First Cymbidium - overwintering advice please!
 

Hello everyone, I had to visit the garden centre today, and on the way to the till, a £4 cymbidium just happened to 'fall' from the reduced table into my trolley :)

I have two questions.

1) I usually repot bargain orchids as soon as I get them, but I know cymbidiums are best repotted in spring, so would you advise waiting till then?

2) I know Cymbidiums like a lot of light over winter and I have two potential places for him - one will have more fluctuating temperatures than the other - better to have fluctuation or not?

Any other comments/advice gratefully received.Attachment 140632

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I think it's best if you share with us the temp values.;)

One place will be fairly steady between 14-17 day and night. The other will go from around 10 (not below) to 20.

I presume the units are Celcius.
I would opt for the 2nd. How is the light in both places?

I agree about the second location. The best place to grow them in a house is if you have an unheated porch, temps may even be lower but they do really well in them.

Light is pretty much the same in both places, maybe a bit more in the place with the lower temperature drop. Good light for most of the day - it will be too strong in summer, but I can move him then.

So, I think you already know where to put it.
Now, lets talk about the medium...from the photos it seems there's soil in the pot together with something else. What's the medium?

It looks like a kind of coir/coconut fibre mixed up with bark.

Do you have them at the rain (when it does)?
My Cymbs are outside, in a north (but bright) balcony.
Prevalent winds here are coming from north or west so they get every storm nature throws at them. The medium is coarse medium/large bark only (the ones with medium size bark took a lot more time to grow as fast as the others with larger bark.
The extreme temps are between 40 ºC (sometimes over that) and avg 8 ºC (occasionally bellow freezing).
Considering this, they don't care if I take care of them or not, they grow and bloom anyway.:)

Repot time is after blooming is done, which is spring/begining of summer.

No, it is indoors now. We are in winter here in Wales, with some hard frosts and snow already. I will put it outside in the spring.

If you can get inside the temps you've mentioned, that's fine.

Thank you! If I have success with this one, I'll maybe try a couple more next year as they are such striking plants. I always like to buy a reduced plant the first time I try a new orchid as I'd feel a lot less upset losing a £4 plant than a £30 one!

And do you have enough room for Cymbs? They can get really large...

There is always more room for plants - I'll just chuck out a couple more pieces of furniture!

Some of my Cymbs need two persons to raise the pot...so that you can have an accurate idea of how big they can get.:)

A couple of points, Pippa. Firstly, remember that Cymbidiums like to be pot bound so do not be surprised if you get no flowers the season after repotting. Then it is the diurnal range of temperatures which initiates buds. Mine live in my cool greenhouse all year. Min 10c but max27/28 in summer with all windows and door open March to October. I found that putting outside in summer just encouraged nasties to get on the plant and in the compost.
Secondly, I notice you are in South Wales. There is an excellent society which meets at the National Botanic Garden of Wales so they will be able to give specific advice for local conditions. I know several people from that Society and they are good growers. Take a look at The Orchid Study Group – For everyone with an interest in orchids. I can give PM you a contact if that would be helpful.