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Orchid Help please!
Hi everyone. I have always avoided having orchids in the house as I always thought they were hard work and never survived longer than a month or so (maybe my mother in law just has the hands of death for all orchids? I don't know ) however my friend bought me a wee little orchid in the summer which is gorgeous and without really trying I have managed to keep it alive. It still has four flowers and there is a new bud on the end I have noticed today. However, i think it needs repotting as the roots don't look terribly healthy, even thought the stem upwards looks fab. Does it need special compost? It seems to have a big clumps of something in, almost like bark? (You can tell I am very amateur - I apologise!!!) the pot is very small and I think a bigger one would be beneficial for it. Secondly, I rescued a new orchid today from homebase which was reduced as it looked practically dead. It had a gorgeous pot with it so I thought it was worth the money. I pulled off the dead flowers and three remain across 2 stalks. On the end of both stalks is a bud, and after a water it had really perked up. Anyway. Sorry to ramble I was just after some general orchid advise for this one. Should it be flowering in January? Does it ever need chopping back? Many thanks
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Hi NiKB, as long as the orchid is flowering it doesn't need cutting back and yes it's fine that it's flowering in January, 2 of mine are flowering and have more buds on.
They like to be quite pot bound, St their nature so don't worry if the roots are coming out of the pot, as long as the roots are healthy that's fine.
Like you I always thought that Orchids were difficult until 5 years ago when a friend bought us one as a housewarming present.....with little care (I didn't know what I was doing), it flowered continuously for 2 years.
I have reported it once in special Orchid compost and feed with Orhcid food during flowering, but don't repot when they are flowering.
Hope that helps, although it sounds as though really you don't need that much help
I think you've got the Orchid bug.....I love them.
There's another orchid thread on here somewhere with info on care, but SL has summed it up really.
Sorry, is that the real Edd? Have you been on magic mushrooms? What has this to do with NikB's question?
It will depend what sort of orchids you have. If they are phalenopsis (the most common ones sold in supermarkets and Ikea) they need to be in a light place, but not direct sunlight. They cannot bear standing in water, so I stand the pot in a bowl and water from the top once a week. Leave for an hour and then remove from the bowl, drain off excess water and put back in potholder. When they have finished flowering (mine sometimes go on for seven or eight months) you can cut the bare stem back either to a new bud or back to the base if has dried out. If you decide to repot do use orchid compost and mix with the soil already in the pot - it should be bulky to enable water to drain through quickly.
Some of the old roots will die back naturally, but you should get healthy new aerial roots appearing higher up. I think there was an article on repotting orchids in the GW magazine last month - have a look and see.
Good luck.