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I decided to take some piccies of my orchids, since I was fiddling around with them anyway.
This is my first orchid, last summer:
herongale took this picture when she was visiting. This is a Phalaenopsis orchid, or "moth orchid." They are all over the friggin' place this year. It's hard to turn around this year without running into them.
This variety is called "Join Angel." I call it my angel orchid.
This is what my angel orchid looks like now:
You can see that it's grown a bit. I've had it turned one side to the window all winter, so it kind of grew "wings" in the direction of the window.
Yes, I am a twit who doesn't remove the little tags from his plants. :D The wooden dowel rod you see stuck down into the potting medium is for watering purposes - when you pull out the stick, and it's dry, it's time to water. If the stick is still wet, no water necessary yet. I have them in all my orchids, and it makes figuring out when to water them very very easy.
You can also see a root growing right out of the pot on the left of this picture. It just kind of dangles and does its own thing. It's okay for an orchid to throw roots out of the pot - the pot and all the stuff in it is really just there to hold the plant up, not to protect the roots as with other plants. It's fine and actually healthy for the roots to be exposed to air.
Phal orchids are epiphytes, meaning they grow on other plants (trees in this case). Most orchids are epiphytes. They use their roots to cling to the tree and collect moisture and nutrients. They are not parasites, and draw nothing from the tree but physical support.
Naturally, all the blooms eventually fell off my angel orchid. The flowers can last three months or more, but all good things come to an end. It has just been growing leaves since then, until last week I saw a little growth on it.
It's growing out between the leaves there in the center of the picture. This isn't what new roots look like when they grow. It seems to be a new flower spike. :D
Also - note all the algae growing at the top of the bark in this pic heh.
In cultivation, Phal orchids are potted in shredded bark, wood chips, spaghum moss, or something similar that is loose and fluffy. They are NEVER potted in soil. Some other types of orchids can't tolerate being "potted" even in wood bark, and must have their roots fully exposed at all times. This makes them hard to keep, because you have to control their humidity very carefully. Phal orchids, because they can be potted in a medium, are much easier to care for.
It's easy to overwater an orchid. Basically, you soak the potting medium, then let it dry out before watering again. This can sometimes take multiple weeks. There is often a space at the bottom of the pot that's full of something like styrofoam packing peanuts, to ensure that water drains out of the potting medium. You don't repot orchids because they are outgrowing their pots, unless they are really crawling everywhere - you repot them when their potting medium starts to rot and break down, and is no longer fluffy.
I hope to have new flowers on this plant soon, to show you all!
This is a picture from a couple weeks ago.
I bought this orchid as a "pity purchase" - it looked very pathetic in the store. It was getting way too much water and way too little light, and the leaves were long and floppy, and it was shedding flower buds right there in the store. I felt sorry for it and bought it. What flowers it had produced fell off it within a week, but I left the flower spike on the plant, and the spike soon sent out a secondary spike. I clipped the main spike just above the new secondary spike and I'm getting a small spray of new flowers now.
This variety is called "Leopard Prince." I call it my leopard orchid.
Here's what it looks like now. The other buds from that prior picture have opened up. You can see the place on the spike where I clipped it above the secondary spike. It's not as impressive as the angel orchid at its prime, but since this is a sad, abused little plant, I am very pleased with it anyway. Note that orchid leaves are not supposed to flop over like this one's does. Reference the pics of the angel orchid for how orchid leaves should be ... well, they shouldn't really be standing UP like the angel's, but they should be firm and strong like that.
This one is getting a lot better, though. :D It lost three lower leaves (they pretty much rotted off from the prior overwatering), but the ones it kept are a lot stiffer now. One of them even sort of stands up. :D
A close-up on the blooms. I really love these spotted flowers.
This variety is called, uncreatively, "Big Round." I'm calling it herongale's orchid, cos she bought it for me.
This was also something of a pity puchase. It is way more beautiful IRL than I can ever seem to capture with a camera, and it was SITTING IN WATER at the store. >:E Herongale said , if it's still there on Sunday, I'll buy it for you. So we went back on Sunday. It was still there. And still SITTING IN WATER. >:E Dorkasses. So herongale bought me the plant as a rescue.
It's actually two orchids in the same pot. The second orchid's flower spike is looking kind of sad, as you might expect of an abused plant. It dropped two buds, and of the two buds that have opened, one of them is kind of mutant-looking, and the other doesn't look so hot either. I may clip them off soon to spare the plant the embarrassment (and make it save energy).
I haven't watered it since we brought it home. It's already shed three leaves between the two plants from the overwatering, but the remaining leaves are looking good and I have high hopes that it will soon recover and be beautiful and healthy.
I give my orchids bright light filtered through blinds - they get maybe an hour of direct sunlight in the morning (morning sunlight is good for ANY plant) and the rest of the day their sun is filtered. Too much sun is bad for orchids ... midday direct sun will burn their leaves. To little sun, though, and they get those long floppy dark green leaves that my leopard orchid has. There is a happy medium.
Right now, they live next to my balcony door, but I'll be moving them into my bedroom soon. The trees are outside and that has freed up a whole lot of space in there. The orchids are a bit crowded on the plant stand where they are ... a move will make them happy.
This is my first orchid, last summer:
herongale took this picture when she was visiting. This is a Phalaenopsis orchid, or "moth orchid." They are all over the friggin' place this year. It's hard to turn around this year without running into them.
This variety is called "Join Angel." I call it my angel orchid.
This is what my angel orchid looks like now:
You can see that it's grown a bit. I've had it turned one side to the window all winter, so it kind of grew "wings" in the direction of the window.
Yes, I am a twit who doesn't remove the little tags from his plants. :D The wooden dowel rod you see stuck down into the potting medium is for watering purposes - when you pull out the stick, and it's dry, it's time to water. If the stick is still wet, no water necessary yet. I have them in all my orchids, and it makes figuring out when to water them very very easy.
You can also see a root growing right out of the pot on the left of this picture. It just kind of dangles and does its own thing. It's okay for an orchid to throw roots out of the pot - the pot and all the stuff in it is really just there to hold the plant up, not to protect the roots as with other plants. It's fine and actually healthy for the roots to be exposed to air.
Phal orchids are epiphytes, meaning they grow on other plants (trees in this case). Most orchids are epiphytes. They use their roots to cling to the tree and collect moisture and nutrients. They are not parasites, and draw nothing from the tree but physical support.
Naturally, all the blooms eventually fell off my angel orchid. The flowers can last three months or more, but all good things come to an end. It has just been growing leaves since then, until last week I saw a little growth on it.
It's growing out between the leaves there in the center of the picture. This isn't what new roots look like when they grow. It seems to be a new flower spike. :D
Also - note all the algae growing at the top of the bark in this pic heh.
In cultivation, Phal orchids are potted in shredded bark, wood chips, spaghum moss, or something similar that is loose and fluffy. They are NEVER potted in soil. Some other types of orchids can't tolerate being "potted" even in wood bark, and must have their roots fully exposed at all times. This makes them hard to keep, because you have to control their humidity very carefully. Phal orchids, because they can be potted in a medium, are much easier to care for.
It's easy to overwater an orchid. Basically, you soak the potting medium, then let it dry out before watering again. This can sometimes take multiple weeks. There is often a space at the bottom of the pot that's full of something like styrofoam packing peanuts, to ensure that water drains out of the potting medium. You don't repot orchids because they are outgrowing their pots, unless they are really crawling everywhere - you repot them when their potting medium starts to rot and break down, and is no longer fluffy.
I hope to have new flowers on this plant soon, to show you all!
This is a picture from a couple weeks ago.
I bought this orchid as a "pity purchase" - it looked very pathetic in the store. It was getting way too much water and way too little light, and the leaves were long and floppy, and it was shedding flower buds right there in the store. I felt sorry for it and bought it. What flowers it had produced fell off it within a week, but I left the flower spike on the plant, and the spike soon sent out a secondary spike. I clipped the main spike just above the new secondary spike and I'm getting a small spray of new flowers now.
This variety is called "Leopard Prince." I call it my leopard orchid.
Here's what it looks like now. The other buds from that prior picture have opened up. You can see the place on the spike where I clipped it above the secondary spike. It's not as impressive as the angel orchid at its prime, but since this is a sad, abused little plant, I am very pleased with it anyway. Note that orchid leaves are not supposed to flop over like this one's does. Reference the pics of the angel orchid for how orchid leaves should be ... well, they shouldn't really be standing UP like the angel's, but they should be firm and strong like that.
This one is getting a lot better, though. :D It lost three lower leaves (they pretty much rotted off from the prior overwatering), but the ones it kept are a lot stiffer now. One of them even sort of stands up. :D
A close-up on the blooms. I really love these spotted flowers.
This variety is called, uncreatively, "Big Round." I'm calling it herongale's orchid, cos she bought it for me.
This was also something of a pity puchase. It is way more beautiful IRL than I can ever seem to capture with a camera, and it was SITTING IN WATER at the store. >:E Herongale said , if it's still there on Sunday, I'll buy it for you. So we went back on Sunday. It was still there. And still SITTING IN WATER. >:E Dorkasses. So herongale bought me the plant as a rescue.
It's actually two orchids in the same pot. The second orchid's flower spike is looking kind of sad, as you might expect of an abused plant. It dropped two buds, and of the two buds that have opened, one of them is kind of mutant-looking, and the other doesn't look so hot either. I may clip them off soon to spare the plant the embarrassment (and make it save energy).
I haven't watered it since we brought it home. It's already shed three leaves between the two plants from the overwatering, but the remaining leaves are looking good and I have high hopes that it will soon recover and be beautiful and healthy.
I give my orchids bright light filtered through blinds - they get maybe an hour of direct sunlight in the morning (morning sunlight is good for ANY plant) and the rest of the day their sun is filtered. Too much sun is bad for orchids ... midday direct sun will burn their leaves. To little sun, though, and they get those long floppy dark green leaves that my leopard orchid has. There is a happy medium.
Right now, they live next to my balcony door, but I'll be moving them into my bedroom soon. The trees are outside and that has freed up a whole lot of space in there. The orchids are a bit crowded on the plant stand where they are ... a move will make them happy.