I've no clue what I'm doing!

[Raymien]

Hello all!

Okay so I've bought my other half two orchids in the past year or so and both are still alive which is a good start!
Neither have flowered again since the original flowers dropped off, but they seem to be trying to and so I'm seeking some help.

This is the first. I believe it's called a dendrobium orchid.





It has purple/yellow/white flowers. As you can see it's been growing a number of other stalks, one of which appears to be sprouting roots? How do I care for this orchid please? It's in a smaller pot inside the larger decorative one with (dead) moss covering the pot.

The second we've had for over a year but it's not flowered for months.



It was a 'cheap' supermarket orchid. It needs repotting I think, but again I'm looking for someone to give me some advice on how to care for it and coach it into flowering again.

Help very much appreciated

[bil]

Start off with some reading and research. The first looks to be a Dendrobium nobile. I like to pot them in fine bark, with maybe a couple of small balls of moss in there if the pot is likely to dry out.

The other is a phalenopsis, and grown like that in moss, you have to be on your toes 100% to keep it doing well.

If tho you pot it in a larger, shallow pot with large (2") barkk chunks and nothing else, life becomes much easier. Water it with very clean water and a weak fertiliser every time. Using coarse bark, it's impossible to overwater or overpot.
If you do, pick out as much moss as you can without breaking the roots and drop pot it a larger pot rather than break the roots trying to open them up.

[AndreaK]

Read, read, read! There is a wealth of information here to be found. Here is a link to information about your Phal. I have not read it entirely but know that many others recommend it to new-comers. Good luck learning. Just know that - we all start as newbies, kill multiple orchids, then we become more knowledgeable, and yet we kill more orchids (just hopefully fewer!).

The Phal abuse ends here.

[estación seca]

For the Dendrobium, type the name Dendrobium nobile into the search box accessible from the top maroon menu. You will get a long list of threads discussing how people grow it. It is quite easy to grow during warm weather, when it likes to get almost completely dry between waterings. During the winter it needs a sharp temperature drop, day and night, for a couple of months, to initiate spring blooming. (Not near freezing, though.) Many people greatly reduce watering during this time as well.

[bil]

With the winter rest, it's important to remember that that doesn't mean NO WATER. Reduce the watering, but not so much that the canes shrivel. What is important is that they get no fertliser at all. Fertilising in the winter is supposed to lead to less flowers and more keikis.

AAllso, the winter rest isn't defined by the calendar. It starts when the last cane on the plant stops growing. You will see when that is because the canes will stop making leaves onn the sides of the canes, and produce one terminal leaf at the end of the cane.

[Optimist]

Yes, orchids are very slow growers, and Most bloom, if well cared for, only once a year. Both of yours look healthy, so there should not be much problem. Your dendrobium nobile is giving off a Kieki, which is a new baby orchid, that is why it has roots. So to be brief, they flower, and then are just "green plants" for the rest of the year. You care for both in slightly different ways, the dend is higher light then the phal. (If you like it, you like it, many phals are grocery store finds, they are still lovely plants).

Please download growing instructions for these plants. The phal might be repotted in bark, the nobile has a large pot, but how is the drainage? A lot of these ornimental pots are just to keep the furniture dry, and trap water in them.

Basic to remember, water rots roots. You need to water orchids, but it should go in and out of the pot quickly, or you will kill the plant. (a few can have wet roots, but you do not have any of those).