitat,till late September. Only the scented bamboo orchids are re potted, because they grow big. I have a scented oncidium in flower in my bathroom now,that takes 2 years in-between flowering.