AboutOrchids

One surefire way to cure winter’s cold is to stroll through a tropical rainforest. Warm up at a winter orchid exhibit in the list below or this earlier post.

January 26 – April 21
At the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, the venerable Smithsonian features “Orchids of Latin America.” The exhibit looks at orchids in Latin American culture, scientific research, and conservation efforts. Start your tour online with these great photos of a few Smithsonian gems.

February 2 – March 31
In St. Louis, one of the country’s largest orchid collections displays its best at the Missouri Botanical Garden. This year’s show promises to transport visitors to the rainforests of Madagascar.

February 9 – April 14
The Atlanta Botanical Garden delights with Orchid Daze: Surreal Beauty. Whimsical exhibits include orchids with mirrors and as artistic compositions.

February 9 – March 16
In Evansville, Indiana, the Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden offers an Orchid Escape. Orchids adorn the indoor Amazonia rainforest exhibit. Admission is included in the price of a regular zoo ticket.

“Alba” is Latin for white or pale. With lighter leaves than its close Jewel Orchid relative, this beautiful variant from Vietnam is known as Ludisia discolor alba, or the Alba Jewel Orchid. Instead of dark green leaves with bright pink stripes, it has light green leaves with white stripes.

Ludisias are easy to grow. These terrestrials like rich, sandy soil. Jewel Orchids need regular water, warm temps, high humidity, and regular fertilizer. Give them bright light, but no direct sun. Ludisias can thrive under artificial lights, and they’re popular terrarium plants. It’s easy to root cuttings of their thick stems in moss, water, or potting soil. Watch for pests like mealybug and scale, which are often symptoms of low humidity. Cut back water and fertilizer during winter dormancy, but keep humidity high.

With such attractive foliage, the Jewel Orchid’s small flowers are often overlooked. The unusual blooms emerge atop tall, fuzzy spikes in winter. They add a whole new dimension to this fascinating orchid.

Henry David Thoreau has inspired generations with his writings at Walden Pond. Now, scientists are using his journals to find clues about climate change. Starting in 1852, the author and naturalist recorded the dates for the first spring blooms of different flower species in Massachusetts. Scientists are looking at his 6 years of of data for flowers like the Pink Lady Slipper, Cypripedium acaule, pictured in the article. Combined with data from naturalist Aldo Leopold, who kept flowering dates from 1935-1945 in Wisconsin, and other botanists, researchers were able to see a pattern. On average, flowers open 2.3 days early for every 1° Fahrenheit (0.6° Celsius) increase in warmth. Flowers in Massachusetts are opening an average of 20 days earlier than in Thoreau’s day. While earlier flowers may seem like good news, nobody yet knows the consequences of these changes. If flowers lose sync with their pollinators, they’ll stop reproducing. Most orchids are pollinated by just a single species, so extinction is a danger. For now, scientists are searching for more answers, and finding the records of past centuries helpful.

Many orchid beginners are afraid of winter dormancy. Withholding water seems like a risky proposition, a surefire way to kill a plant. But don’t worry — dormancy actually mimics normal seasonal changes for orchids in the wild. Humidity and light levels stay high, but rains become infrequent. Many orchids take advantage of these dry spells to bloom, so that heavy rains don’t damage their flowers. Orchids with pseudobulbs, like the Oncidium, Cattleya, and Dendrobium in the pictures below, won’t bloom without a dormancy break. Reduce their water to once or twice a month, waiting until their pseudobulbs start to shrivel. Cut back on fertilizer also. Always keep humidity levels high.

Popular varieties like the Masdevallia, Moth Orchid, and lady slipper pictured below don’t have pseudobulbs. However, with winter’s weak sun and short daylight hours, they don’t need as much water either.  Cut back slightly on their watering frequency, but don’t let them dry too much. Increase watering to normal levels when temps warm in the spring. And don’t be scared of winter dormancy.

Tired of snow? Eager to see colors besides gray and brown? Orchids abound in winter exhibits at these botanical gardens around the USA. All offer a chance for an easy tropical getaway.

January 9 – February 24
Denver Botanic Gardens displays over a thousand blooms in its Orchid Showcase. This year’s exhibit will take place in the Orangery and Marnie’s Pavilion.

January 12 – February 24
In Pittsburgh, Phipp’s Conservatory pairs up “two of nature’s finest art forms” for the Orchid and Tropical Bonsai Show. Phipp’s features orchid displays, orchid growing tips, and a special display of orchid lab equipment.

January 12 – April 7
Orchids! at Franklin Park Conservatory provides Columbus, Ohio with a winter escape. Lasting almost three months, the exhibition includes daily orchid presentations and educational programs in the Dorothy M. Davis Showhouse.

January 19 – March 10
Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in Belmont, North Carolina has something for everyone in this year’s Orchid Spectacular. The event includes Landscapes to Life by collage artist Arless Day, incorporating orchids as living art.

January 19 – March 24
An Orchid Extravaganza continues the long orchid tradition at Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia. Enjoy thousands of orchids on display, and don’t miss the rare blue poppies in their March bloom, either.

Here on the California coast, the winter chill helps to create a perfect home for this unusual Arpophyllum. Tall spikes with small purple flowers give this species its nickname, the Hyacinth Orchid. It blooms reliably on our back deck in late autumn, and usually stays in flower for a couple months over winter. This season’s blooms took a bit of a beating during heavy rains last month, but fortunately, Dave captured them in their prime. For now, the last of this plant’s flower clusters are still holding up outdoors.

The Hyacinth Orchid is native to cloud forests of southern Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, Colombia, and Jamaica. Its care needs are similar to Cattleyas, but it tolerates much cooler temps. In fact, it needs cool winter nights to bloom. San Francisco growers who can give provide some full sun, regular water, fertilizer, and good humidity can grow specimen plants outdoors. The long, strap shaped leaves can stretch more than 2 feet (61 cm,) but this plant isn’t that big (yet!) These flower spikes stand as tall as 8 inches (20 cm,) but I’ve seen larger ones at orchid shows.

Related to Cattleyas and Epidendrums, these unusual flowers do resemble other orchids, just upside down. The lip of the flower is on top. Dozens of these small blooms spiral around each spike, making the Hyacinth Orchid a bright spot in our winter garden.

Orchid shows welcome the new year with the best of the orchid world. Many shows are in tropical and subtropical areas with conducive climates, but lots of northern locales offer these events as respites from winter. Orchids bring some tropical warmth to Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, the UK, France, and Germany.

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Orchids amaze and inspire, but they also intimidate many gardeners. As flowering houseplants, orchids share basic care needs with other plants, like light, water, and fertilizer. However, as air plants, orchid care differs in a few important ways.

• Watering – Some other plants can tolerate light waterings, but orchids need thorough soakings. Even dormant orchids and low water varieties like Cattleyas want enough water to flow out the bottoms of their pots. In addition, orchids should not sit in water. Pots left in water will not permit air flow to orchid roots. This can kill plants.
• Humidity – Unlike cacti and succulents, all orchids need moisture in the air. Dry air quickly wilts flowers, causes plants to decline, and attracts pests. Orchids need at least 50% humidity to thrive. Check these helpful tips to increase humidity.
• Potting – Most orchids don’t grow in soil since they need air movement around their roots. Shredded bark or moss allows water and air to move through. Popular orchids like Phals, Dendrobiums, and Odonts fall into this category. Exceptions include terrestrials like Cymbidiums and Chinese Ground Orchids, which can grow in regular potting soil.

With today’s change of season, it seems appropriate to take an apocalyptic tone. While the latest end-of-the-world fad will pass with tomorrow’s sunrise, many plant and animal species are facing the real thing.  Climate change has begun, a danger not only to orchids, but to every species on the planet. Sadly, climate change is only the latest threat to orchids. Habitat destruction, over-collection of wild plants, pollution, and invasive species also continue their heavy tolls.

While some of the world’s 30,000 orchid species have healthy, stable populations in the wild, many others are rare, endangered, or already extinct. The world’s largest and most diverse flower family ranges from arctic orchids to a brilliant Masdevallia native to a single Bolivian valley, to a large, purple Lady Slipper, unknown to science til 2001. New discoveries still happen all the time, like this beautiful Coelogyne just discovered in Thailand, which is already endangered by habitat destruction along the Mekong Delta. The extinction of any species is a loss to that ecosystem, and a loss to future human generations. Some threatened ecosystems may collapse entirely, meaning the loss of hundreds of species at a time, as is feared for places like the cloud forests of the Colombian Andes.

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Vertical gardening has been a hot trend in the gardening world, but it’s old news for orchids. As air plants in the wild, orchids grow vertically on trees. In cultivation, some growers keep them attached to mounts or tree trunks, as in the photos below. Taking the idea further to create living walls, this concept has spread greenery upwards, from Singapore’s supertrees to New York City’s High Line Park.

Anybody with limited room can use vertical areas to increase their green space. I usually see succulents, bromeliads, and ferns in vertical gardens, but orchids should work as well. As long as they have proper drainage, light, humidity, and air flow, most varieties will thrive.

To create your own vertical orchid garden, start with the right orchids for the growing conditions you can provide. Then you’ll need mounts or containers with potting material. With the new popularity of living walls, many more vertical planting options are available. Country Living offers creative ideas using pockets, trays, or pot hangers. Many derive from recycled materials. This vertical planter is made from recycled plastic bottles, with pockets large enough enough to support Cymbidiums, Cattleyas, or Oncidiums. Flower pot hangers can hold smaller types like Phals, Paphs, or Masdevallias.

For more info, check out these books on vertical gardening and vertical vegetable and fruit gardening. Add another dimension to your orchid collection. The sky’s the limit!