Which orchid(s) should I buy?

[XmisterIS]

XmrsIS has hinted that she likes orchids and would like some for her birthday.

I'd like to pot some up for her and present her with a plant pot which is ostensibly full of earth and nothing else - but which will produce a full crop of orchids when (if) she takes care of it!

I have heard that some are easier to grow than others, and some are bigger and more spectacular than others.

The only hitch (and it is rather a big hitch) in my cunning plan is as follows:

1) I know less than bugger all about plants and gardening.

2) I can only grow cacti and that's because they can be neglected without dying.

3) If I try to grow anything other than a cactus, it dies.

4) If someone asks me to look after their prize plant which is 20 years old and has been lovingly tended on a daily basis, I will kill it by accident.

So, with that in mind, are there any green fingered types on here who could recommend some good varieties of orchid that are easy to grow? (i.e. ones that I might not kill before the seeds have even had a chance to germinate ...).

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Errrrm, with your skills I'd stick to Dandelions.

I have heard Orchids can be very very difficult.

But there is Phalaenopsis which you can get from garden centres. It grows in wood bark and clear pots (roots need light) and as long as you only water with rain water they are fairly easy. Don't think it's one you grow from seed tho'

Also you could try the RHS (Royal Horticulture Society) webby thing for other clues.

 

[ttcycle]

I've also heard that Orchids are very hard to grow and even when purchased as a complete plant they die very easily as they're very tempremental - have managed to kill a few myself...

 

[summerdays]

I would buy her one that is flowering... my Mum has once managed to get it to reflower - that should be enough of a challenge I think (especially given your anit-green fingers).

 

[SavageHoutkop]

The Phalaenopsis are easy - not killed one yet. Mine were rescued from the sale pile @ tescos (and the ones I bought for the office from the sale pile at B&Q). They will flower again, although without feeding or exact watering probably less than when you first bought them. Mine don't get rainwater, just normal tap water, but our water is quite soft; hard water areas may be different. Mine must be at least 2 years old now and buds are forming again, I think that's my 3rd new stalk since new (although the one is better at it than the other). I also have another type of orchid which is not happy and don't know how to make it feel better.

(edit) - oh, you want to start one from scratch??? don't think that'll work... but you never know!

 

[longers]

Only slightly related but I found The Orchid Thief a very good read.

 

[661-Pete]

Yup - as others have said, get an orchid that's already in flower. The blooms will last quite a long time before withering - longer than other sorts of flowering plant - but I'm afraid, the odds are against the plant surviving much after flowering. An orchid is very much a gift 'of the moment' - something to enjoy at the time of giving, not something to cherish and keep (unless you're an expert!).

Myself, my passion is for wild orchids - the sort that grow wild in Britain and Europe that is - we go looking out for them in spring and early summer. I'm happy to report that the Sussex's one and only known stand of the rare Orchis anthropophora produced a bloom last year - at its location on the Downs (which I'm not giving away) - the first we've seen in England for some years.

 

[Gromit]

Orchidaceae Cymbidium like to spend their lives being pot bound, and love water, however they don't like to stand in it getting to wet. Good guide is here http://www.orchids.uk.com/beginnersthree.htm
http://www.orchidvillage.com/orchidcare/watering/important-tips-on-watering-orchids/ and here http://www.first-nature.com/flowers/~orchidpotplants.asp

 

[Fnaar]

Show her your own orchids
http://www.open.salon.com/blog/gianna-fl/2010/03/07/the_root_word_for_orchid_is_testicles

 

[vernon]

Phalaenopsis are the way to go. Supermarket and garden centres are suitable sources.

I have three and they have been very resilient. Im on the their set of flowers on all three. Keeping them in the kitchen and/or bathroom gives them ythe humidity and temperature cycles that they thrive on. Here's a copuple of pictures of my orchid blooms:

Nurturing orchids from seeds is a complex affair and fraught with diificulties and failure.

 

[ASC1951]

who could recommend some good varieties of orchid that are easy to grow?

Probably not this one - http://www.online-literature.com/wellshg/2865/

 

[Globalti]

Phalaenopsis will be in short supply this year; my buddy Timmy is one of the two main growers in the UK and his glasshouses were burned down at Christmas: http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co...ed-Forest/article-1666590-detail/article.html

Best option is to find your local SSSI and nip down one night and dig up a few orchids, they've got lots and won't miss them.

 

[661-Pete]

Best option is to find your local SSSI and nip down one night and dig up a few orchids, they've got lots and won't miss them.

You dare! !

Actually some British species, like the Twayblade, the Early Purple Orchid and the Common Spotted Orchid, are fairly common and unlikely to become endangered on those sites where they grow in abundance. Yet it is illegal to dig up any wild plant in the UK, unless you are the landowner or acting with the landowner's permission.

Our back lawn behind the house in France, boasts a profusion of Bee-Orchids in the spring - as well as other varieties, some of which are not found in Britain. We have to mow the grass but I'm reluctant to go over the flowers - I try to steer round them.

 

[Haitch]

Get her a ghost orchid, loads of them around.

 

[Globalti]

One of my walks used to pass a lady's slipper orchid when I was a Ramblers' Holidays leader in the French Alps. The ramblers used to go nutty over it.