I have recently acquired an Orchid, her name is Belle and she lives on my desk.

I would be very grateful if the wise minds of STW could tell me how to look after this lovely plant, as I simply have no idea!

My pops grows and breeds orchids and i have a mild working knowledge of them, they tend not to grow planted in pots as conventional plants would but more suspended on bark or in pots with stones, gravel etc. They basically just require a fine spray of water on the roots a couple of times a day and shield them from direct sunlight, they tend to grow on trees etc in the wild and the roots are mainly exposed and soak up what moisture they can.

when are you going to start making the cider?

when are you going to start making the cider?

Ha Ha, weird my pops grows orchids and my bro has his own Cider company over in Lancaster (a bit of a weird one, a yorkshireman brewing Lancashire cider) He's hoping to a get stall down Stubbing Wharfe for the apple festival so i urge you calder valley dwellers to go sample………

Thank you for the advice, I guess I need to get a squirter. Should I give it any kind of plant food? When do they need to be repotted, I know I should put her in bark, it's looking a little cramped in the pot.

Dont buy orchid food, its a con according to my pop, he gives his tomato food once a week diluted in the spraying water, not sure about the repotting really, i'll ask the oracle. Do you know the name of the orchid (apart from belle!!)

Do **** all with them then wait for them to suddenly flower. That's what ours has just done after three years.

Find a lady; slip it on her foot.

mmm – weird. My folks also grow orchids – is there a pattern here???

Rachel

My partner keeps hers in a plantpot filled with woodchippings. That plantpot has holes in the base and sits inside another, solid plantpot which has some torn up newspaper in the bottom of it. The paper is kept damp and is replaced occasionally. Every month or so, the orchid's pot is dunked quickly into water and then left to drain, before being returned to its other pot. This all seems to keep the plant healthy and it flowers once a year. What a beautiful flower it is, too.

Orchids are cool.

Pics please but don't ask me how to look after it as I have no clue. Google? I know my aunts used to keep some when I was a kid.

🙂

Depends what type of orchid it is – the most common is the Phalaenopsis (moth orchid) which is pretty low maintenance – don't bother with spraying it, keep it in bright but indirect light and dunk it in water/run water through the pot once a week at most, then let the water run out of the growing medium so it's moist but not sitting in water. It might start growing roots outside the pot – these are fine and shouldn't be bent back into the pot or anything – general advice for Phale's is not to repot until about 2 yrs after you think you need to! After flowering don't cut the stem back until it starts dieing as it may well flower again from a node lower down.

Oher types are becoming more commonly available – Miltonia, Paphiopedilum, Cymbidium, Dendrobium etc. and these can have slightly different requirements. Post a pic & I'll tell you what you've got & any specific care instructions.