2. Learning is fun

Don’t be discouraged by what I’ve just written. Learning to grow orchids is an adventure and fun, not a daunting task. You learn as you go. You make a mistake, or something doesn’t work, and you say Oops! and you don’t do it again. (Or you try not to.) You try out something new and it works and you say Eureka! and you add it to your style. Learn from everywhere you can. Read books. Go to shows. Visit other people’s homes and see what they are doing. Ask questions. But don’t imitate anyone or bow down to anyone as The Final Authority.
Bc Mount Anderson 'Louve'
Don’t be afraid to act on your gut feelings. If it turns out you’re wrong, have a good laugh. The Orchid Society is like a friendly school. We have speakers, and I think I’ve learned something from every one of them. The same is true of the Orchid News. We’re all learners, even though some may be further along than others. We chat to each other and question each other and look at each other’s plants, and suddenly we find "Hey, I can do this!"

3. Be prepared for failures

Sometimes you’re going to make a booboo, or even blow it really badly. That’s no excuse for quitting. I’ve had buds develop on plants I’ve never been able to flower, only to have them drop off at the last moment without opening. I’ve even buried quite a few plants in the compost bin after nursing them to their deaths. Do what you do in life if you fall down. Pick yourself up and keep going.
C aurantiaca 'Kumquat'
There’s no such thing as final failure in orchid growing. So never give up.

4. Give yourself a pat on the back

By buying a plant in bud or already in flower any fool can show off beautiful blooms. If you bring the same orchid to flower a second time, you’re doing something right. Give yourself a pat on the back. Bask in the glory! Say to yourself, "Now I’m an orchid grower!" I’ll never forget the first time it happened to me. (Wow, did I learn how wrong I was!) After the very general comments on my first page, I want to move on to some more specific advice on aspects of orchid growing. This time I have two topics for you, both based on my own experience.

BLC PaintBrush 'OC' x Onacee 'Mendenhall'

LIGHT

I’ve found that the single most important factor in growing orchids, and especially in getting them to flower, is light. If your orchids are not flowering, look to your light! A general rule of thumb is that most orchids enjoy the brightest light that you can conveniently give them, other than direct sunlight. When I first started growing orchids, I had a plant stand against my kitchen patio door, facing south. With two levels of shelves, I could accommodate about 10 orchids. In summer I had to move them back a bit, to get them out of direct midday sun.
Generally speaking, they flowered all right. Then we built a 9 ft. by 9 ft. all-season (insulated) sunroom out from the same door. It wasn’t unduly expensive, and I’m sure that the entire cost has added itself to the value of the house. There are windows on three sides, a solid roof (not glass), and a patio door to our deck. I have no shades or drapes. I now have about 30 different orchids, and they are on two levels of shelves against the east windows. They get some morning sun, and a lot of bounced light, but no direct midday or afternoon sun. I find that some of my orchids can in fact take a certain amount of full sun. These are Cattleya, Oncidium and Encyclia. (There may be others. I think many Dendrobium fit here too.) I put these plants in the front rank against the window, and they thrive. Plants of mine that need a bit more protection from the sun are Paphiopedilum, Phragmipedium, Lycaste and Brassavola, and these go in the second rank. The third rank is plants that sunburn easily, and these are Phalaenopsis and Brassia.
C intermedia var aquinii
If you are using a west window, you will need to be more careful than facing east, because afternoon sun is stronger. For a south window, you will definitely need sheers or drapes to protect your plants from direct midday sun. The most dangerous time is late summer and early fall, because the sun is still very strong but is already lower and comes further into the room. Take care! An indication as to whether plants are receiving the right amount of light is leaf colour. If leaves are pale green to yellow, or blotchy, the light is too strong. If they are very dark green, the light is insufficient. You want to aim for a healthy medium green. Some orchids put out new growth in one direction only, and these should be kept with that side always towards the light. Examples are Brassias and many Cattleyas, Phrags and Paphs. As a guide, I find it helpful to keep the label on the side furthest away from the light. Orchids which put out new growth all round, such as Oncidium, Encyclia, and some Paphs, should be rotated periodically, to give more even growth. Monopodial (single-stemmed) orchids like Phalaenopsis also benefit from being rotated. I give a quarter turn each week. But no orchid should ever be rotated once a flower spike or bud has appeared. It should be allowed to flower towards the light. If a plant coming into flower is moved around, or has light coming at it from behind or from one side, the spike and flowers will try to swerve in that direction, resulting in very poor presentation. I have had no personal experience of growing orchids under lights, but I do believe that four fluorescent tubes are generally necessary, placed no more than about a foot above the tops of the plants. They may need to be supplemented by two incandescent bulbs as well. If you’re interested, I suggest you get advice from books or from members who do this.

LABELS AND RECORDS

Be very careful to maintain a label for each plant. If you divide a plant, copy the label for the second plant. You may enjoy an unlabelled flowering plant, but for any serious orchid grower it has ceased to exist! And you yourself are not a serious grower if you tolerate absence of labels or sloppy labelling. Note that many plants sold in supermarkets or home stores just have labels like "Phalaenopsis". If I were you, I wouldn’t touch them. The rules are: Genus names are capitalized, e.g. Cattleya. Species names are in lower case, e.g. Cattleya skinneri. A named hybrid is capitalized, e.g. Paph. Rosy Dawn. A specific cultivar is capitalized and enclosed in single
Onc Shary Baby
quotes, e.g. Brassia Rex ‘Sakata’. Hybrid crosses are joined by a lower case x. Most growers record the month and year of re-potting on the back of the label, e.g. 5/02. Be sure to keep a careful record for each plant of such information as date of acquisition, dates of re-potting and type of medium used, dates of flowering, number of spikes, branches and flowers produced, rest periods, problems encountered and dealt with, and any other items of interest. Some growers keep an index card or loose leaf page for each plant. A general diary noting which plants are in flower on a week-to-week basis can also be useful. You may use whatever method suits you best, but the main thing is always to keep good records. You will find them increasingly useful and important as time goes on.

WATER

A lot of the advice commonly given about watering orchids is more complicated than I can handle, even with no more than 30 orchids! For example, we are told that some orchids should be kept very wet, others allowed to dry out almost completely. We should poke little sticks into the medium to see how dry it is, or we should weigh the pots in our hands to see how much water is in them. And we should water differently according to whether a plant is actively growing or flowering or repotted or resting. I’m afraid I’m a hard task-master for my orchids, and with a few exceptions they all get the same treatment!
Den Golden Blossom 'Kogane'

I water all my orchids once a week, usually on Saturday mornings. I keep my orchids on trays, and they are brought into the kitchen one tray at a time. Each plant is watered from the top over a sink with a thin-spouted indoor watering can, and water is added evenly until it starts to drip out of the bottom of the pot. I try not to get water on the leaves of any orchid, particularly not in the crown of the plant or on the leaves of any new shoot. Some plants get crown or leaf rot very easily, notably Phals, Paphs and Phrags. This is one reason for watering early in the day, to give any splashes of water time to dry out before evening. Don’t allow your plants to stand in water. There are a few orchids that I do try to give a little extra water to in the middle of the week. Brassias are the main ones, especially when they are making new growth, because if they are not given water regularly enough the new leaves often become crinkled. Phrags generally benefit from some extra water, too, and I sometimes give a little extra to plants that are growing very actively or coming into flower, especially during the summer months. But do be careful not to over-water, or you may encounter root rot. Often, giving this extra water to a plant depends on my gut feelings about it! The best water to use for orchids is undoubtedly clean rain water. If you live in a house you might use the same system that I do: I have two garbage cans with lids which I keep in my garage, and two household pails in the house, and I have three downspouts that I can use to fill them. I keep them topped up at every good rainfall. I let it rain steadily for about an hour before collecting water, to clean pollution out of the air and dirt off my roof. Pails in the house should be kept covered; water exposed to the light tends to develop algae and turn green! I use the oldest water first, and always at room temperature. I bring the water I am going to use into a warm room at least 24 hours before using it. In winter, cans from the garage need at least a week to thaw out! All containers should be thoroughly scrubbed every time they are emptied. The next best thing to rain water (at least in my area) is tap water. It gives good results, but it should be drawn off a day or two ahead of time and allowed to stand so that chlorine can evaporate. I have no experience with well water, though I imagine it would be fine. I don’t use distilled water (such as from dehumidifiers), and I think that artificially softened water would be the worst. I’m told that Paphs like a slightly alkaline water, and I know some people sprinkle a little dolomite lime on the surface of the medium before watering to correct excessive acidity. I personally don’t do this, and all my orchids seem to do well with the water they are given. I plan to write about fertilizer on my next page, but while on the subject of watering let me describe for you my schedule. I give fertilizer to my orchids in their water on the first and third Saturdays of each month, and just plain water on the second and fourth. (If there’s a fifth Saturday, they get water.) The last Saturday of each month is the one when I flush out all my orchids, which means giving roughly double the normal amount of clean water to flush out any accumulated salts from fertilizer, and to start the new month with a clean medium. If you are short of rain water, this would be the week to use tap water. My suggestion to you would be to establish some such regular routine as I’ve described, then see how much variation in watering patterns between plants you have the time and inclination to manage. A word about vacations: I find that if I water very thoroughly the day before I go away, and even leave a little water in each saucer or tray (never do this at any other time!), and water immediately when I get back, all my orchids can survive a two-week vacation without showing any signs of distress. This may not be true of some less common orchids or very small seedlings, but I don’t have any. For much longer than two weeks you will probably need to have someone come in and water for you.
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