Honestly, I don’t know much about orchids other than they are some of the most beautiful plants in existence. You might remember how I fell for them and went semi-crazy and bought a whole bunch of them during the recent Bahrain International Garden Show, brought them home and gave them some TLC. At least, I thought I gave them some TLC; alas, according to a fantastic book I bought during my recent visit to New York’s Botanical Gardens, Orchids Growing for Wimps
I treated them a little better than cactus. Just spray them every few days. The warning bells finally came on in my head when a lot of them lost their lovely flowers and some started to turn yellow. That’s when I thought I’ve got to spend some time and at least read the book a little to find out what is going wrong, and sure enough, these plants like being soaked in a tub of tepid water for 10 – 15 minutes every couple of days. So a little spray here and there – even with a fertilizer – is not enough.
Beware; however, that not all orchids require this soaking, so please do read about your specific orchid before dunking it. I will most definitely not be responsible if you kill it!
It pays to research your plants a little. They will give back an awful lot of joy to you if you treat them well. I just hope that mine will jump back to their former glory before long…. I’ll keep you informed.
Would you believe that I am terrible with potted orchids indoors? I’ve been unable to get them to rebloom and they eventually wither away. The only orchids I’ve had luck with I can put outside, like Cymbidium and Epipactis gigantea, our native stream orchid:
http://flickr.com/photos/nativeorchids/1057371341/
Mine are coming up and have actually multiplied from last year, which is fantastic and I cannot wait for them to bloom.
You might also be interested in this article about native orchids in the Arabian peninsula:
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200606/orchid.arabia.htm
Apparently, there’s an orchid species that grows in the Al Hasa oasis on the eastern side of Saudi Arabia too.
No way! Thanks for the information my friend, I’ll certainly have a look now.
Oh, I just finished reading Eric Hansen’s “Orchid Fever” book too, what a coincidence!
You’re welcome! Funny what you find on the internet! I didn’t realize there was suitable habitat in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula, but oases are funny things. I had an idea that the wetter western side and Yemen would have them since there are rather neat cloud forests there.
What’s interesting is that the orchid genus is the largest genus of flowering plants, although it may be matched by the sunflower family. There are orchids all the way from the arctic circle to the tip of South America, I believe.
We’ve got a couple of native species where I live. One is very common (the giant stream orchid), and the others pop up in our forests. California has about 32 species total, and the showiest ones are the Lady Slipper orchids. None of ours are epiphytes like the ones you have, but they are still quite beautiful.
I’m absolutely itching to get a paphiopedilum and I don’t think I can wait a long time to get my mitts on one… the fever is catching!
I was just reminded of a couple of pictures I took at the orchid show the society here had a couple of years ago
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v377/Doobieous/plantae/?action=view¤t=largeorchids.jpg
Those are a bunch of Cymbidiums and Phalaenopsis orchids.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v377/Doobieous/plantae/?action=view¤t=slipperorchids.jpg
And those are a few very big, and very expensive slipper orchids (sold for $200.00 USD, each!)