Just moved from Wi to Phoenix area and my orchids survived 30 hours in the trunk of my car. Yea. Looking for a good spot in my new home and I noticed the courtyard gets sun in the morning and then shaded the rest of the day. So I put my plants out and within a couple of hours the leaves were white, yellow, black or had brown burn marks :-(
Boy do I have a lot to learn. I hope some will come back but I won't be surprised if they all are gone.
I saw a sign at Lowes the next day that said something like,
"Full sun does not mean full sun in the Phoenix area"
The sun is definitely hotter here.
Live and learn,
Dee
Learning the hard way
Hello Dee,
Not only is it hot here, it's really dry most of the time. Try the orchid ICU, lots of misting, no direct sun, and let them rest a little. There are commercial orchid growers in the Phoenix area, but I don't know how they do it. (Greenhouses and climate control, I suspect!) The good news is that there are some amazing plants that thrive here. Your courtyard actually sounds like it has great conditions for desert adapted plants and subtropicals. You're just starting this adventure, you'll find flowering plants that do well here but they're different from what grows in Wisconsin. You might not want to cut cactus flowers to bring in the house, but it's lovely to sit out by the garden, at least some part of the day, almost every day of the year. Enjoy!
I have 3 orchids in my bathroom window. Nothing fancy, actually off the clearance rack at Lowes. The house walls are 10" thick, so there is a nice shelf. With both of us showering, they love the steam! Two of them have bloomed again, after having bloomed at Lowes and been put on the clearance rack. I haven't fed or done anything to them, but for the last 5 months they have looked great.
Welcome to Arizona Dee!
Susie
Here's my orchid story: While I was in the hospital two years ago, my sister brought me a little orchid from Trader Joe's. It cheered my room, made it home, and bloomed for weeks as I recovered. I then parked it in the back of the plant shelf to keep it comfortable until its inevitable death. A year later I realized Egad! it was not only alive but had a new set of leaves. So I read everything I could find on orchids, re-potted, fed and watered and misted and...Wow, it re-bloomed! I decided to try it on the screened porch for the summer. Now the flower has wilted and the leaves are not looking too good, and I was about to put on the back of the shelf again, until today...it's putting out a new set of leaves! Maybe I'll move it to the bathroom, that's a good idea. So they are remarkably tough, don't give up, they may just surprise you and adapt to the desert. Some combination of neglect and TLC seems to help.....
The bathroom is a good idea. I have have room around the tub and a window above. I will give that a shot.
I am now on the hunt for desert adaptable plants.