The Orchid Vortex
16 Aug 2023 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneWe've never owned an orchid. Wax loves plants and she has filled the house with them kind of - not quite to jungle levels but that's mostly because of cats and their determination to climb and destroy things. But orchids are exotic and famously persnickety, or so she's said. Her grandmother had some.
But there's an orchid at work, along with a yucca, and caring for them is part of my job. My predecessor simply taught me to place the orchid in its inner pot in an immersion bath every seven days for about ten minutes, and that's it, so that's what I did at first. It seemed to work okay. The orchid had like one flower when I got here, and it kept it a long time. Then last Christmas on my vacation, the board members who came in forgot to water it, and it withered a bit and dropped its blooms, but a renewal of the old regimen had it flowering magnificently at the beginning of summer.
Except two days ago all the flowers were wilting! I googled how to tell what's wrong with orchids, and since then I've been reading in English and Finnish and watching YouTube videos and -
... Possibly two doses of ADHD medication in a day where there's about 15 minutes of work for me to do in five hours is excessive, but I need to take it the whole week for the trial so the psychiatrist can evaluate; I can skip it when there's nothing to do later.
- I've learned all kinds of stuff!
This orchid is a variety of phalaenopsis, which the vast majority of cheap and widely available orchids are.
In the wild they grow on trees in the rain forest. All their roots are exposed to air and able to photosynthesize (well, usually) in that environment.
Growing them with their roots exposed to air is pretty rare though, and not the default even with hobbyists. Partly this is probably due to water, which a potting medium around the roots can store a bit, so they stay moist and don't need watered as often as naked roots would. However, it's very important that they get enough air circulation around the roots and that they don't sit in water.
The pots they're typically sold in are pretty terrible for this, usually having drainage holes only in the bottom. A quick search in English shows plastic orchid pots with vertical ventilation slits are extremely widespread. They are usually transparent, which lets you see the roots, but also allows them to photosynthesize. However, they're commonly put inside a larger pot. This is probably nicer to look at but less pleasant for the orchid, though I gather phalaenopsis are pretty tolerant (for an orchid).
But searching in Finnish didn't turn up any of that. I guess these pots must be a recent development, because plastic pots with just a couple of drainage holes are all that you can find for orchids, even in websites that are just ABOUT orchids and not selling them. I'm actually pretty indignant about this. I can't even find a similar pot anywhere. The closest are the little ones made for herbs, but they're not clear and they're way too small.
Because I actually can't be sure if this one is dehydrated or over-watered right now. It doesn't seem diseased, so it's probably that, and I can't examine the roots properly because the inner pot, besides being unventilated, is way too tight and the roots are busting out. It's potted in bark chips too, which likely need to be changed anyway.
So I need to repot it, and I have to ask my boss for permission to buy the stuff it needs, which apparently includes a larger pot (and a larger outer pot), and I don't really want to ask for permission to order a cheap plastic orchid pot internationally. That's ridiculous. I'm already a bit nervous about saying it needs a new ceramic pot.
Anyway, after dunking my head in all this information over the past few days, I'm starting to think we need an orchid at home, if only so that information won't be wasted. But mainly because it's chafing me to pot it in a sub-optimal pot, so I want to soothe myself by putting a different orchid in a better one.
But there's an orchid at work, along with a yucca, and caring for them is part of my job. My predecessor simply taught me to place the orchid in its inner pot in an immersion bath every seven days for about ten minutes, and that's it, so that's what I did at first. It seemed to work okay. The orchid had like one flower when I got here, and it kept it a long time. Then last Christmas on my vacation, the board members who came in forgot to water it, and it withered a bit and dropped its blooms, but a renewal of the old regimen had it flowering magnificently at the beginning of summer.
Except two days ago all the flowers were wilting! I googled how to tell what's wrong with orchids, and since then I've been reading in English and Finnish and watching YouTube videos and -
... Possibly two doses of ADHD medication in a day where there's about 15 minutes of work for me to do in five hours is excessive, but I need to take it the whole week for the trial so the psychiatrist can evaluate; I can skip it when there's nothing to do later.
- I've learned all kinds of stuff!
This orchid is a variety of phalaenopsis, which the vast majority of cheap and widely available orchids are.
In the wild they grow on trees in the rain forest. All their roots are exposed to air and able to photosynthesize (well, usually) in that environment.
Growing them with their roots exposed to air is pretty rare though, and not the default even with hobbyists. Partly this is probably due to water, which a potting medium around the roots can store a bit, so they stay moist and don't need watered as often as naked roots would. However, it's very important that they get enough air circulation around the roots and that they don't sit in water.
The pots they're typically sold in are pretty terrible for this, usually having drainage holes only in the bottom. A quick search in English shows plastic orchid pots with vertical ventilation slits are extremely widespread. They are usually transparent, which lets you see the roots, but also allows them to photosynthesize. However, they're commonly put inside a larger pot. This is probably nicer to look at but less pleasant for the orchid, though I gather phalaenopsis are pretty tolerant (for an orchid).
But searching in Finnish didn't turn up any of that. I guess these pots must be a recent development, because plastic pots with just a couple of drainage holes are all that you can find for orchids, even in websites that are just ABOUT orchids and not selling them. I'm actually pretty indignant about this. I can't even find a similar pot anywhere. The closest are the little ones made for herbs, but they're not clear and they're way too small.
Because I actually can't be sure if this one is dehydrated or over-watered right now. It doesn't seem diseased, so it's probably that, and I can't examine the roots properly because the inner pot, besides being unventilated, is way too tight and the roots are busting out. It's potted in bark chips too, which likely need to be changed anyway.
So I need to repot it, and I have to ask my boss for permission to buy the stuff it needs, which apparently includes a larger pot (and a larger outer pot), and I don't really want to ask for permission to order a cheap plastic orchid pot internationally. That's ridiculous. I'm already a bit nervous about saying it needs a new ceramic pot.
Anyway, after dunking my head in all this information over the past few days, I'm starting to think we need an orchid at home, if only so that information won't be wasted. But mainly because it's chafing me to pot it in a sub-optimal pot, so I want to soothe myself by putting a different orchid in a better one.
(no subject)
Date: 16 Aug 2023 12:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16 Aug 2023 01:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16 Aug 2023 01:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17 Aug 2023 03:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17 Aug 2023 07:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17 Aug 2023 07:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17 Aug 2023 08:25 am (UTC)We put a climbing cage around it so nobody would accidentally bump it or squadh it and animals can't eat it and it just does its thing in the back of the garden, behind a defunct play house.
(no subject)
Date: 16 Aug 2023 05:59 pm (UTC)Could you cut slits in a plastic pot with a sharp knife?
(no subject)
Date: 16 Aug 2023 07:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 18 Aug 2023 02:55 am (UTC)That's been me with daylilies this year - I went from having zero to having five, with 3 more on their way to me - and it's dizzying but fun! Enjoy your new orchid project. ♥
(no subject)
Date: 18 Aug 2023 06:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 21 Aug 2023 04:43 am (UTC)My three in-transit daylilies arrived yesterday and were planted! And one of my other ones has finally put up a stalk, so I'll get to see its flowers!
(no subject)
Date: 21 Aug 2023 07:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 26 Aug 2023 09:38 pm (UTC)Normally I take the rational approach of buying bulbs a few at a time, I swear. :P Though I am always looking for ways to sneakily acquire plants for free instead of buying them. (Speaking of which, I think I need to divide my two potted peonies this year... which means I'll have four peonies, woohoo!) The ~eventual~ plan is for the daylilies to turn themselves into more daylilies, and possibly even to experiment with breeding them at some point. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 27 Aug 2023 07:20 am (UTC)I have no idea how to propagate lilies, now that I think about it. Do you divide them at the bulb or something? Are your potted peonies little, like, house plant sized, and not big bushes like outdoor ones? It's funny to talk to someone who has potted versions of plants that are growing in our yard; n this climate it's usually the other way around, plants that only grow inside here that are happy in gardens for other people...
(no subject)
Date: 28 Aug 2023 05:20 am (UTC)On which topic, yep, dividing them works just about exactly like you'd expect: wait for the plant to grow enough, dig it up in autumn, clean all the dirt off, cut it into two. Works the same for peonies. Though plenty of people artificially pollinate their lilies and produce new plants from seed, too!
My peonies are in pots outside, so they're... not quite houseplant-sized, but also not enormous, yet. When I bought my house ~6 years ago, I dug them (well, it - they were a single plant before that point) up and brought them with me; since I only had smaller pots, I ended up cutting it in two for transport, and so far they've stayed in the pots. This year they're looking a little cramped, and the soil has to be pretty depleted by now, so I'm thinking it's time to try dividing again. At least one coworker was interested in acquiring a cutting. :D
I need some kind of flower/gardening/plant-related icon!
(no subject)
Date: 18 Aug 2023 06:53 am (UTC)