Growing orchids outside?
 

I live in a place where I can not keep my orchids outside year round. The weather is getting warm during the day high 60s to 70. At night it gets to 36 so I only keep my Cym out at night right now. I bring the other in at night and my house temp drops down to 55 at night.

This summer I want to keep them all out. I also live in a place where we don't have many bugs or insect problems that bother plants.

How many of you throw your orchids outside to grow? If you do where do you live and what types do you leave out?

I want to learn more about growing these plants outside.

Here are all my larger Orchids relaxing on the porch it is East facing with some trees for shade. I keep my Paphs and Phals inside.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...psp3g56n1m.jpg

I can give you some pointers about cymbs...mine are always outside and they stand temps between -2 and 40ºC. All of them are growing fine. I just need to avoid direct frost on the leaves (a porch is ok).
Why don't you try to put a cymb outside just to try?

About other genera, it depends on their natural environment.

My location is already part of Central Valley California, a heat belt area so we easily go to the 90s and to the triple digits during late Spring to early Fall. Our humidity here is dismal, so dry, so it is imperative I get to water the orchids before the sun hits them. Then we go cool usually in the 55F to 70F range daytime in Fall to Winter, overnights at its worst we get hard freeze warnings at 21F. When it is already cold, I try to keep the orchids remaining outdoors cool and dry.

I keep my cymbidiums, and vanda coerulea outdoors year round. My other orchids, except for Phals and Paphs, go outdoors but inside my growcamp, where they get protected by the netting from nasty insects, and gets dappled shade from the city trees. So Oncidiums, Dens, Max tenuifolia, Pleurothallids they are inside my growcamp during the warmer season. When temps start going down 55F and below, I have to bring indoors my Oncidiums and some Dens.

My Phals and Paphs are always indoors, by my west facing window, I just draw the sheer curtain if it gets too hot, but most of the time it gets dappled sun since city trees are fully out already. When I water the Phals and Paphs, I also run our ceiling fan to help provide additional air circulation.

So pretty much, watch the prevailing temps, adjust the watering as seasons change, shelter the warm loving ones indoors during winter, provide good air circulation and apply fertilizer in weaker dose as needed when temps are already warm and plants are back to active growth cycle. I start to bring out my orchids hiding indoors when outside overnight temps go 55F and higher, anything lower is still dicey, so I wait even if daytimes goes to 70F already, have to wait for the overnights to stabilize. In my area that is around mid March to early April.

I'm just outside Philadelphia and definitely keep several orchids outside year round, along with a bunch more that get winter vacations indoors. Year round I keep Spiranthes, Calopogon, Platanthera, and soon Bletilla, Cypripedium, Tipularia and Calanthe species. Part time outdoor plants include Stanhopea and Catasetum alliance members, Dendrobium, Neofinetia, Oncidium, Maxillaria, and numerous terrestrial species. Lack of reliable humidity is normally what prevents me from keeping a plant outside.

I grow all my orchids and other plants outside as soon as the night time temps are staying at 58+. For my area this typically runs from late May until late September. I do move some "other" plants outside earlier but the orchids...even those that can take cooler temps...don't go out until they *all* can go out so that's 58+ for night time lows.

I grow low light to high light orchids (plus a number of other plants)...phals to full sun rupics/ctsm/etc so I have various areas set up outside to accommodate all light levels. Including a number of orchids living in full sun w/cacti. Mostly shelving units geared toward the different light levels. I also have some hanging from trees. The only real protection they have is shade cloth and in some cases a strategic use of the roof eaves when necessary.

The time outside is good for the orchids and it gives me a break. Mother Nature helps w/the watering and when she's not doing her job I can just grab the hose and go.

I'm so glad to know that you can grow your vanda outside. Finally I can have a blue vanda! I live in the Bay Area so our weather is a bit more mild than yours. I put my den nobile outdoors as soon as it was done blooming in February and it's doing great. Where did you get your coerulea species? I've been looking up and down and can't find a vendor that sells this species other than orchid limited who sells this as a seedling.

I just wanted to add that I love that picture. I would love to sit there and have a drink! :)