What is your favorite season for growing?

[Kruger]

What is your favorite season for growing orchids?

I like Autumn and to a lesser degree Spring. I grow indoors, under lights in zone 5b. Keeping the plants cool in the summer or getting the necessary diurnal fluctuations is difficult. I feel my plants get by with enough A/C, but they seem to thrive in Autumn. I also enjoy late Fall and Winter blooms to help with the oncoming winter blues.

[Roberta]

I am obscenely fortunate, living in a location where many orchids can live outside all year around, there is always something blooming. So something to love in every season. It is rare and wonderful. I am in awe of the effort and ingenuity demonstrated by all who grow orchids in spite of the challenges that the climate throws at them!

[jcec1]

Definitely spring, I have quite a few Catasetum and I love seeing them wake up after their winter dormancy.

[Bulbopedilum]

The rain season, because that's when all the native plants, and especially tubers, wake up and grow / bloom!

However, I'll echo the words of Roberta; as my climate is hot and humid year-round and so I have an easy time growing Phals and whatnot, although, they aren't exactly my favorite... I sometimes wish my climate was different, it would be nice to be able to grow cold-growers, Mediterranean, and Australian orchids outside without much equipment.

Well you know the saying, the grass is always greener on the other side! (Or perhaps, the orchids are always better in the other climate?)

[Leafmite]

Autumn. I bring in all the plants and usually find new spikes/sheaths and/or new growth on the orchids, I enjoy the smell the citrus and jasmine blooms at night, and I get to preen over my plants while drinking my morning coffee or tea.

[MJG]

Summer and autumn. We have cool and rainy springs. When summer rolls around, everything starts to wake up and grow. I love that.

Autumn is our most beautiful time of year in Upstate New York. The temperature is lovely, apples are coming into season, leaves are turning brilliant colors, and my orchids are finally blooming like mad. Almost all of my orchids bloom in the late summer and fall.

[JScott]

Summer is a little tricky for me, because I put the plants outside from the first of March until the end of October, but we get so hot in the dead of summer that my plants struggle. I think autumn and winter are my favorite times for orchids, because that is when I seem to have the most blooms. I have enough plants that I've got at least a couple in bloom every day of the year, but I have quite a large number who bloom in autumn and winter. Spring is also nice. I don't have as many that bloom in spring, but some of my favorites are spring bloomers.

[SaraJean]

Autumn and spring for me as well. Temps are mild, the light is great, things are growing wildly, and blooms all around. Winter isn’t bad, and I always have tons of blooms, but I’m constantly worried that about something not getting enough air movement, or getting too cool or too hot (one particularly hot day in December it got up to over 120° towards the top when I forgot to open the vent covers), and rotting in the little temporary greenhouse. There’s too many plants in there for those three months and water drips on everything. Definitely not ideal.

Summer, particularly late summer, is hard. My temps get ridiculously high and I only have a very, very slight cool down at night. That’s a lot of stress alone. Then there is the struggle to balance the temps and the light. The hotter it is the harsher the light. I’m still trying to find the right balance for some of my high light orchids that don’t necessarily appreciate those 100°+ (40°C) months that we have. A lot of things slow down or completely stall and they only pick back up again once the mild weather starts in October. Then there is also the near constant summer rain, stifling humidity, and very swampy stagnant air. I’ve had less rot problems by adding a box fan and supplementing a little Cal Mag, but it still happens every once and a while and usually to a orchid that I particularly like (isn’t that how it always happens? I’m still busted up over losing my C. Mr. Bojangles and my Angraecum sesquipedale that I had been raising from a 2” pot)

[Rhonda Svoboda]

What a fun topic!! Thanks for posting it. My favorite season has to be fall. In Michigan I bring them all inside when the low temps reach the 50s. Plants just bring so much life and energy into the house. My catt's are 'pregnant' and I can watch them begin to come into bloom. My phal's are also about to bloom.
So not only do I live in Michigan (can you say cloud cover) but I also live in a very shaded, wooded, area. This means that I have to bring my highlite orchids over to my mother's house for sun- I can only visit once or twice a week to water and fertilize.
So, fall and spring are my favorite seasons