orchid | Brooklyn Orchids

Beginner Tips on How to Grow Phalaenopsis Orchids

April 19, 2010 14 Comments

So you just brought home your first orchid – or possibly even more intimidating, you were given an orchid as a gift. Now what??

Many people throw out their orchid once the blooms fall off because they think it’s dying. Not so! What you should remember is that an orchid is a plant that, if cared for properly, can bloom again and again, year after year. How do you keep your Phalaenopsis orchid (aka moth orchid) happy and healthy so that it will bloom again in the future? Here are a few key tips that will help you maintain your orchid’s health:

Brooklyn Orchids Merchandise

Shameless Self-Promotion for My Zazzle Store!

April 15, 2010 2 Comments

You may have already discovered this by browsing my blog, but I have a Zazzle store called Sarah’s Botanical Shop where you can buy all sorts of goodies with my original photography printed on them. Most of the products use photos of orchids (duh!) but I also offer some items with general nature photography that I’ve taken at various botanical gardens over the past year.

One of my best-selling items is this pink & green Cymbidium orchid postage stamp that you see to the right. I’ve sold several copies of this stamp just this week!

My store offers tons of stamps, plus fun things like mousepads, notecards, mugs, calendars, and even baby onesies and doggie tee-shirts.

Zazzle is offering a discount TODAY ONLY—10.40% off all orders. The discount code to use is TAXDAYZAZZLE, which will be applied during the checkout process. So please, feel free to shop away in my store—especially today. Hint: there are lots of great items for Mother’s Day gifts! 🙂

My Orchid Garden

My Updated Orchid Setup

April 9, 2010 3 Comments

Last week I made a few changes to the orchid setup in my apartment. I did some reading up on Phalaenopsis orchids and determined that mine might be getting too much light in my very bright southern-facing windows. A couple of them have a red tinge around the edge of the leaves, which is a sign of too much light. And as I recently posted, a couple of my Phals are in pretty bad shape.

I decided to do a little rearranging and see whether the altered light source helps at all. According to some orchid experts, eastern exposure is acceptable for Phals. I don’t have a straight up eastern-facing window, but the northern-facing window at the front of my apartment is actually a bay window that gets some pretty good light from the east in the morning. So I moved four of my Phals to my desk in the front room:

New York Botanical Garden, Orchid Shows

NYBG Orchid Show Ends This Sunday

April 9, 2010 No Comments

If you haven’t yet made a trip to the New York Botanical Garden for this year’s Orchid Show, there are only 3 days left (including today)! The final day for Limp phal leaf is this Sunday, April 11.

The show was so breathtaking that I went not once, but twice. There are more than 5,000 orchids to see — an amazing array of color and variety! The $20 admission fee is well worth it; I highly recommend that you check out the show before it’s too late.

Also, the show curators change out some of the orchids every couple of weeks, so even if you went to the show early on you may still see a whole bunch of different orchids if you return this weekend.

Get your tickets now! I command you. 🙂

My Orchid Garden

More Sad Orchids in Need of Help

March 30, 2010 4 Comments

I have a couple more Phals that are not looking very happy, so in another rescue attempt I repotted them this morning.

But before I tell you about those two orchids, I want to show you a photo of the tiny root nubbin that I discovered on my recovering Phal that I wrote about yesterday. I would have posted the photo yesterday, but to be honest I didn’t want to do an import of just one photo to my computer. Anyway, have a look:

I’m not sure what that brown speckling is on the base of the crown but it’s been there for quite awhile and hasn’t spread, so I’m guessing it’s not a problem. But, let’s forget about that and talk about the more important element. Look at the new root growth! I’m excited because this poor orchid has been looking really sad for some time, probably at least three or four months now.

So. Being that this orchid is finally starting to turn around after I repotted it in spaghnum moss (not packed too tightly), I decided it was time to switch out the potting medium for my other two sad orchids.

My Orchid Garden

Update on Phal Rescue Attempt

March 29, 2010 4 Comments

Remember awhile back when I tried the ‘sphag-n-bag’ method of rescuing a Phalaenopsis orchid, but aborted the effort after a couple of days? After I had removed the orchid from the bag, I potted it in a terracotta pot with sphagnum moss. Based on the advice I got on the Orchid Board, I then decided that the orchid would be better off potted in something that would get better air flow, so I bought a black plastic net pot like this:

The pot only cost me $.80 at a local gardening supply store. Win!

I took the risk of repotting the poor plant yet again (I had been effing with it a lot lately) and placed it into the net pot with moist sphagnum moss. It’s been doing ok like this for the past few weeks – at least, no turn for the worse – and just the other day I inspected it to see if there was any new root growth. Lo and behold, I found a tiny green nubbin at the base of the crown, so it appears that a new root is growing! I may have saved this poor sad plant after all.

I hope I haven’t jinxed the orchid’s health by posting about it just now. More updates to come, whether good or bad.