Hello to all. I bought a new Cymbidium Orchid for my wife last Valentine's Day and have somehow become the caretaker of this beauty! I am totally orchid illiterate, so I don't even know the proper name for this other than it is a Cymbidium. Here are some pics I took while re-potting it and of how it looks now. The plant is growing 4 or 5 spikes which started in April.
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My lovely wife and I live in the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina with my front porch facing South. I mostly keep the plant outside on the porch where it can get some indirect sunlight during the days and usually bring it into the house at night. I just found out that I have been causing damage to the plant by watering it with our hard, high iron content well water as evidenced by the leaves dying back from the tips, sometimes the whole leaf turns brown down to the bulbs! I will start watering only with demineralized water until I can get my rain water barrel full enough to start using. I have been feeding the plant by watering with a mixture of high nitrogen content orchid food once every 1week or so in between plain waterings of 2 to 3 times per week during the hot weather. (Better Gro 11-35-15), which I just found out may be preventing my plant from growing flower spikes that produce blooms! Anyway, as you can tell from what I have described here, I have a lot to learn and I am hoping the forum can guide me into growing a nice healthy cymbidium that produces lots of beautiful flowers like it had when I bought it! Cheers Mates