How to Care for Orchids — Trader Joe’s and The Home Depot always seem to have potted orchids in stock every time I go in there and I have to resist the urge to buy one of each color. They are soooo beautiful! Purchasing one always makes me think I will be somehow simplifying my life. Like all orchid owners, they are centered and de-cluttered.
Crazy, I know, but they have that effect on me.
If you’ve never bought one before but are looking to brighten up your space during these long winter months, I’ve put together some basic care tips to make sure you get the most out of your orchids. Mine always seem to last for several months, so in my book, they are well worth the splurge!
How to Care for Orchids
First, you have to try to recreate their natural habitat, the best you can. Think rainforest. While you don’t have to run out and get yourself a water mister and monkeys, you do have to consider that 0rchids prefer to cling to rocks and/or barks of trees, with their roots exposed to humidity. So, rule number one, it’s best not to grow your orchid in dirt. You can actually buy orchid blends, which include a lot of rough bark. {Don’t be worried if your orchid roots are someone exposed outside of your growing medium.}
Next, the pot/container. Obviously orchids aren’t grown in pots in the wild. But they do like to cram themselves into the nooks and crannies of trees and rocks, so smaller is better when it comes to choosing a pot. Choose the smallest pot your orchid will tolerate and still establish itself. Also, if possible, clear plastic is best. It allows you to simulate exposed roots, by exposing the potted roots to light.
Orchids need dappled light–direct afternoon sunlight is a no-no.
They also love to have periods of dry and wet–again, think rainforest. So let them dry out, and then drench them. This will simulate a rain cycle {usually this translates into a weekly watering schedule}. Meanwhile, you can simulate humidity by misting them with a water bottle–plus you will look like you have basically mastered it as you mist your plant.
Try to fertilize your orchid once a year and re-pot it once a year. After your flowers have disappeared, it is best to trim it back to its base, so nutrients aren’t wasted on growing the spike. You should get more flowers in a year. And if you care for your orchid properly, you should get the blooms to last a couple of months each year, though, it does depend a bit on the variety too. If all goes well, your plant should last for years with this cycle.
How about YOU, do you love orchids as much as I do?
~Mavis
P.S. A few years ago I visited the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens and the Denver Botanic Gardens during their orchid exhibits and they were amazing! Be sure and check out those stories for more orchid pictures.
J in OH-IO says
Thank you for this post! We received a lovely orchid and we attempted to keep it alive, but it didn’t fair well. Debating whether to get another, but want to know has anyone actually had luck trimming them back and have they bloomed again for you???
Chris says
A work friend attended a charity luncheon. Orchids were on each table. After the event, as the tables were being cleaned, the staff were throwing out the orchids! Can you imagine?! She was able to nab about a dozen and brought them to share. The blooms were gone so I don’t know what it will look like. I’ve never had an orchid, so fingers are crossed!
Connie says
I have the hot pink “easier to grow” one. It is in bright indirect light with North and East exposure. I do not move it around. 3 ice cubes each week. After blooming if stem is green leave it. If it is brown cut it off. It has bloomed twice more since I received it.
I feed it a couple of times a year.
Margo says
There are many, many varieties of orchids. I love them. We have a roll around center isle with a butcher block top in our kitchen with 2 overhead skylights that they seem to love being under. I have tried to grow them elsewhere in the house and on our property to no avail. My husband laughs about the use of the butcher block top for an orchid nursery instead of it’s original intent, but we get blooms twice a year from them that last months, once in winter and once in early summer. And I’ve had some of them for years. If you ever get a chance to go to an orchid show, go! You will be amazed at the different varieties and other species of orchid there are. Oh, and my husband loves them as much as I do, so his comments about the use of the butcher block are only half-hearted.
Annette says
Mine had nine blooms at the same time! Interesting that the pot should be clear.
Melissa A Schulze says
I have 7 orchids. My oldest is almost 5. I do the weakly weekly fertilizing method of a weak fertilizer solution weekly with a week off occasionally so the salts don’t build up. I buy spring water for watering because our city water has 2 forms of chlorine.
Jessica says
I know very little about orchids but I have a friend who loves them. I went with her to a presentation by a world renown orchid “grower”. The thing I remember him saying was that wherever you buy your orchid, you have no idea how long it has been sitting in that pot. He said to buy new orchid “dirt” that you mentioned and repot it. You can use the same pot after you’ve washed it well, but you need the new soil. Then you can report it once a year like you said.
That is basically all I remember but he was so adamant that it stuck with me.
Sue S. says
They’re beautiful but I’m not a fan. Too hard to care for, for me. I like my Christmas cactus. Easy care. They spend the winter in a sunny window in my office, and spring, summer, and fall in the shade in front of my garage. If it rains, they get watered.
JulieP says
This could not have come at a better time in August some Belgian friends visited and on their way from their daughters in Manchester they bought me an orchid. It flowered until the week before Christmas when the last flower dropped. So I thought I’ll try and find out what to do! Along comes Mavis! It’s getting a new lead, I’ve trimmed the stalk wiped the leaves with a clean damp cloth. One thing it’s roots are wandering out of it’s clear pot should I do something about them? Otherwise I’ll wait and see what happens next summer. Thanks in advance.
Gigi says
There are two well known growers in Chicagoland. Late February they put on an open house and you can literally walk through acres of blooming orchids. It’s amazing and so much fun to be walking through such a tropical space.
The key to get them to blooming is also creating a temperature difference from. Warm in the summer to cooler for winter. That’s when the phalaenopsis will start to send out a flower spike.
Katherine says
I have my orchids sitting near a south facing window in a tray filled with aquarium gravel and some water, instead of misting. I water and feed my orchids every Tuesday using Miracle Gro ready to use Orchid plant food mist. I tried this as a last chance for an orchid my friend had and came close to killing and within a month it was putting on new growth.
Jamie N. says
I’ve rescued a dozen orchids and had them bloom once or twice a year for years. They are currently about to bloom and many will last for 4 months or more. I have a huge kitchen garden window which they love. I never mist them, but they are in the kitchen. Every 2-4 weeks I fill their pots with warm water and let them soak from 1 hour to 24 hours depending on whatever. Then I drain them and let them sit for 15 minutes before draining them again. They do not like sitting in even a little bit of water. I have only reported them a few times and fertilize every couple of waterings. I also don’t cut the spike until it goes brown. Sometimes they reboot on the same spike and sometimes they don’t. They require very little effort and bloom so long for me, they are an absolute favorite and I love all the different colors and sizes.
Also definitely tropical plant. I saw them growing in the wild in Hong Kong. Don’t do the ice cube thing. Use warm water.