[suziequeue]

I was given one of those Marks and Spencer's orchids as a leaving present last September and it has flowered continuously since then.

Finally after some benign neglect, it has just stopped flowering. The flower stems have grown quite long - beyond their support stick anyway. I plan to re-pot the orchid now wait for it to start flowering again but can I cut the stems back?

What do people do with orchids? Do they just keep going getting longer and longer?

[Cheviot]

Hi,
I have 3 orchids and all of them have flowered again, I didn't cut back the stems as this is what 2 of them had the new flowers on, the other one the stem died back so I cut it off, it then grew a new stem.
Regards sue

[Somewhere_by_the_river]

Is this a new flower stem or the one it flowered on? If the latter you may (or may not) get some die-back anyway and the experts would say to trim it back to the next bud below. Don't cut it right back or it will take much more energy to produce a new stem. Personally if they are happy I tend to leave them - if you have the right spot in a house for them and they are doing well I figure let them do their own thing. You don't really need to re-pot it yet unless you really want to, but make sure you use a clear pot (one of the slightly opaque ones they tend to come in anyway) and orchid compost. If it's a bit tardy in flowering again a spell in a colder room will encourage it to start flowering again when you bring it back into the warm (though that depends on if/when this heat wave ends anyway!!).

[pgkevet]

If this is a phalaenopsis the the first thing I'd suggest is to check the roots. Shop one's in pots in fancy ceramic bowls are too much a temptation for flk to overwater. Phals will also suffer if temps get too high (I lost some in my past-life conservatory due to that)

Most orchids do want/need a rest period anyway and my phals used to flower usually from dec to around may then sit there for the next year. Some folk advocate bruising the flowering stem to encourage flowering side shoots off it.

I think they are brill value for money compared to cut flowers and when i had time for houseplants I was always on the look-out for an orchid bargain and ended up with many dozens of the things..all of which i left behind when we moved to this farm. The only plants I brought were the citrus and blueberries to eat (and a few potted conifers I released into the wild).

[suziequeue]

Interesting what you say about getting too hot. Our conservatory has been an oven this summer and it's killed the tomato plant the OH had put in there.


So - we've got it in the kitchen now and I will take this opportunity to re-pot it and maybe cut the stem back a bit.

[pgkevet]

A large orchid grower in sussex I usd to go see and ogle the plants sold a poting medium made mostly from rockwool and polystyrene chunks.. The bagged common orchid medium is just bark chunks. Since I'm mean i used to buy bags of chep 'decorative' bark for gardens ...just the undyed stuff and used that - had to many orchids to shell out on anything 'real'.

[doganjo]

I had 6 and one by one they have all died.  I was told by a garden centre nearby that they grow as weeds in their home country and we mollycoddle them too much.

[pgkevet]

I had 6 and one by one they have all died.  I was told by a garden centre nearby that they grow as weeds in their home country and we mollycoddle them too much.

You could say that about almost anything . I can tell you that growing bananas in Surrey isn't so easy and it takes a huge pot and a high celing to keep them going over winter in the dining room and you dont et anywhere as many bananas on it at the end as in a jamaican plantation. I had to give up with my attempts at lychees and breadfruit was just plain daft . But i did eat a home grown grapefruit last week.