As one snowflake does not constitute a blizzard, neither does successfully growing a single orchid makes one an orchid authority.
Nevertheless, the experiences of one person and his method in blooming an orchid under ordinary window-sill culture, and without the benefit of a greenhouse or any fancy equipment, can lend encouragement to others who have wondered if orchids can be made happy in the average home.
For some time I had been interested, though somewhat skeptically, by the numerous advertisements telling me that I, too, could grow orchids right in my living room.
As this catch-phrase hammered away at me, I found my skepticism melting away and being replaced by a growing wonder; from growing wonder to increased curiosity; and from increased curiosity, the need for action.
So off went my request for a catalog to an orchid grower. I was pleasantly surprised when I found many of the orchids listed were reasonably priced and well within my means.
First Orchid A Blooming Size Cattleya
I decided that my first orchid was to be a blooming size cattleya; but since I was to do all the work of flowering it myself by way of an experiment I ordered one out of season without new leads or flowering sheath.
This kept the price well below what even I could afford, and if the venture were unsuccessful I could write it off to experience with little loss except to my pride. I chose C. Oenone alba — an all-white orchid—and my check for less than $10 was soon in the mail, not without mixed feelings, however, of trepidation and hope.
On a bright sunny December day—just four days before Christmas to be exact—C. Oenone alba arrived in a sturdy carton by parcel post. The carton was opened, the packing of shredded newspapers was removed and there was my very first orchid!
The plant had four pseudobulbs with thick, waxy leaves of a light green which were the picture of health, toughness, and strength. Certainly, there was nothing about its appearance that bespoke of fragility, weakness, or anemia.
It looked as though it could stand up to anything and take it in stride. At the base of the last pseudo-bulb was the beginning of a new lead which would make a new pseudobulb and leaf, and eventually a flower.
Before its arrival, I had been boning up on all the material I could lay my hands on about orchid culture. The one big problem seemed to be furnishing humidity.
Humidity
Fortunately, I found plenty of advice, and the problem was solved by emptying a box of bird gravel into a glass baking dish, filling this container with water to the level of the sand, and putting a cake rack over the dish to keep the orchid pot out of the water.
The whole business was placed in a window with southern exposure, and as the only south window I have is in the kitchen this was somewhat of a fortunate break. The window is close to the electric range, and the daily preparation of meals furnishes extra humidity to the atmosphere.
Besides, we are great coffee drinkers and the percolator is always simmering away, much as old-fashioned farmhouses always had a kettle steaming on the back of the stove. Throughout the winter, on bright sunny days, the plant was sprayed with water once or twice a day.
The humidity problem was solved, and I felt that the next great need was plenty of light and sun. I have a glassed-in back porch with eastern and southern exposure; and while it is unheated, the temperature rises on clear days during winter even with snow on the ground, to above 70 degrees by ten in the morning.
Here the sun streams through the windows until about three in the afternoon. So, on such days, the orchid was placed on the back porch and received bright sun for five hours daily, and then went back to the kitchen window to benefit from at least another hour of sunlight.
Overwatering
The most dangerous treatment a cattleya orchid can receive from the hands of a novice is overwatering. The potting medium must become almost bone dry between waterings, and then it wants a thorough soaking.
My orchid is in a 4 1/2-inch clay pot, and it is watered no more often than every fourth day; that is, if it is watered on Sunday it does not receive water again until Thursday. And then I fill the kitchen sink with tepid water until it flows over the rim of the pot, and there I leave the plant until bubbles stop rising, about 15 or 20 minutes.
If it were in a six- or eight-inch pot, I would water it only about once a week. Orchids are somewhat like camels in this matter; the pseudobulbs are storehouses of water upon which the plant can draw during periods of drought. So if you must err on this pointer on the side of dryness.
Every second week at one of the watering times, I gave the plant-feeding of soluble orchid fertilizer. By the middle of February, the new lead was 2 1/2 inches tall and was beginning to take an upright position. On March 19th I made this note: “Lead now five inches high and beginning to form its leaf,” and four days later the flower sheath was revealed.
By mid-May, I could hold the plant to the light and see the flower buds inside the sheath, and now each day became one of intense excitement as the buds increased in size. Finally, on June first, the buds emerged from the sheath, and on the seventh two blooms slowly unfurled!
Flowering Orchid
C. Oenone alba was all I had hoped for and more — a crisp, pure-white orchid, the labellum heavily ruffled and lightly brushed inside with yellow; the three sepals which had protected the unopened buds were long and slender, the petals lightly crimped at the edges. The labellum was three inches long, and the entire bloom was 5 1/4 inches across.
There can be, I think, no greater thrill to the indoor gardener than bringing an orchid to bloom. The sense of accomplishment I received from this one triumph is unmatched in my experience. And it was so easy!
Still, there was one more reward to come. While photographing the plant to illustrate this article, I discovered that a new lead, already nearly an inch long, had appeared while still in flower, so that C. Oenone alba, if all goes well, should again come into bloom for me by Christmas.
This was an extra special bonus, as I did not expect this particular orchid to come into bloom for another year. So here was one of the surprises in store for those who grow orchids!
So if I, like the advertisements say, can grow an orchid right in my living room, you can, too!
44659 by Keith S. Phillips