ON GROWING ORCHIDS

'Secrets' are something very special and can only be passed along by someone who actually 'knows' the 'secret'. The 'secrets' that I learned about growing orchids, I will relate to you, in terms of my own personal experiences. Hopefully you will pass these 'secrets' along to someone else who wants to grow orchids. After all, is that not what life is all about, ie. passing along 'secrets of success' and having fun with a hobby that you love?

The four orchid plants that I have now, originally came to me as a gift, from a young man with whom I worked, named John. When we chatted at work one day, he told me that one of his hobbies was growing orchids and that he had a collection of about forty orchids of different varieties. He also taught me about their value, as he said that they were being sold for between twenty to forty dollars each, on the flower shop orchid market. That really surprised me then, but now I am beginning to understand why they are so costly.

Initially, after talking with John at some length about orchids, I joyfully began to anticipate that he was going to bring me one tiny little orchid plant as a 'starter'. I could hardly wait to see it. He must have sensed that I was seriously interested in trying to grow orchids, as I had already purchased a book on them. He actually wanted to read the book and so I agreed to bring it into work for him.

I did bring it with me the next day and I was glad that I remembered to bring it because, John showed up at work carrying a big, black garbage bag, containing four orchid plants in large black pots, each wrapped in thick layers of newspaper. I was totally amazed to see what he had done.

I had to place the bag containing the plants under my desk, as there was really no place else to put it for the day. I was not about to leave it untended either or to let anyone walk off with it. It just might have been tossed out by someone by mistake. Needless to say, I got a few questioning looks from the people with whom I was working, but I just smiled innocently and explained that John had just brought me some plants.

When I carefully unwrapped and looked at the plants a little while later, I saw the collection of plants each had three or four large, thick, dark green leaves. Three of the plants had been planted in bark chips and one was planted in green moss. The eight inch flower pots were clear plastic with matching plastic bases for watering. I think I was just a little bit disappointed initially because none of them had any blossoms on them but I re-wrapped them gingerly and put them back into the garbage bag.

Inside the bag, I also found a pint size glass jar containing some fertilizer with the 'recipe for success' on the label. The fertilizer was a powdery pink colour and filled about an sixth of the jar.

Just as he promised earlier that morning, John revealed his 'secrets' about orchid growing to me over lunch. "Bring one plant with you at lunch time," he told me. "I will show you how to take care of them." When lunch time came, I carefully grabbed one of the plants wrapped in newspaper out of the garbage bag and headed for the lunch room. I gently unwrapped it and placed it on the table where John was already waiting for me. While we ate lunch together, we chatted about growing orchids. He was simply smiling and ignoring the curious looks of all of those around us and so I did too.

John used the plant on the table to demonstrate how to take care of orchids and taught me how I could get them to grow and to blossom too. That is the real 'miracle' of growing orchids...the 'blossoming' is the fun part of growing any kind of exotic plants. He explained that orchids are originally tropical plants that like to grow on tree bark in the rain forests of South America. Caring for them primarily consists of keeping them in a similar environment conducive to their growth and propagation.

After work that day, I walked home, which was about a mile, excitedly carrying this big, black garbage bag of orchid plants. This was in the early days of March 2003, and the day was really quite cold. I was concerned about how the plants would fare and walked as quickly as I could, just ignoring the stares of those around me. I was not about to spend any extra time out in the cold, explaining what I was carrying home in a garbage bag. I think I was just a little bit embarassed about the whole thing, but I was really enjoying myself immensely. I was thrilled to have not only one, but actually four real, live orchid plants.

When I got home, I immediately unwrapped the plants, but John had cautioned me not to water them then, or try to do anything with them for a day or so, until they had 'adjusted to their new environment'. So I just placed them on the table and did not move them again for the next few days. I wondered if they would really be all right or if they might have been frost bitten. I just hated the thought of losing even one of them, much less all of them because of the cold weather. One of the plants had a leaf that had been bent back a bit in one place, so I straightened that out, hoping that it would be all right too.

I was also a bit concerned that the one that was planted in moss might need to be transplanted into a flower pot containing bark. John had advised me that I could do that at a later time, if I wanted to do so. I decided to wait and see how well they would fare. He explained that moss was also a legitimate media for growth in their natural habitat. (I am increasingly certain about them needing a bark chip 'soil' as the ones in bark are actually doing better than the one that is in the moss. I still need to get some bark for it one of these days.)

A few days later, I gently placed them in a corner of the living room, by an easterly window, where John had said that he thought there would be appropriate lighting for them. He told me that the 'secret' to growing them was to put them where there is some 'indirect' or 'filtered light'. He explained that they do not do well in 'direct' sun and in their natural habitat are in a relatively dark and humid setting sheltered by a lot of tree leaves. Huge, sudden, violent rain storms are not infrequent in the area of the rain forest.

Where I put them appears to be quite appropriate and thus they have been sitting there ever since I placed them on my stereo, behind the semi-shear curtain. Since the window does face the east, there is morning sun that comes in to brighten up the day.

John had also advised me that orchids only get watered (and not a lot), only one time per week, explaining that they don't like 'wet feet' (...but then who does?) So I watered them very cautiously the first time, with water that was at room temperature. He had suggested that I let the water sit overnight before it was used to water the plants, just in case that there was any chlorine in the water. By that time, it was a Friday and I decided that Friday, every week, would be their regular watering day.

I was absolutely thrilled to have the orchids especially, when on December 31, 2003, my first one blossomed for New Year's Day and stayed in bloom right through until May 12, 2004. It had taken six months to get the first blossom. (I actually wrote down the dates.)

The first orchid that blossomed had the most wonderful five or six bright pink flowers. The second orchid that blossomed also had the same kind of pink flowers that opened in June of 2004 and the third one, a few months later, in September. This one had the same kind of flowers but they were white with a pink center. So similar and yet so different. What a joy to behold!

I quickly learned the hard way, that orchids do not like to be moved and that they drop their flowers the next day or so, if you do move the plants while they are in blossom. I have lost some blossoms several times now, simply by lifting the plants to dust under them, so generally, when they are in blossom, I do not move them at all.

I think my four plants were in a mild state of shock for a while, after I received them from John, as each one lost a leaf or two over the first few months. It appears that when the leaves are going to fall off, they turn a yellowish-orange colour and gradually dry up, becoming quite wrinkled. They cling tightly to the plant and only fall off when they are ready to do so, and not one moment sooner. You cannot just pull them off until they are ready to let go. Then they almost fall off, breaking away at the base, a bit at a time.

I really have no idea how long it takes for them to start blossoming if you start with baby plants, but I suspect that if the conditions are right, it does not take very long, maybe a year or so before they start to blossom. I do give them a very small amount of orchid fertilizer once a month or so, just to encourage the growth and propagation.

John, by the way, was immensely pleased when I told him that I had managed to get the first one to bloom. "You did it right!" I remember him saying, with a big smile on his face. I reminded him that I did have a good teacher too, which makes all the difference in the world.

'Phalaenopsis' is the name of at least three of the orchids that I have been growing. I am not really certain about what the fourth one is, as I have not seen it blossom yet. It has a few buds around the base that are just beginning to come out and they just might turn out to be blossom stems. I hope that they are, so that I can tell what kind of an orchid I have growing in the moss.

But regardless of what the name is, I am excited about the prospect of seeing the orchids multiply. What makes it so exciting, is the extreme beauty and the brightness of the flowers and the fact that the blossoms just seem to last forever. In fact, even when the flowers have fallen off, because I so carelessly moved the plants, they have simply re-grown new blossoms, at least once, on the same stem.

Cutting the blossom stem about one inch below the last blossom seems to allow the re-growth of the blossoms. A little extra fertilizer seems to help too. This is a (20-20-20) commercial orchid fertilizer, for anyone interested in beginning a new hobby. What better way to stay healthy than to grow plants?

I think I first realized that I was into the 'multiplication' game for orchids, when I saw the very first new leaf begin to appear at the heart of the plant. That was within the first couple of months of patiently waiting for some action to happen. It began as a tiny, little budding triangle that just grew and grew in size, until it was actually as large or larger than the first leaves on the plant.

The next indication I had of 'multiplication' was when the roots started to sprout. They looked like huge grayish-green fishworms. The first time I realized that, I spent the night dreaming about green fishworms and laughed when I remembered the dream after I woke up.

The funny thing about the roots is that they tend to grow right out of the bottom of the flower pots and up into the flower pots next to them. I have tended to just let them grow to see where they want to go on their own. It appears that in time, without any kind of persuasion, they are planting themselves into the bark of the next plant. So much for 'multiplication'. They are self-multiplying as they become rooted in time. I can hardly wait to see the first one sprout as a new plant. Even the orchid planted in the moss, now has shoots heading into the bark of the plant beside it, in order to root and possibly propagate itself.

I don't really know if this is something that I did that made the first orchid blossom, or if this was something someone else did or it it was a natural process inherent in the orchid blossoming process. One day as I was watering the plants, after I had dusted the leaves, (because they do tend to collect some dust), I felt something very sticky on a leaf. I tasted it to see what it was and it was very sweet tasting. I was a bit concerned because there had been some children that had visited and I wondered if what I was tasting was jam or honey on the leaf. After thinking about it, I pondered as to whether or not it might be just a natural pollen. To this day, I still do not know if that did or did not cause the first one to blossom. Either way, it does not matter. What did matter was the fact that it had blossomed.

Cross pollination may well be a factor in the blossoming process, so when I do have a flower in blossom, I shake the flower just a tiny little bit over the leaf of the plant beside it. Whether or not that does anything, I really don't know, but what I do know is that right at this moment, almost three years later, I must be doing something right, as I have three orchids in blossom simultaneously, with the fourth, the one rooted in moss and now rooting in bark too, appearing to be about to blossom also. Only time will tell what happens next.