My introduction...

[Erin Raven Skye]

Originally Posted by rsfrid

Help me out here. Where are you located? The woman is correct. Just lay the cutting in contact with the soil in a medium (dappled) shade location and water ONLY when the soil appears dry on the surface. The cutting should send out roots. I just rooted 8 cuttings of Opuntia (Prickly Pear) and set them out. I was surprised by the volume of roots they had sent out in a month.

For whatever reason, I didn't see this before. I'm currently located in Georgia, and totally unfamiliar with the growing conditions. Everything I've tried growing thus far (as well as a few plants I brought with me from up north) have died. One plant I had for 20 years I don't even know what it was called, so I don't know how to replace it.

From what the woman was telling me, you can start a cutting just by using the leaves themselves, but what I've read online says you've got to let them dry out/use root on/ put it in moist soil...too many different opinions, and if she's done this successfully before I just wish she'd do it and give it back to me when it's grown roots...but I am moving again in a month, so who knows WHAT is going to happen to me and my little gathering of plants.

[Tindomul]

Welcome to the forum. First that Phal looks really nice, great photo!!
I bought two LalioCattleya hybrids last year (actually won them as a result of an Orchid Board contest). During their time with me, they went through an entire cycle of growth without blooming. I got advice here that they needed some more sunlight, so I put them in a spot where they get flooded with sunlight all morning, and now I have 3 sheaths. If they bloom or not is still up in the air, but I'm getting more action out of them now that they are in the sunlight then before when they were just next to sunlight. Lighting seems to make all the difference.

[Erin Raven Skye]

Yes, that's what I had heard as well. I figured I was doing a great thing giving my cat more sun by putting it outside for the day, and now it's a toasty shade of black. I think at this point I'd settle for a healthy non-blooming orchid than one that looks like a marshmallow left too long in a campfire

[Tindomul]

That was way too much sun too soon. Orchids are like people who live in the Northern climates. On the first nice day, they decide to soak up the sun for a few hours and they end up looking like lobsters. Orchids get sunburned too. You need to introduce them slowly to the sun. If outside is where they were going to be put, then the best way to do it is by placing them in a shady spot outside that at most got less than an hours worth of direct sun. As time went on the plant could have been gradually exposed to more and more sunshine. Im not sure what the limit of direct sun is on Catt types, but I don't think all day sun is good, even for the best condtioned among them.

[Erin Raven Skye]

Yeah, I found that out the hard way. I've never grown orchids before, and I keep learning that they respond VERY differently than other types of plants. Before last week, I had no idea a plant could even get sunburned, let alone die from too much sun. I thought I was being really smart by putting a sheet over them to block the sun, creating a nice shady spot for them...I guess I should have slathered on the sunblock too

Well, it's a mistake I'll never make again, I just hope they forgive me.

[thakshila smith]

in our area the problem is same .They never bloom .hi hi hi.They just sit and be green . Some one told me to transfer them to another spot. I did it .M y onc got a spike . Changing place will help you.thank you.