I feel like I’ve been sitting around twiddling my thumbs for the longest time, waiting for something interesting to happen with my orchids. Well, now that I have one orchid in bloom and four new orchids, all kind of fun things are going on! First I’ll show you my Oncidium, which is almost in full bloom right now:
I was hoping that my NOID Oncidium blooms would start to open up on my birthday (June 13) as they did the last time the plant bloomed two years ago. Well, that didn’t happen, but they did begin to open up the morning after…so, close enough! Compare what the buds looked like yesterday morning…
Over the holidays last year I received a lovely gift from my in-laws: a gift certificate for Santa Barbara Orchid Estate. My husband and I visited the place way back in May 2011; it was my first ever visit to an orchid nursery, and I loved it. I didn’t buy anything when we visited because I was worried about transporting orchids safely on a plane (which I have since done successfully). So I was excited to have the opportunity to have some orchids shipped directly to me from the estate!
My orchids have, sadly, been rather dormant ever since we moved into our current apartment at the end of last June. The “orchid room” window faces southwest rather than south like it did in our last apartment, so the light isn’t quite as bright here. There has been a fair amount of new leaf, root, and pseudobulb growth, but spikes are another story. So I was thrilled at the end of March to discover a spike on my NOID Oncidium that last bloomed for me two years ago! If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you might already be aware of this development.
The spike was hiding inside the folds between the leaves and the pseudobulb, and it was a little bent but still totally viable. It was about an inch and a half long by the time I found it.
A few of the most common questions I hear from readers are:
So I thought it was high time I wrote a post with advice on how to nurse an orchid back to health. Please note that these tips specifically refer to Phalaenopsis (aka Moth Orchid) care, because that is the most popular type of household orchid. Also, I’m not going to discuss how to treat orchid pest or viral/bacterial problems in this post…we’ll save those for another day.
I finally attended Orchid Evenings at the New York Botanical Garden this past Saturday—and I had a wonderful time!
My husband and I didn’t have any plans for the weekend, but he had his company car so we had more freedom to get around the city. On Saturday morning it dawned on me that having the car gave us the perfect opportunity to drive up to the NYBG for Orchid Evenings, so we bought our tickets online for the 7pm entry. Regular tickets are $35 apiece and include one signature cocktail; if you’re between the ages of 21 and 40 and you want to spend $100 per person you can upgrade to the Young Garden Circle Lounge for a private entrance, open bar, light bites, vodka taste testing, and more access inside the Conservatory.