my orchid!
02-21-2005 | 03:41 PM
#141
Registered User
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 28,316
Likes: 7
From: This is not my house!
Phalaenopsis are the most common form of decorative orchid. They (and other orchids) have been grown in English green houses since Victorian times. Most of what people think they know about orchids (how hard they are to grow) is from the Victorian English experience.
In fact they are NOT hard to grow but all the crap they tried nenarly 200 years ago wasn't necessary and ended up killing as many orchids as it helped.
Try a Phal to o start with. Pick on that has a spike or two with some blooms on it but more buds than blooms. You'll just have to water it regularly and it will bloom for 1-3 months.
If you are patient and have a nice north or east facing window you can bring it back to bloom year after year.
Outside you can porbably grow a Cymbidium in the UK... you just want to make sure it doesn't get frost. Those bad boys will come back almost without doing anything. I've seen them planted in the ground about 200 miles south of me near Hearst Castle.
In fact they are NOT hard to grow but all the crap they tried nenarly 200 years ago wasn't necessary and ended up killing as many orchids as it helped.
Try a Phal to o start with. Pick on that has a spike or two with some blooms on it but more buds than blooms. You'll just have to water it regularly and it will bloom for 1-3 months.
If you are patient and have a nice north or east facing window you can bring it back to bloom year after year.
Outside you can porbably grow a Cymbidium in the UK... you just want to make sure it doesn't get frost. Those bad boys will come back almost without doing anything. I've seen them planted in the ground about 200 miles south of me near Hearst Castle.
today 
prettier then the flower 