Orchids are now an affordable luxury; their sensational and long-lasting blooms bringing a touch of elegance to any home or greenhouse.
Find out all you need to know about caring for orchids.
With a wide range of young orchid plants now on offer at local garden centres and florists, you can choose exciting varieties to grow on yourself.
Here’s how to get your orchid off to the best possible start and keep it producing blooms for many years.
Stand the young orchid plants in trays in the greenhouse, well out of any direct sunlight. If the compost looks very dry, water the plants thoroughly until water starts to run out of the bottom of the pot.
Plants can be fed with a soluble fertiliser added to the watering can. Orchid fertiliser is available from most garden centres, or use a general-purpose feed at half strength every third watering.
As the orchid grows it will develop a strong, fleshy root system. When the roots fill the original pot the plant should be potted on into a slightly larger one.
Put crocks in the bottom of the pot to improve drainage. Add specialist orchid compost to the pot and put the plant in place, making sure the compost goes right down the sides of the rootball. Don’t firm down – leave the compost loose to allow water to run straight through.
When the flowering period is over, the old flowering stem can be tidied up. Don’t be in too much of a hurry though as some orchids, such as phalaenopsis, often produce a sideshoot that will bear a second crop of flowers. Watch Alan Titchmarsh explain how to encourage a moth orchid to reflower.
Cryptotaenia japonica I’m not against nurturing a difficult plant if it has something really special to offer. Heck, I even tried growing the next-to-impossible-to-cultivate wasabi last year because I love fresh wasabi so darn much (let’s just say I have some work to do figuring that one out). But there’s a special place in my heart for a plant that you can plop in the ground and essentially forget for a few months. Sometimes you just want to be rewarde
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In previous centuries, orchids were a real rarity. Orchid hunters would head off on perilous voyages to tropical areas and bring these delicate flowers back home for wealthy households. Orchids were associated with class, elegance and extraordinary beauty fit for royalty. This particular flower is reported to have first come about during the time of the dinosaurs. While some plants and animal species disappeared during the evolution of the planet, orchids remained and continued to morph and spr
Not many people look over them because they think this must be a difficult plant to grow or something. After all, the name makes it difficult to grow. Are Dendrobium Orchids Easy To Grow? Well, now I am going to clarify that Dendrobium Orchid makes a great beginner orchid. I cannot stress this enough because I have heard so many people saying they would like to grow Dendrobium, but they don’t know-how. Many of them said that they are just beginner orchid growers, and they just totally havin