Orchids grow in the understory, between the tropical rainforest’s floor and its canopy of trees, as much as 100 feet overhead. That leaves a lot of warm, moist space in the understory for shade-tolerant plants, all of it above the soil on the forest floor. Orchids that grow on tree surfaces, climbing upward toward the light over several years’ time are called epiphytes. Their exposed roots gather moisture and nutrients from the air and organic surfaces around them.
Choose a plant that is several years old. Seedlings may be less expensive, but will take several years to bloom. Find a plant labeled as an epiphyte. Moth orchids (Phalenopsis spp.) are undemanding orchids for beginners. Corsage orchids (Cattleya spp.) and lady’s slippers (Paphiopedilums) also are easier for novice orchid-growers to keep.
Find a bright window for your orchid. Place Cattleya orchids in a shaded south or west-facing window; “phals” and “paphs” are low-light orchids and should be placed near an east-facing window only. All orchids benefit from additional light from fluorescent or grow-lights for up to 12 to 16 hours per day.
Choose a location where the temperature will range between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and 60 to 65 degrees at night. Some orchids will tolerate temperatures as low as 50, but most demand temperatures in the tropical range.
Give orchids extra humidity with a misting humidifier or a tray of pebbles filled with water. Try to provide 40 to 60 percent humidity around the plants. Use a humidity gauge, like the ones sold with thermometers in desk sets.
Tie a young orchid to a slab of cedar, tree fern or cork bark. Shops that sell epiphytic orchids often offer slabs to go with them. Cushion the underside of the plant with a bit of Sphagnum moss and secure the plant loosely with string. The plant will pull itself onto the slab in a few months and you can remove the string.
Plant the orchid in a basket or latticework pot filled with fir bark sprinkled with compost or humus if you have no place to hang a slab in the window. Most epiphytes will adapt to “ground-dwelling,” but must have a medium that allows free air circulation around roots.
Spray your orchid’s growing medium several times a week to keep it moist, never wet. Cattleyas have little water-retaining bulbs at the plant’s base, so the slab or medium may dry out occasionally, but growing media for phals and paphs, which have no bulbs, must stay moist. Never spray the plant itself -- water sitting in leaf axles or in the crown encourages disease.
Fertilize orchids monthly with a water-soluble orchid fertilizer according to label directions. Fertilize weekly with a 1/4-strength fertilizer when plants are in bloom. If necessary, substitute balanced houseplant fertilizer, diluted to 1/4 strength for orchid fertilizer.
Things You Will Need
- Orchid slab or basket with growing medium
- Sphagnum moss
- Hand sprayer
- Orchid fertilizer
- Mixing jar
- Relative humidity gauge
- Your orchid may not require re-potting when you buy it. If it’s in bloom or about to bloom, let it finish and go into its rest period before putting it on a slab or potting it up.
- Commercial orchids are raised in optimum conditions by people who know how to keep them healthy. Try to replicate the growing medium it came with when you put it in its new home.
- Apply liquid fertilizer on the growing medium, never the plant or its roots. Epiphytic plants absorb nutrients from decaying mosses, bird dung and guano deposited on the surface of their host tree.
- Deadhead scapes when flowers fade to keep your orchid looking spiffy.
- Keep orchids out of chilly drafts during winter. Use additional artificial lights if you must move it out of its window, and avoid drafts from central heating that will dry tender roots and shrivel flowers.
- Don’t fertilize your plant immediately. Yours might have been fertilized as it left the greenhouse and another dose could burn its roots.
- Selby Botanical Gardens: Orchid Adaptations to an Epiphytic Lifestyle
- University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service: Growing Orchids in the Home
- Clemson University Cooperative Extension: Orchids
- Iowa State University Extension: Forget the Flamingos -- Try a Moth Orchid
- University of Vermont Extension: Growing Orchids 101
- Medioimages/Photodisc/Valueline/Getty Images