Until a friend brought me an orchid as a hostess gift a couple of years ago, I had never even considered trying to grow one. These hothouse beauties look needy. I already have two needy cats and one needy Cavalier King Charles spaniel, so the last thing I wanted was a needy houseplant.
I stuck the orchid in front of a northeast-facing window in the dining room, and, other than watering it once a week, as the tag instructed, thought no more about it.
Then an amazing thing happened. When the original bloom stalk started to shrivel, another grew and took its place, and more flowers appeared. Wonder of wonders, this orchid stayed in bloom for more than a year. I had done no more than cut faded flower spikes off just above a node (a swelling on the stem) as a friend recommended.
My intrepid orchid is a phalaenopsis. Commonly called a moth orchid, they actually look more like tricked-out pansies than any moth I’ve ever seen. One expert contends that if you can succeed with African violets, you’ll find moth orchids easy. Since I couldn’t keep an African violet healthy if my life depended on it, I can safely aver that no such special skills are required.
Moth orchids are supposed to need a warm environment — 75-85 degrees in the daytime and 60-65 at night. Every time the price of natural gas goes up, the thermostat in my home goes down a few more degrees, so my orchid is subjected to temperatures that never exceed 64 degrees, day or night. Nor did it get the moist air that it prefers. The humidity level in my home is more like that found in a pharaoh’s tomb than a tropical rain forest.
I did toss Osmocote fertilizer onto the bark-chunk medium when I noticed the leaves turn slightly yellow, but that was the extent of any pampering. Every once in a great while I’d soak the pot in a pan of water to thoroughly wet the medium (ignoring advice on the tag to place a couple of ice cubes on the bark once a week — it just seemed counterintuitive to put ice anywhere near a tropical plant).
In June, my orchid went outside to spend the summer in the shelter of the northeast-facing front porch, where it enjoyed warmer temperatures and more frequent watering, mostly overspray from watering container plantings of annuals.
This maltreated phalaenopsis finally did cease blooming, but I keep it anyway because its almost succulent dark green leaves are quite attractive. And who knows? Maybe it will deign to bloom again another day.
I’m not going to ever become an orchid fancier; my laissez-faire temperament is more suited to neglect-proof succulents. But this year, when one of my sons presented me with another phalaenopsis for my birthday, my first thought was not, “Oh, you poor thing — welcome to orchid hell.”
Instead, I’m delightedly anticipating another year of graceful and exotic flowers.
Marcia Tatroe’s most recent book is “Cutting Edge Gardening in the Intermountain West” ($29.95, Johnson Books). E-mail her at mtatroe@q.com.
