I have a green thumb. I like to grow things, and I'm usually pretty good at it. My mama is a gardener, as is my aunt and my grandmother. I look forward to the day where I can grow a little garden in my own front or back yard, but for now I'm sticking with growing things in pots on my balcony. And indoor houseplants, which is where this story begins:
I have a green thumb. And I'm also stubborn.
My freshman year of college, I decided I wanted an orchid and, impulsively (my modus operandi when it comes to trying new things, remember this?) blew my grocery budget money on one at the store on an afternoon in February. On the bus ride home, I googled "how to care for orchids" on my phone. The results were not promising.
Orchids are a pretty diverse group-- they belong to one of the two largest families of flowering plants-- and come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. The common thread: as perennial epiphytes, they mostly grow nestled in, anchored to, branches of trees in the rainforest and they are very, very, very picky houseplants. In theory, they need the same thing all plants need, namely: light, water, and appropriate temperature but they are such a sensitive plant (my roommates will tell you that I have been known to use a far less kind descriptor than sensitive when discussing my orchid misadventures) that the incorrect quantity and/or combination of light, water, and temperature will make it start to die, and once the process starts there's no reversing it. My grocery store orchid, for one, decided it did not appreciate Boone in February (I usually don't either) and did not last much past that fateful bus ride.
I took it as a personal challenge (I once went vegetarian for eight years because my dad thought I couldn't do it) and poured over research, talked to other orchid owners, and even visited the orchid exhibit at the national botanical gardens (not strictly for research purposes, photos above) in preparation for my next orchid. I killed that one within the week.
And another. And another. My friends and family teased me, "keep her away from the orchids! She'll kill 'em in an instant!" I was (am?) an orchid serial killer. I think I killed four or five orchids within the span of fifteen months.
I have one now that's made in nearly a month. It's still alive and blooming. So I guess I've learned a little about how to care for orchids? Maybe?
Some tips:
-DON'T overwater. I always struggled with this, my thought process going something like: "they are flowers from the rain forest for heaven's sake. Surely they need to be watered more than once every few weeks." Nope, they don't. Don't ask me why. (If your orchid dies and you didn't sit it on the bus stop bench on a thirty five degree afternoon in February, you probably overwatered it.)
-Don't use ice cubes. I get that the packaging sometimes says that you can do this (maybe those particular flowers are engineered to accept the drastic temperature change? I wouldn't risk it.) but every time I've tried that method the plant has died. I think the, you know, frozen water I put on the tropical roots had something do with that.
-Keep it near a sunny window. Or use a plant light. Or both. Right now, my orchid is sitting in a moderately sunny window and I have a light on in for several hours a day.
-Make sure the pot it's in has good drainage-- or else, make sure to pour out the excess water after the plant's had a little while to soak it up. Orchids need to be damp, not drowning.
-If the blooms fall off, the plant isn't dead. Even if it seems like it's gonna take forever to re-bloom. Sometimes it will take up to two years.
Anything else? Other tips? Oh, one more:
-Knock on wood. Throw a handful of salt over your shoulder. Find a four leaf clover. Good luck.
-Madelyn
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