Orchids: Cool October Orchids, 0 by MaypopLaurel

MaypopLaurel wrote:
Scott, really the people who are doing the cloning get all the credit. They are like the panda breeders and I am like a zoo with a few pandas. Maybe after a few years, and if all goes well, I will have a division to share of this or that. About your Den. lindleyi...don't start starving it until after Thanksgiving. I am watering the cool Den. mounts two to three times a week now instead of daily. They are still being fertilized on a regular weekly schedule. I look for signs of yellowing or dropping leaves to let me know when to quit if I need to start earlier. Sometimes you have to make them go dormant and other times they tell you it's their time. Keep them out as long as it's above forty or so degrees. If you have a cool night bring them in and then put them out again. They need as much light as possible to set blooms well. As soon as this cold wave passes I'll hang mine on the deck rails in direct sun at this point and leave them out until the next cold wave.

It's been close to freezing the last day or so. Here is a view of the greenhut from the great room. You can't see the other hundred or so orchids hanging on the other side of the Vandas. I can stand in the kitchen and see this view as well. It's comforting on cold days. The current temperature in there is almost seventy degrees and humidity is close to 80%.