Tips for Growing Orchids

Orchids are easy. For a flower that blooms for months, these blooming machines actually need little care. The keys to orchid success are right plant, right light and consistent (not constant) care.

The hardest part of orchids is choosing which type is right for you, since they are available in a wide range of spectacular colors and exotic shapes. Moth or phalaenopsis orchids are easiest to grow at home.

Learn how to keep orchids happy and blooming for months with these tips.

SHOP ORCHIDS NOW

How to Shop for Orchids

Of the many species of orchids, phalaenopsis, or moth orchids, are the easiest to grow as houseplants due to their reasonable sunlight demands. If you can grow African violets, then you will be successful with phalaenopsis orchids. Moth orchids have long arching sprays of flowers that stay fresh for up to several months and bloom in winter and early spring.

Another houseplant favorite is cattleya, the classic corsage orchid. Its profuse blooms emerge just once a year in spring or fall. Cattleya need about twice the amount of sunlight as moth orchids, and are perfect on sunny window sills.

Oncidium orchids are called “dancing ladies” because their blooms look like ladies in skirts. They require bright, diffuse light and temps no higher than 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tips for selecting orchids:

In the Garden Center, choose a plant loaded with flower buds with only a few flowers fully opened. The rest of the buds will open at home, giving you months of color.
Look for a plant with firm, bright green leaves. And, if you can see them, healthy roots that are not brown or shriveled.
Don’t leave your new orchid in a hot or cold car between the store and home. A few minutes of excessive temperatures can decrease the flower show.

When You Bring Your Orchid Home

Orchids like bright, indirect light. Cool morning sun is best, so choose an east- or north-facing window, if possible. Natural light can be supplemented with grow lights, although a mix of both types is desired for optimal blooms. If the weather is snowy or icy, move orchids away from the window so they don’t catch a chill.

Orchid varieties that tolerate low indoor light conditions are oncidiums, phalaenopsis and paphiopedilums.

In your home, place your orchid in a bright spot, but not in direct sun.
Orchids are sensitive to cold and drafts. Keep them away from vents and outside doors.
Feed once a month with an orchid fertilizer. Water first and follow label instructions.
After all of the orchid flowers have withered, cut back the stem halfway. If the stem has turned brown or died, cut back to the base of the plant. This prompts the plant to flower again.

Tip: The larger the orchid plant’s leaf, the less light it needs.

How to Water Orchids

Pink, white and orange orchids on a table

Most orchids should only be watered about once a week. Wait until the bark or moss is almost completely dry before watering. Water until it pours out from the drainage holes, then completely drain excess water. Never leave your orchid in standing water.

One easy way to water orchids is by placing ice cubes on the potting media once a week. Let dry slightly before the next watering.

How to Pot Orchids

Most orchids are planted using the double-pot system. The orchid is planted in a plastic pot with drainage holes and nested in a more decorative one, called a cachepot. No matter what kind of material you choose, it must have drainage holes.

Depending on your orchids’ health, consider repotting every one to two years. When repotting, only choose a pot that is one to two inches wider and plant in an appropriate medium.

How to Care for Orchids

Orchids need potting material that drains quickly while still retaining moisture. Choose from an orchid potting soil mix, or a combination of bark, moss and gravel.
Select a water soluble fertilizer designed especially for orchids. Most orchids need to be fed once every three to four weeks. After flowering, reduce watering and feeding until new leaf production begins again. Once new leaves emerge, resume the full schedule of watering and feeding.
Orchids need humidity in the 40 to 70 percent range. This is much more humid than the average home. The humidity requirement can usually be found in a bathroom with a sunny window. You can also place orchid pots on a tray filled with rocks or gravel that is then filled with water. On the down side, humidity can lead to mildew problems, so be sure to provide plenty of air circulation. If you think orchids may be your new hobby, invest in an ultrasonic humidifier.
Orchids have periods of dormancy that can last up to nine months. Make sure the plant is adequately fed and watered (not too much, not too little) and receiving enough sunlight. Orchids like indoor temperatures between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Encourage your orchid to bloom again by moving the plant to a room with nighttime temperatures between 55 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit until a new flower spike emerges. Return the plant to its original location and continue watering regularly.

Elegant orchids add color and interest to your home and are not always the persnickety houseplants we suppose them to be. Some varieties can tolerate low indoor light and still bloom. And once you learn how to water them properly, you’ll never lose an orchid plant to root rot again.

Whether you need the right plants, pots or potting soil, The Home Depot delivers online orders when and where you need them.

How to Plant Tulips in Pots.........

Growing these spring classics in pots lets you dodge most of their drawbacks

Hybrid tulips can be unspeakably beautiful, but they also come with a daunting array of caveats. For starters, most don’t reliably return for more than two or three years—and ideal conditions are necessary for even that much longevity. Then there are the issues of disguising their dying foliage and filling the bare spots they leave behind—assuming, of course, that voles, squirrels, and other garden predators don’t snatch the bulbs well before they bloom.

Growing tulips in containers, however, lets you skip most of these frustrations. In pots, tulips are eye-catching, portable, and protected. All gardeners—regardless of whether or not they’ve had success growing tulips in-ground—should give this simple technique a try.

The best time to pot up tulips is in early fall, the same as if you were planting them in the ground. Have ready several containers with outside diameters of at least 18 inches and outside heights of at least 15 inches. Using anything smaller reduces the impact of the planting and the viability of the bulbs.

If you want a certain mix of colors to emerge at the same time, choose from the same class of tulips. Short groups, such as Single Early, Double Early, and Triumph, are obvious container choices as they mix well with spring annuals and will not tower over their pot. There’s no harm, however, in experimenting with taller or more exotic types, such as Parrot and Viridiflora.

Tulips of every type and color can work—just be sure to group together varieties with similar bloom times. You’ll only have room for 18 to 22 bulbs per container, so successive blooming (six tulips blooming one week and another six blooming two weeks later, for example) won’t look nearly as stunning as a design that flowers all at once.

Step 1: Plant bulbs so that they almost touch

To make the containers less heavy and easier to move, place an upside-down plastic grower pot at the bottom of each container. Fill the containers two-thirds full with any inexpensive, lightweight potting mix. Don’t bother with fertilizer. Ignore traditional spacing guidelines, and place the tulip bulbs in a tight circular pattern. Cover the bulbs with potting mix, planting the bulbs at the same depth you would plant them in the ground: generally two to three times the bulb’s height.

Animals are less likely to disturb tulips planted in containers than those planted in the ground. But for added protection, place a wire grid, such as a round peony support, on top of the soil, and cover it with a thin layer of potting mix.

Step 2: Give them a sheltered spot to spend the winter

If you live in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 7, place the planted pots in an unheated garage. This protects them from undergoing a freeze-and-thaw cycle, which turns potted bulbs into mush. Water them when they’re in place; you won’t need to water again until spring. If you don’t have an unheated garage and live in a region with freezing temperatures, you’ll need another strategy for keeping the containers cold, dry, and insulated. The goal is to keep the planted bulbs just above freezing.

Check on your pots in early spring. Water them lightly. When the tulips start peeking above the surface, bring them out and place them on display. Water as you would any container plant; the tulips will bloom at the same time as those planted in the ground.

Once the blooms fade, you can gently transplant the bulbs into a sunny bed, but all the caveats regarding in-ground planting still apply. The best and bravest option is simply to compost the spent bulbs and start planning a different color scheme for the following year.

Keep the show going

If you know which group a tulip belongs to, you can usually predict when it will flower. Designing a few containers that contain tulips with different bloom times is an easy way to prolong the tulip season for as long as possible. This is not a perfect science, however, so be prepared to welcome your tulips if they flower a little early or a little late.