AboutOrchids

More people kill their orchids through overwatering than any other cause. Fall is particularly perilous time for overwatering, as plants start to go dormant, but people unwittingly continue the same watering regimen as they did in the growing season. With too much water, orchid roots will rot, and the leaves will follow. So this is the time of year to start to cut back. You may feel like you’re stressing the plant, but you’re actually just allowing it to rest. Maintain good humidity and air movement as always. Also start to cut back on fertilizer use.

Many kinds of orchids need this dormant period in the fall and winter. With a proper rest, they’ll awaken in spring with new flowers.

• Cattleya
• Cymbidium
• Dendrobium
• Epidendrum
• Miltonia
• Odontoglossum
• Oncidium
• Vanda

Not all orchids go through dormant periods. For these varieties, you can still cut back slightly on water and fertilizer as temperatures drop and days shorten in the fall.

• Masdevallia
• Paphiopedilum
• Phalaenopsis

It’s best to water early in day, so plants have a chance to dry off before evening. If orchid leaves remain wet at night, they may rot.

If an autumn chill already has you feeling blue, there is no better pick-me-up than lots of tropical and exotic orchid flowers. I suggest a visit to a local orchid show. Here is a sampling of November shows.

I’m  not quite sure what I did right to coax this Ionocidium into bloom, but I’m not complaining. This hybrid is a cross between 2 kinds of closely related orchids, an Ionopsis and an Oncidium.

The lip of the flower is light yellow when it starts to open, and then turns white after a couple days. On the uppermost part of the flower, a yellow cap covers small waxy balls of pollen.

Founded in 1989 in England, the World Land Trust (WLT) has been working to preserve the world’s most biologically important and threatened lands. So far, the WLT has saved over 375,000 acres (1518 square km) of wildlife habitats, including tropical forests, coastal steppes, and wetlands. Many of these habitats are orchid hot-spots, such as rainforests in Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and the Philippines. With their “Save an Acre of Rainforest” campaign, WLT has also been able to protect valuable orchid habitats in Brazil, India, Malaysia, and Mexico.

The WLT contributes to educational projects, providing conservation materials to students and field guides that are essential for research. WLT’s work benefits us all, not only by saving endangered species, but also by regenerating important wildlife habitat that removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Say what? You don’t need to be able to pronounce Myoxanthus to enjoy its funky flowers. If you do want to pronounce it, say “MY-oh-zan-this,” rhymes with “try go Kansas.”

This orchid is a relative of Masdevallias, and enjoys high humidity, cool temperatures, and constant air circulation. Its native home is Peru and Ecuador on the eastern slopes of the Andes, where it survives at elevations as high as 10,000 feet (3100 m.)

Just because it’s scented, don’t assume that you’d like the smell. This orchid has a funky scent, like rotting food. Fortunately it’s faint, and since I keep it outside all year, it’s not bothersome. Although we humans may not like the stinky scent, I’m sure it works perfectly to lure some fly or wasp to help pollinate it. A single flower emerges from the base of a leaf, and hangs upside down.

San Francisco is often covered in chilly fog in the spring and summer, but warms up when the fog disappears in the fall. True to form, we’ve been having warm October days. Today the backyard thermometer reads 86 F (30 C.) The garden is enjoying this latest warm spell, and there are lots of orchids and other flowers open.

We just added this unusual Ptilotus to the garden. It’s a drought-tolerant Australian perennial with feathery flowers. On the right, Asclepias flowers look like colorful shooting stars. Asclepias are better known as milkweeds, and are the preferred food of monarch butterfly caterpillars.

A white Japanese Anemone and a purple African Daisy show contrasting beauty.

This jasmine is the size of a small tree, and grows up a support pole for our back stairs. Dave and I routinely debate whether it’s supporting the stairs, or will someday pull them down. Several times a year, it bursts into bloom with honey-scented flowers. In the middle, a purple Epidendrum flower looks like it could fly away. On the right, Pink Sage flowers have graced our garden for years, thanks to seeds Dave brought from his home in New Orleans.

It feels like an embarrassment of riches to say that some of my orchid flowers last so long that they get dusty. Under ideal conditions, Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum, Epidendrum, and Cymbidium flowers can last for months, and dust can be a problem. Most orchid flowers can handle a gentle touch with clean hands or a clean cloth, but there is the risk of damaging a flower, so instead I usually use a hands-off approach. I prefer to clean them with a few gentle breaths, or by washing them with the spray mister filled with room-temperature, good-quality water. Cleaning is best done early in the day so the flowers can dry, since flowers that remain wet overnight can rot.

Don’t be offended if I wish you the problem of dusty orchid flowers – it’s a great problem to have!

If you saw this unusual Stenoglottis orchid growing in its native home in South Africa, and it wasn’t in bloom, you would probably think it was an ugly weed. If you saw it in bloom, though, I’d bet you would be amazed at its masses of dainty purple polka-dotted flowers with fringed lips.

Stenoglottis longifolia grows as a terrestrial orchid, with deciduous leaves and underground tubers that go dormant in winter. While it’s growing, it requires regular water and fertilizer. Flower spikes start to grow in late summer, and continue to grow for a few months, opening tiny flowers along the way.

The thin, soft leaves don’t look like those of most other orchids. This picture shows a Stenoglottis orchid at the end of summer, with some leaf tips that turned brown during a heat wave, and flower spikes emerging from the base of the plant. The leaves completely die back in the winter to be replaced by fresh ones in the spring.

Like all plants, orchids need a healthy root system to survive and thrive. At least once a year, orchids enter a growth cycle when they generate new roots. These new roots are light green at the tips, and turn white with time. As they age over several months, they may turn brown.

Since orchids are epiphytes, or air plants, they don’t mind growing with their roots sticking out in the air. As long as there is adequate humidity, many orchids prefer to keep their roots exposed. Some varieties, such as Vandas and their relatives, dislike having their roots in a potting mix, and insist on growing with their roots in the open air.

With inadequate humidity, over-watering, or old age, orchid roots die. Any roots that feel mushy or squishy are dead. They should be removed immediately, since they can spread rot and disease to the rest of the plant. If your orchid is losing lots of its roots, it may need to be repotted.

When people ask me to recommend a good book for basic orchid care, I usually suggest Easy Orchids: Simple Secrets for Glorious Gardens–Indoors and Out by Mimi Luebbermann. With clear writing, the author demystifies orchid care, explaining what you need, how to buy, and essential details for some common orchids. Her aim is to prove that many orchids “grow as easily as daffodils.”

It’s got some beautiful photographs, and provides basic orchid info in clear, non-technical terms. Luebbermann has authored numerous other gardening books, and it shows in her straightforward style. She concisely summarizes orchid care for about 2 dozen commonly grown types. If you’re looking for help growing beautiful tropical flowers, give this book a try.