a good outdoor orchid rec for southern spain climate?

[tmoney]

Originally Posted by estación seca

It's a warm Mediterranean climate. Most orchids might struggle planted in the landscape or trees unless you give regular summer water.

i was figuring as much, but i am glad that this suggestion has been made now as the water bit was the thing that is going to determine my locations. he already has irrigation installed all around the house terrace for the gardens and one of my jobs when we visit is to tidy up certain parts or add new spray nozzles and such. so this is sort of gonna be a stealth project when i can get some orchids and when he is at work!! hahahah

but, now that ive started looking, i once again realize how lucky we r to live in germany where there are like tons of places to buy orchids....in spain, not so much. this makes things trickier, but perhaps we will have some shipped ahead of our next visit and sent to her brothers house or something....logistics isn’t necessarily my strong suit

[SADE2020]

Indeed, in Germany there is a great selection of orchid nurseries, you don't want to know what I pay for shipping to Spain.

Everything they have told you before is very correct, especially what ES tells you, you cannot plant in the ground or in trees here. You can have a nice corner of pots with Leilas, Catts, Cymb, and Dend with late afternoon sun, but if there are very cold specific days (usually in January), he'll had to move them indoors. The advantage is that the days are very sunny and compensate for the coolness of the night.

Just this month I have been organizing what I enter the house and what I leave out, you can take a look at my Garden & Pets Thread. These days I will put an update on how I progress, but basically, it is ... POTS + PLANTS of the three families mentioned.

Your father-in-law must want this, otherwise, it is a bad investment, you better keep it to yourself ...

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by SADE2020

Your father-in-law must want this, otherwise, it is a bad investment, you better keep it to yourself ...

I totally agree! Not only a bad investment, but could be a death sentence - as an orchid lover you don't want that. You have some good suggestions of orchids that take little care and should be able to tolerate the climate, but they still need more attention than landscape plants.

[rbarata]

Once I also had the idea of putting some orchids "in the wild". My family has a property with cork oaks (Quercus suber) that gives us some income every 11 years.
I thought about putting some Laelia anceps but I gave up...the fact is that mediterranean climate is not suitable for outside growing for most of the orchids commonly found for sale. The problem is that, although most of the time of the year it is ok, there are two months that are cold and rainy and that is not a very good combination. The only ones I grow outside year round are Cymbs, Zigos and Bletillas. Everything else. even if they can grow outside most of the time, those rainy season makes everything, if not impossible, very difficult.

[estación seca]

I read years ago of a person growing Laelia anceps on the north side of a palm tree trunk in Palm Springs, California. That has a very hot summer Mediterranean climate. A sprinkler valve sprayed it each day during warm weather. In that climate it would have been dry again within 1-3 hours.

[tmoney]

thank you for your input all, given us a bit to think about! for sure more planning i think is necessary...

maybe we can talk his girlfriend into helping us on this mission 😁

[rbarata]

More than once I left my anceps without watering for a week under 39ºC (102.2 °F) day time temps and it handled it like a champ.
But when it's cold and rains I always put it inside a sunny but unheated room which means day temps of 24ºC (75 F) and 12ºC (53,6 F) at night. Rain is a problem...

[Roberta]

My L. anceps are outside all the time. But all are either mounted or in open baskets, so they don't stay wet for long even if it rains. Something that happens all too rarely,alas, but there are times where there can be a week or so where it's really wet. I think the difference where I live is that when it rains, the clouds prevent the extreme cold, and when it clears up, it's drier. They have handily managed those few times when it rains and then clears up during the night and gets cold. Then, I think that the open baskets help. Also, once it clears, the sun warms them the next day (even if chilly it's bright and warms surfaces) and so they don't stay wet and really cold for long. It is a balancing act, that dynamic may work only in my little microclimate.

[rbarata]

I think the difference where I live is that when it rains, the clouds prevent the extreme cold, and when it clears up, it's drier.

Being coastal, min temps are always higher than far from the sea. Ocean is a thermo regulator.

[SADE2020]

I am following Roberta's technics :-) I just invested in 10 wood baskets for the small Catts and the others are way too big to transplant, but I have a garden fan in case I need one. The weather is similar too.

Anyway, I think you got the picture by now... "take lots of energy to plan the keep them outside, because is a high investment; in time and money", beside there is a learning curve you need to go through to make them bloom.

Orchids are not easy to give away, unfortunately.