Lowe's rescue - Dendrobium aridang green - Orchid Board

Lady Oscar · #1 07-02-2016, 01:25 AM

So...I went to Lowe's today to buy some potting material and an anthurium. There were lots of lovely orchids, but I carefully averted my eyes, since my orchid shelf is getting a little crowded. ^^;

However, when I walked past the "50% off" section to the "$5 each" one, my eye was caught by a sad orchid plant just lying on its side on the shelf, as though it had fallen over one time too many and no one cared enough to prop it up. The bloom spike was bent over and the flowers were damaged, and the pot seemed low on potting medium. Naturally, I felt bad for it and had to take it home!

The flowers are a pretty yellow-green color, and the plant is not only ID'd, but named, due to my husband's comment, "Named? What, like 'Jon Aridang of the Vale'?" (We may have been watching too much Game of Thrones.) :-P

I temporarily propped the spike up with a skewer just to look at it for a bit, though I assume it will die. Otherwise, the plant does seem to have a couple of healthy root tips visible. The older leaves have some dark spots and light mottling that I don't know if I should worry about, but the leaves on the blooming cane look fine and happy.

I haven't been able to find anything very specific as to culture. I was thinking of repotting it in coarse bark/charcoal/perlite ("Better-Gro Special Orchid Potting Mix") just because it seems neglected and I have now learned the hard way that it's good to take a look at the roots before it becomes a problem. Does that seem reasonable?

As always, thanks to everyone here for being so helpful! Without this board, I would never have the confidence to fill my house with excessive numbers of orchids....

No-Pro-mwa · #2 07-02-2016, 11:50 AM

I think they call these Dendrobium phalenopsis or something like that. I'm sure I spelled it wrong but too lazy to look it up. I don't have any and also don't know much about there care. But yes I would re-pot it so you can see how the roots look. And hopefully some one that knows more will chime in.

mexicowpants · #3 07-02-2016, 12:44 PM

Yep, it's a Dendrobium Phalaenopsis. In my experience they don't like to have their roots disturbed, so I'd say avoid repotting if at all possible. If you can see a few healthy looking root tips, all should be good.
All my Dendrobium Phalaenopsis are growing in red lava rock, some with a little charcoal in the mix. They seem to do very well in this medium.
As for culture - bright, indirect light, constant warm temperature, and let the medium dry out completely between watering. Fertilise weakly - they don't like to be overfed.
These are semi-deciduous plants, and sometimes lose their leaves either during or just after flowering. The yellowing leaves that your plant has are going to drop soon, it's not anything to worry about. It already has a healthy looking new cane growing, so losing a few leaves from the old cane is not a problem.

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