Hey Smoodgie,
Took your great advice about how to care for my orchid. I wanted to post a picture so you could see how great it came back! The flowers are twice the size of the original - thanks again for your advice, it worked wonderfully! :D
ctw
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Smoodgie I have a picture of my fireplace on the forum and you can see one of the orchids in it. Sorry, I don't have any other pictures, I'll see if DS can take some for me.
My purple one is down to a couple of flowers now and it's branching out again with lots of buds on it. I'm enjoying them so much and whoever comes to my house they go "AW" when they see them.
oh your orchids are so beautiful....trust me im dropping the hints....so the moth orchid is a good way to start... :D thank you for your advice and instructions on how to care for them....when i get mine i will do my best to keep it alive :laugh: and perhaps post nice pics of mine too
smiles
janetc
Here's proof that orchids aren't hard to take care of.... I have two Mikasa orchids, which are in small hanging pots. They're hanging in front of the sidelights on either side of the front door. I keep forgetting to water them, and I was sure they were on the brink of death. But when I took them down on the weekend ot water them (for the first ime in over a week!!), I was shocked to see that one of them has TWO flower stalks coming out of it!! So, hardly any water, no fertilizer, no TLC, and the thing is growing like a weed!!
Still waiting for the mystery orchid flowers to bloom....
Happy to help clear up the mystery surrounding orchids :) They really are easy to take care of. If you do a Google search for "moth orchid" or "phalaenopsis orchid", you can find all sort of useful information. Also, I bought a nice orchid book from Chapters that's really helpful. It has lots of beautiful pictures too :)
Oh but yours is soooo beautiful Smoodgie!! and thankyou soo much for all the info regarding the orchids too, if it was not for you, i would not know about orchids, how pretty and fairly easy they are to take care of. I really thought they where quite mysterious, and exotic and didn't really know what the cost of them where either. But now i am quite confident i can take care of one of these wonderful flowers :applaud:
$19.99?!?! Hey, I got ripped off!! My new one was $29.99 at Loblaws. Oh well, my $5.00 mystery orchid makes up for it ;)
Here are some pics.....
Man i want an orchid soooo bad now! I saw them at c.t. this week and they where $19.99! I was soooo tempted to buy one but i want to wait and tell my kids when they ask about a Mom's day gift! Ohhh i can't wait to get an orchid too! :D
With all the talk here about orchids, I got an urge to buy another one!! So, seeing as I don't have anyone to give me one for Mother's Day ;), I decided to buy one for myself last night when I was at Loblaws. It's yellow & pink, and has two stems of flowers. There are still a couple of buds on it yet to open, so I'm hoping the flowers will be around for a long time :)
Still waiting for the mystery orchid to bloom......
Edited to add this tip about taking care of moth orchids.....
[I]
The really important thing is to provide humidity. Bathrooms or kitchens are good, but if you want to enjoy them in the sitting room, use a large underplate or dish, fill it with attractive pebbles and keep it topped up with water. The plant itself should be watered only moderately but spray the leaves as often as you like.
Cut back the stem when the flowers are withered to just below the point of the lowest flowers and with luck the rising sap will give you still more flower heads.[/I]
I think an orchid would make a great Mother's Day gift -- good idea!! Now, start dropping hints!! ;)
janet, I'm actually kind of delinquent when it comes to watering my orchids. I try to water them once a week or so -- and I hardly ever use fertilizer, because I'm in too much of a rush most of the time!! I've got different orchids planted in three different mediums -- moss, coconut bark, and some sort of other bark mixture. The moss retains moisture for a lot longer than the bark, so that orchid doesn't require watering as frequently. I also have a couple of orchids that have roots that are totally exposed. Those ones dry out the fastest.
All my orchids are in or near south-facing windows with indirect sunlight -- either sheer drapes or frosted glass windows.
ctw, I'll post pics when my mystery orchid blooms :)
luvto, the Costco orchids are really nice -- large, hardy, and disease-free (judging by Costco orchid). Can you post some pics of yours??
i just hinted to my DD"s that mothers day is coming and i would really love a orchid :laugh:
smiles
janetc
I'd love to see a picture of your orchid when it does bloom! Like you said, after waiting 2 years, I hope it's worth it! :D
ctw
My little orchid was just a withered little stalk when Smoodgie gave me the advice to cut it down to the first healthy joint, (it was brown and withered about three inches down, and no flowers left) and to keep it moist, but not dripping. She recommended soaking it in the sink and letting the excess water drain out. Also, she said they like the sun. I relocated mine to a southern exposure window, (conveniently right by the sink) and I soak it every three days or so. The blooms are twice the size they were originally! I didn't use any fertilizer, but I'm sure that helps a lot as well. Once mine started a shoot out sideways, it grew like gangbusters.
For your Mother's day hint....I saw that Superstore had them in a clay pot for $19.99, the kind like mine. The fancier coloured ones were more.
Thanks again Smoodgie....I had little hope for the plant based on what it used to look like!
ctw
Actually that will be a good idea to tell my kids what i want for Mothers day, i never know what i want when they ask me? ;)
Smoodgie, those are the orchids I bought at Costco....they were very inexpensive compared to what other stores were selling them for. I'm very pleased with mine. I have one on the mantle of the fireplace in a picture I posted recently.
often do you water them and do they require lots of sunlight, where do you guys keep yours
smiles
janetc
Tks. smoodgie, i think i will look for that type of flower next time i am out and about. It will be fun waiting for it to flower! :)
Yay, ctw!!!!! That's great!! :applaud: Thanks so much for posting the picture of your orchid -- it looks so beautiful!! :) I'm happy my advice worked for you :)
I'm getting excited -- an orchid that I bought more than two years ago is FINALLY on the verge of blooming for the first time. I have no idea what the flowers are going to look like -- I bought the orchid at an orchid show for $5. The girl selling it had traded it for an orchid she was selling, and by the time I came along near the end of the show, she just wanted to get rid of it. It didn't have any flowers at the time, just a couple of stalks. I thought it was going to flower in the fall, when this little green knob appeared at the top of a stalk. Then it just stopped growing. But about a month ago, I took it into the kitchen to water it, and it looked like the knob had gotten bigger. Now, it's become a stem a few inches long and the flower buds are starting to separate. I can't wait to see the flowers -- after waiting 2+ years, they better be nice!!!!
janet, orchids are actually quite easy to care for. Your best bet is to start off with a phaeleonopsis orchid (also called a moth orchid). That's the one in ctw's picture. You can buy them at Costco, Home Depot, Loblaws..... the flowers are big and beautiful, and the blooms last ages. I bought a moth orchid at Costco in Ferbuary 2005, and it STILL has flowers!! It's been blooming constantly for more than a year!!
I have my orchids near a window, no direct sunlight and I water mine weekly and every other week give them some fertilizer (Schultz). They prefer temp. of about 72degrees.
Yea janetc and chea are waiting patiently here, tap, tap, tap, come on, give it up, spill your guts heheheheh :D
im with you, im waiting for that secret :laugh:
smiles
janetc
Yes that is such a pretty flower, what is the secret??? :confused:
ctw, gorgeous orchids....I have 4 of those from Costco.....the very first one I bought is a white one and I had it flower for me 4 times already. The other 3 are, purple, yellow and yellow/greenish...
Everyone who sees them is amazed at how gorgeous they are, especially the purple one is a gigantic one, in size of flower and plant. :)
your orchid is beautiful :applaud: ....i would love one of those, could you or smoodgie teach me how to care for one
smiles
janetc