I've got one that I've had for 23 years. It has never been repotted, although I do feed it occasionally with orchid food. Some years it doesn't produce a flower spike, other years I might get 2 or 3. Amazing is right!
OK, so now my Orchid has finished flowering, all the flowers have gone and the two spikes have died so I cut them back. It has some beautiful glossy new leaves and the roots are starting to poke out of the bottom of the pot.
Should I repot it and if so, when? I must say I'm very impressed at the flowering period, it was in full flower in March and stayed in flower until the end of August - brilliant!
gosh - hadn't realised phalenopsis were so complicated - it is the one plant my son manages to maintain healthily whilst I am out of the country for a month at a time.
His recipe for success?... and I have five which have been flowering over the last five years:
They like to be light but not in direct sunlight.
Once a week a pops them in a large washing up bowl - waters from the top with tap water and leaves to stand in the bowl for about one hour. Then lifts out, drains off exessive water and pops back in their pot-holders taking care to leave the surface roots exposed to the air.
That's it. They are all flourishig and poroduce new flower spikes regularly.
ps: the ones you buy in Ikea for £5.99 do just as well as any of the others!
@ Mike Allen - believe me you are much better off looking at a photo of my best boy Max - I won't be changing it to a picture of me anytime soon!
An Orchid update - I followed the instructions in the GW mag a while ago, I trimmed some of the roots, potted it in new compost but back in it's original pot, kept it in a transparent container (which seems to be important) and I now have a flower spike - yippee!!
I got a beautiful Phal from B&Q of all places the other week, (just before Mother's day) 2 stems, white background with dark cerise and purple markings. £5 thank you very much ! I have another 5, a couple of which I got from an orchid grower, named and about (gulp) £15! I was going through what OH called my "orchid period". Some flower more often than others, but one, which dropped all it's blooms the day after I bought it , it was in a marquee in November, took 3 years before I got it to flower again.
I started growing o orchids when my son bought me one for mothers day. Now i have 7 phalenopsis and although i did not know how to look after them through trial and error i now have three still in flower and the others with new spikes and going mad growing new roots and new leaves. I just dunk them in rain water every 7 days and give them a weak feed three times out of four. I am now thrilled with the way they are responding.
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Thankyou, Jean-Marie.
This is an amazing plant, although there are no new buds, the flowers still look as fresh as they did back in March!!
I've got one that I've had for 23 years. It has never been repotted, although I do feed it occasionally with orchid food. Some years it doesn't produce a flower spike, other years I might get 2 or 3. Amazing is right!
OK, so now my Orchid has finished flowering, all the flowers have gone and the two spikes have died so I cut them back. It has some beautiful glossy new leaves and the roots are starting to poke out of the bottom of the pot.
Should I repot it and if so, when? I must say I'm very impressed at the flowering period, it was in full flower in March and stayed in flower until the end of August - brilliant!
gosh - hadn't realised phalenopsis were so complicated - it is the one plant my son manages to maintain healthily whilst I am out of the country for a month at a time.
His recipe for success?... and I have five which have been flowering over the last five years:
They like to be light but not in direct sunlight.
Once a week a pops them in a large washing up bowl - waters from the top with tap water and leaves to stand in the bowl for about one hour. Then lifts out, drains off exessive water and pops back in their pot-holders taking care to leave the surface roots exposed to the air.
That's it. They are all flourishig and poroduce new flower spikes regularly.
ps: the ones you buy in Ikea for £5.99 do just as well as any of the others!
@ Mike Allen - believe me you are much better off looking at a photo of my best boy Max - I won't be changing it to a picture of me anytime soon!
An Orchid update - I followed the instructions in the GW mag a while ago, I trimmed some of the roots, potted it in new compost but back in it's original pot, kept it in a transparent container (which seems to be important) and I now have a flower spike - yippee!!
I got a beautiful Phal from B&Q of all places the other week, (just before Mother's day) 2 stems, white background with dark cerise and purple markings. £5 thank you very much ! I have another 5, a couple of which I got from an orchid grower, named and about (gulp) £15! I was going through what OH called my "orchid period". Some flower more often than others, but one, which dropped all it's blooms the day after I bought it , it was in a marquee in November, took 3 years before I got it to flower again.
Prior to receiving this one, I had never had any interest in Orchids but I think I'm becoming hooked now!
I started growing o orchids when my son bought me one for mothers day. Now i have 7 phalenopsis and although i did not know how to look after them through trial and error i now have three still in flower and the others with new spikes and going mad growing new roots and new leaves. I just dunk them in rain water every 7 days and give them a weak feed three times out of four. I am now thrilled with the way they are responding.