Let us not be too hard on Blackvine. I applaud her for getting others hooked on orchids. I try to do it, too. It is very nice to share a hobby with friends.
I buy quite a few phals as gifts for people who have no other plants and these always come from big box stores. Many people have told me years later (after I forgot that I had gotten them one) that their phals are blooming and doing well. I think the box store phals are good starter plants. The Justaddice orchids are certainly bred to be very tough and tolerant and I highly recommend them as gifts.
Before giving the orchids, I usually repot them, using the same pot, into small lava rock. I know that it would never occur to these people that they might need new mediia. Here is then, basically, what I tell/write down for them:
1) Bright, indirect light
2) water until visible roots turn green, drain completely, don't let water sit between the leaves
3) fertilize with a small pinch of fertilizer added to the water when you remember (I usually give them a bag of it since they grow nothing else)
4) keep them in temperatures that are comfortable for you
5) to get them to bloom, let them get a little cooler in the fall for a few days, perhaps by leaving the window cracked or putting in a cooler room. Don't let them go below fifty degrees.
6) Once in a while, let water run though the pot for a minute or two to clean out the mediium
Remember, I give these as gifts to people who do not garden and have never had a houseplant. In the long distant past, I have, on occasion, given people who grow things a cattleya or some other nice orchid only to find later that they have killed them. I prefer now to give away the hardy, tough big-box store phals.
Hybrid Mode
