Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Things to cheer us up on bleak days... , 1 by orchidfancy

orchidfancy wrote:
Playing in the back yard and with his toys that is Josh middle name. I feel like I have another two year old in the house , toys everywhere all the time. Phaleanopsis do not have a rest period like the dendrobriums. They pretty much bloom at any time. I have some that bloom in the summer and some blooming in the spring or in the winter. Figure about a year between blooms or at least 6 months. The orchid that my husband gave me in December 2008 for my birthday lasted five months and it is ready to bloom again this time for Valentines day. The thing with orchids except for some they do not like to be wet, they like good drainage at all the time, for that I use sterofoam peanuts. They need to be a little dry between watering . Also make sure that your water them the day before you apply fertilizer of else you will burn the roots. I have been raising orchids for about 25 years, At one point I had a green house that I gave it up for a sun room , I still have a fair number of orchids.and some tropicals. Here is this morning bloom on my Arum , what a nice thing to start the day a bloom a a cup of java...... Now I am waiting for my Aporocactus flagelliformis , in the next few weeks.