Setting up orchids for my blind wife.

[fooferdoggie]

She takes care of them I buy them for her. she had problems with them till we took a class at a local garden shop. her first one was a philenopsis that was in great shape but it is still wet after a month and a half so as soon as its s done blooming it needs repotted. Most of the orchids I have gotten are fragrant so she can enjoy them even more.
she can see colors too but the smell is really a nice plus. our house goes from about 55 in winter to 95 in summer so I stuck with orchids that can handle that and don’t need super bright light. she had problems with spilling course media and it would float out of the pot on her. soI bought a bunch of cork bark and with some stag moss mounted them. it works well for her she can tell how dry they are and they dry out in a week or less. plus they don’t get knocked over as they are hanging up.
it is taking her some work to remember each one and what it needs so I have a note I make on my iPhone with the name and care info and a pic that I share with her.
We found a Sharry baby that smells great in the morning at trader joes that was huge for only 15.00 I did not realize what it was I had ought her one that smells like chocolate that is almost in bloom. she is so excited to smell it.
Here is a fun pic I just bought her a Tile because she keeps loosing track of her spray bottle. and her new orchid that is starting to grow like crazy and we have only had it a week.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

It is fine to repot Phalaenopsis in flower. It does not affect them. If it is really staying wet that long, it is much better to repot now, into something like very coarse bark, than wait until it is done blooming. The roots might rot if they stay wet that long.

[fooferdoggie]

I will get him on a board today. I got one on clearance at walmart because it was yellowing loosing its flowers. the roots seemed fine when i put it in back but three weeks later when I mounted it the roots were bad. I have to figure out how to deal with the flower spikes maybe mount it facing down?

[WhiteRabbit]

Sounds like you two are having a great time learning and enjoying your orchids!

[fooferdoggie]

Yes she is having a blast though I think we have about reached out limit on how many plants we have room for. got this guy mounted his rootball is pretty solid and Could not get most of the peat moss out. I had to use two legs of a pantyhose to get it solid enough. I have thought about a clay pot and the course media but not sure if she can keep from knocking it out of the pot. she knocked it over several times before I put it in a heavy ceramic pot. once the spikes are gone she would not knock it over.

[Dollythehun]

Good job mouning!

[rbarata]

Welcome, fooferdoggie.

I have to figure out how to deal with the flower spikes maybe mount it facing down?

You should worry more about the plant position than with the spikes. Put the plant the most natural way you can find and don't worry about the spikes. It will grow more.

[fooferdoggie]

the root ball is round and I Could not get the roots loose because they were so bound in the ball. so the plant moved around on the wood even with a pantyhose tie down. so I decided to put it in a pot that is big enough to hold it in place. plus enough room for my wife to be able to check out the moisture and bark won't go flying each time.

[rbarata]

so I decided to put it in a pot that is big enough to hold it in place. plus enough room for my wife to be able to check out the moisture and bark won't go flying each time.

I also have a phal in a pot that size, i.e. the ratio between the plant size and pot size is the same.
This might pose a problem because the medium take s a lot more to get dry. That's one thing she should consider.
I water my phal almost every two weeks when I used to do it once a week when the pot was the recommended size (approx. half). If attention is given to this it won't be a problem (considering your environment is the "standard" for a household.

[fooferdoggie]

I was thinking about the size so I put clay media in the bottom of the pot and the media is about 1/2 coconut bark and the rest is charcoal and course perlite so it may dry out pretty quick. but she will keep an eye on it.
she had a hard time with smaller pots and course media knocking the plants over knocking them out of the pot and the media floating off when she dunked a pot. mounting them has been pretty good its fast to check moisture level they dry out in week to a few days. here is one batch of them. a poor phil we rescued from walmart a miniature variegated phil. one little guy we call orchid on a stick Phalaenopsis sp (leaflesswonderi and a Epidendrum magnoliae clump a guy in Georgia collected from the wild.