I bought this orchid from The Home Depot:
Can you tell me about this orchid?
It is marked Elephant Orchid
but I can't find any information on how to care for it.
You have a Spathoglottis of some sort. I am unfamiliar with the name "elephant orchid" as applied to a Spath; there is another orchid known by that name which is a very large-leaved Phalaenopsis. Your plant could well be a hybrid, rather than a species - without more info on the tag or detailed research it is hard to say.
Here is some info from a commercial site on care of Spathoglottis (no endorsement of the site itself intended) http://www.oglesbytc.com/CultureInfo/og_Spathoglottis.htm and if you do a web search for the genus you will also find more info and pics of different examples of Spaths.
If you are willing to subscribe (i.e. pay money) to this site (again, I am not endorsing this site per se) you could also get very detailed culture sheets for representative Spathoglottis species which would give you a good idea of what to do: http://www.orchidculture.com/COD/sheetlist_53.html#Spathoglottis
Here is a list of Spath species: http://www.golatofski.de/Pflanzenreich/gattung/s/spathoglottis.htm
Here is another reference site with some pics of selected species (scroll down to the Spathoglottis section): http://orchidspecies.com/indexser.htm
In any case, even without a correct name for it you have what seems to be a healthy, large and well-flowered plant; well done, enjoy it!
Cheers,
Huiray.
This message was edited May 12, 2005 7:24 PM
It's not a ground orchid is it? I got a couple of those at HD and the leaves are similar. If only they could talk...lol
Whatever it is...enjoy...
Hap
Happy,
Spathoglottis is also commonly called "ground orchid". (More correctly, that common name is given to Spathoglottis plicata) If yours has also flowered and the flower spike and flowers look like delecie's, and the pseudobulbs also look like those on delecie's plant yours is possibly also a Spathoglottis - but you ought to do a web search for that plant and look at the pics for comparison with yours.
Huiray.
huiray:
Thank you for the wonderful information that you provided. I thought the orchid was a spathoglottis plicata when I bought it but since I'm new to orchids, I wasn't sure. The spathoglottis plicatas are on my list to buy because they do well in the ground in South Florida: http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/programs/urbanhort/publications/PDF/terrestrial-orchids-for-south-fl.PDF
I plan to look for a few of them this weekend if I can make it here: http://www.redlandorchidfestival.org/
Have a great day. :-)
Veronica