Saved an orchid today!

[Paul Mc]

I went to the trash in our alley to throw some away, and saw this poor phal just laying on the ground, wilting in the 98F degree sun on the pavement!

I dropped the trash and ran to save it as quickly as I could! I guess I did my good deed for the day!

So, I brought inside, emptied the medium and replaced it (and by the way - OMG those roots looked great!). The only issue is that all of the leaves are limp like I have never seen before, one has begun to turn yellow from either the previous owner's care or from being out in the direct sun all day long.

I gave it a bit of Dyna-Gro ProTekt with a good watering, and placed it away from a lot of light to give it some time to recover. Is this a good thing to do or not? Any suggestions?

[zxyqu]

I'd focus on slowly trying to rehydrate the leaves. They may plump back up after awhile, though I've had varying success with that on tossed 'chids. Good Luck, but I'd go with less(er) light, and obviously cooler temps.

[Jennyfleur]

Good for you last year, my boyfriend rescued one from the bin where he works (because he said I wouldn't have ever forgiven him otherwise!)

It's great that the roots look good, even after baking in the heat. Mine only had one root which hadn't shrivelled but did have one good leaf left. Now, it's growing like crazy! I'd agree with slightly less light and cooler temps (well, certainly cooler than 98F in any case!).

Good luck and try to be patient - if it's not going to try and re-plump the leaves, if may try and make a new one in time Looking forward to updates

[Paul Mc]

Yeah, I'm operating under the assumption that all of the leaves that are currently limp (only one is not) will probably fall off after being treated so poorly, but who knows. Based upon the massive root system (which I can't say enough that I wish all of my orchids had that kind of root system) I'm hoping it will pull itself through rather quickly.