Indoor orchids

doberly

Old thread I know, but I am curious if you are using a specific type of fertilizer for your orchid plants. I bought two orchids (Phalaenopsis to be exact) at orchid republic last month. They look fine but I want to keep them healthy.

Misslayed

Baby Bio make a specific orchid feed (same shape bottle but pink). But don't overdo it, orchids really do thrive on neglect.

doberly

Thank you! Will research about it.

madjackslam

Mine seem to do better with a feed, but I just use ordinary baby bio.

I enjoy trying to keep them alive and get them to flower again, but for cost-effectiveness and quality of home decoration, I think there's a good argument for treating them as a bunch of flowers and composting them when they've finished flowering. I bought a lovely speckled pink number from Ikea for £5, and it's been flowering for three months. What bunch of flowers gives you that value? When it finishes, I'll try and coax it to flower again, but I doubt it will be as good as this first one.

Steve_xx

madjackslam wrote: »

Mine seem to do better with a feed, but I just use ordinary baby bio.

I enjoy trying to keep them alive and get them to flower again, but for cost-effectiveness and quality of home decoration, I think there's a good argument for treating them as a bunch of flowers and composting them when they've finished flowering. I bought a lovely speckled pink number from Ikea for £5, and it's been flowering for three months. What bunch of flowers gives you that value? When it finishes, I'll try and coax it to flower again, but I doubt it will be as good as this first one.

It will be as good when it flowers again. I have a speckled one from Ikea and it's on it's second flower now. This flower is just the same as the first.

All good advice on here. Orchids are actually very easy and do not need too much fuss. As others have said, don't leave them in water for than an hour while they soak up what they want. Make sure the water is tepid, so as not to shock them in colder months. Rainwater is preferable but I have used tap water. I have a water butt that collects rainwater and so I decant some from it into a watering can and leave it inside so that the water reaches room temperature, ready for the orchids.

They like it relatively cool.

Oh, and don't be tempted to repot them if they look cramped. They need to be cramped in order to flower.

strawberries1

How have you looked after them?

Flick216 wrote: »

I have two indoor orchids in my office that have been there for 3 years! They are flowering beautifully at the moment.

They seem to last forever and even if they look as if they will never flower again, they will.