How to Care for Your Orchid

Orchids make a gorgeous gift for all occasions, with their beautiful flowers known for being long-lasting blooms. They are a great way to brighten up your home and come in a myriad of beautiful unique colours to match any home. Orchids may have a bad reputation for being a tough house plant but once you understand their needs, they are very easy to care for. We stock Phalaenopsis Orchids at the Plant Collective as they are one of the easiest to keep happy - here are our tips on keeping your Phalaenopsis Orchid thriving. 

    

The right lighting can make all the difference to an Orchid's health. Orchids love lots of bright indirect light.

If you put your new Orchid in direct lighting it can cause their leaves to burn or dry out as they hold a lot of water in their leaves. Direct light can also cause their gorgeous flowers to wilt. Orchids can handle morning sunshine but once midday hits, it becomes too intense for them to handle.

How do you know when they need more light? Take notice of their normal leaf colouring when first bringing them into your home - if the leaves start to become darker, this can indicate your Orchid needs more light.

Orchids love a warm and humid environment. Some people think of humidity and place them in their bathroom, however, although bathrooms are warm when you're in there, they're usually pretty cold for the rest of the day, which can make for a very unhappy Orchid.

Always choose warmth over humidity. You can recreate humidity with humidifiers or misting to keep your plants happy and healthy. It is much harder to keep them happy if they are in the cold. 

Make sure if you place your Orchid on a window ledge that none of the leaves are touching the window. In the colder months, this could cause the orchid leaves to yellow and wilt. 

Watering can make or break your Orchid. Many people sadly find this out the hard way but thanks to reading this blog you don't have to! 

Orchids like to be watered around once a week with room-temperature water. These gorgeous plants in their natural environment are air plants, so hold lots of water in their crown. If you accidentally hit the crown when watering, just wipe it off with a towel or paper towel as neglecting to do so can lead to crown rot. Crown rot can kill the plant, so best to avoid it at all costs.

Speaking of rot, make sure your Orchid is never sitting in water as the roots rot very fast when left there. Make sure to take the plant out of any cover pot it has when watering and let the water drain through completely. 

Tip - due to being an air plant, orchids uptake water through their petals and leaves. This means they love to be misted!

Or should we say lack of soil! Orchids prefer living in bark or organic mediums. In natural environments, Orchids grow off other plants and collect nutrients from the rain (lightning in storms creates a nitrogen-rich rain).

Most plants receive their nutrients through the soil but due to Orchids not liking soil, we have to ensure they get their nutrients through other means. We suggest feeding your Orchid every fortnight through watering or misting. Our favourites are Orchid Pump n Feed and Orchid Mist n Feed.