Orchidarium – The House Of Orchids
We grow orchids in what we call and – Orchidarium – a big case or terrarium like case with lots of light, humidity, warm temperature and ventilation.
When a plant comes into bloom we take it out of the case and keep it either in the living room or use it as a dining room table decoration. You can well imagine the “ohs” and “ohs” of envious dinner guests.
The longevity of orchid blooms is remarkable. We’ve had cattleyas in bloom for four weeks. A cymbidium we flowered last winter provided us with a floral show for more than two months. While the plants are in flower and out of the case we give them little if any water.
Cymbidiums do get water, for their care is much like that of regular potted house plants but we keep cattleyas, particularly, much on the dry side. When the blooms have faded we stop watering entirely for the rest period that is so important to producing flowers. To make sure the plant receives no water for a couple of months or until a new growth appears we hang little red tags on its leaves.
As soon as the dead blooms are cut off the plant goes back into the most remote part of the case so that even the daily spraying does not dampen the potting mixture enough to induce too-early new growth. (If an orchid plant is kept growing by continuous watering, it puts up feeble growths unable to bloom.) The rest period ends when new growth appears. Then the normal watering schedule is resumed with a soaking each Saturday. If the compost feels parched or dry Tuesday or Wednesday we also give the plant some rainwater then.
As for specific proof that the case works, here are some of our experiences: Last Christmas we flowered cymbidiums on the cooler, lower shelf of the case. The plant produced a spike with 13 magnificent blooms in one spray which lasted nine weeks. Last July we flowered Dendrobium nobile. We had had the plant for nine years without being able to induce it to flower before.
We flowered Cattleya labiate, two Cattleya trianaei schroederiana, Laelia anceps and, as this is being written, we have a Cattleya mossiae which has produced five splendid blooms at once.
Perhaps our greatest single triumph is our cattleya which we have had for 19 years. It had not bloomed since 1992 but after two winters in our case it has changed from a jaded, pathetic “has been” into a fine sturdy plant and is now about to bloom!
We buy “our plants from any of many reputable orchid houses. A plant in sheath will produce blooms in two or three weeks and can be bought for as little as $20. (Of course, you can also pay much more for fine specimen plants.)
Discover 100′s of Topics – 1000′s of Articles at Plant-Care.com for example:
This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 1:20 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.