FOTD – February 9, 2020 – Orchids
And the first flower was fully open this morning. Three more fat buds waiting. I finally got around to ordering some appropriate fertilizer to keep it blooming.
Categories: cee's photo challenge, Flower of the day, Flowers, Macro, Marilyn Armstrong, orchids, Photography
I’m still doing something wrong. This is your second season and I don’t even have a stem to have a bud on.
Leslie
LikeLike
I was told to not even water it, but drop three ice cubes into the pot ONCE a week and give it 10-10-10 fertilizer when it seems to be alive and wants to grow. I haven’t done any of that, but my first one died, probably because it needed fertilizer and because it was mixed with other plants, it got too much water. So this one, which seems pretty hearty, I’m going to try to do the right thing by it.
But orchids are hard to grow. They do fine if you have the right light, water them rarely, fertilize them regularly (10-10-10 — standard plants get 20-20-20). They need just enough light. Not too much and they need to be fertilized every other week with VERY little water. Meanwhile, if you don’t have the right light, you can’t fake it. Either you have the right exposure, or you don’t. There are other plants. Grow something easier.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I probably have them in the wrong window. It’s facing east….
LikeLike
East is good as long as it isn’t getting a lot of direct sunlight. Mine gets east light, but it’s filtered through trees, so the real sunlit part of the day — assuming we ever get any sun — is maybe an hour. And also, the room is cold. Orchids don’t like heat. Or at least these orchids don’t. Some others do. I finally started looking them up and realized I needed to either pamper them or give up and grow something else. These are doing fine at the moment, but it might not last. If it doesn’t, I’m going to get something else that flowers and try again with a less picky plant.
If you have a very bright north-east window, that’s almost perfect because it doesn’t get much direct sun, but gets a lot of bright light, even in winter. Also, again, they really don’t like warm rooms. I keep everything in the dining room which is generally chilly. Well, to be fair, the entire house is chilly because the price of heating oil is higher than the price of expensive gasoline. It doesn’t make sense since fuel oil isn’t even refined. Maybe it cost extra to run trucks?
LikeLiked by 1 person
How beautiful
LikeLike
They are coming up very nicely. I ordered fertilizer, so maybe I can keep them coming. I’m going to try, anyway.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very beautifully color too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is the natural color of the flower. The dark purple was an injected dye. All those dark bright solid colors are injections. I think I’m happy enough with the natural colors. That dye can’t be really good for the flowers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you’re right! The nature is so beautiful as it is, why spoil it!
LikeLike