Posted by: scentandviolet April 24th, 2019

Orchids fascinate us. They are elegant and exotic at the same time. Despite being sold everywhere, we still consider orchids to be unique gift. But, how in a word do we keep them alive? Lets talk basic orchid care.

Light: Orchids need light. They came out of jungle forests long time ago and gotten pretty accustomed to living in the urban environments. Avoid direct sunlight, because your leaves will start burning. If the orchid leaves are yellow/green your plant is in the ideal light conditions to produce blooms. If the orchid leaves are  beautiful dark green color – they’re not getting enough light and will not produce blooms.

Air: Orchid roots need air. Do not plant your orchids in soil. Always use specialized orchid growing media (It can be bought in any garden house, or you can make your own) Orchids do not like stale air. Make sure to aerate room the orchids are in.

Water: There is no magic formula to watering orchids. Every orchid, in every environment requires different watering schedule. Orchids need to be watered when almost dry. How it’ll look? Pot will feel lighter. Top surface will look dry. Do insert finger in your potting mix and, if it feels dry water your orchid plant. If you can take your orchid plant out of the container water it through completely like in this video:

If your orchid is part of design and cannot be easily taken out of the container – keep in mind that less is more. Do not place ice cubes on orchid roots. Orchids like room-temp to luke warm water. You can get a small spray bottle and spray the top of the orchid a little daily – or you can water when it feels dry. You will need a watering can with the spout or small glass bottle. Just add a little water all around your container.

Fertilizer: We do not recommend fertilizing orchids for the first couple of years. Afterwards, you can purchase orchid fertilizer but whatever it says on the instructions use a ¼ to maximum ½ of the recommended dose.

Reblooming Orchids: Phalaenopsis (moth orchid) will rebloom from the old spike. When the last flower fades, you can just leave the stem as it is, and it will rebloom again. Granted, the new flowers will be a little smaller than the first crop. You can also cut of the spike entirely at the base and it will rebloom again in few months. Or you can cut it leaving 2 nodes (brown lines)

 

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Scent & Violet, flowers and gifts is a full service florist in Houston, TX offering flower, plant and gift delivery in Houston, Katy, Richmond, Fulshear, Sugar Land and Bellaire. We aim to create fuss-free, everyday shopping source for flowers, plants, and gifts. It is our belief that we can create better relationships through gifting, better environments through plants, and better state of mind through flowers.