phals and hanging baskets - Orchid Board

gardengirl13 · #1 03-14-2014, 11:41 AM

OK since placing I think the largest orchid order I ever will (well unless I come into enough money to own and afford to maintain a greenhouse) buy. I'm trying to figure out how to redo my set-up. So far after losing a few to the move everyone seems to be settling into the new digs. Even my more stubborn chids have new leaf and root growth! I'm keeping an eye on a spot on my onc, it's looking weird, like maybe, just maybe, she's throwing up a spike!!! Keep your fingers crossed!! Only one seems to be still sulking, but not taking a turn for the worse.

With these new orchids coming in the next week or two I need some advice.

I'm talking with a window company about something my husband had promised me when we bought this house. To put a bay window in the bedroom for the eastern light there for my chids! Well the guy is coming on monday to see what we can do and how much it'll cost me. I hope it's not totally crazy high because I would LOVE to just put all my phals there and be happy happy!

But if this proves to be WAY to expensive I'm going to go with lights. I've never grown anything except tomato plants under lights, so I'm not sure exactly how to do this. But I will be researching it a lot!

But one solution for a few of the plants is to hang them in the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom windows. When I ordered the plants I also ordered baskets and some medium.

So what phals do best in baskets? I want to put my schilleriana in one since I love how they hang, but this is my problem orchid, she won't grow at all. She has some new roots below the medium, but no new leaves in over a year!!! No spike this year either. When I potted her after she bloomed when I got her her roots were really badly rotted. She was barely watered since I had her since she was in solid moss, so the damage must have happened in the greenhouse I bought her from. I'm scared to put her in a basket, but would she be better in one? She did lose over half her roots when I potted her in April.

Now I've seen some that look very nice in baskets, and a couple I bought says they do well in them. But are there any that really won't thrive? I do know this takes more work. I know I'll be misting them most every day and watering them probably double what I do now.

Is there any other things I need to do, watch out for, or avoid? I only plan on putting maybe 3-4 in baskets to keep down the work. My health isn't great, but caring for my orchids makes me happy. So it's not bothersome unless I'm having a bad day. Even then I'm able to go around and mist everyone and check to see their growth etc...