Orchids

My wife is starting growing orchids as a hobby, does anyone know any good places to buy from, just got a couple from local garden centre and one from the internet waiting for it to arrive.

 

I usually look around the reduced sections in garden centres, the real price in full bloom is often inflated.
If you can find one just passed its best, so you can still see flower colour etc.then grow it on, some can take a year or so to flower again, but by then they are used to your conditions and often flower well and long.

 

This is one the other week reduced to £5.00 from £25.00, its a Cymbidium Orchid

 

I usually hide Cymbidiums when not in flower.
They usually only flower once each year and are not attractive when not in flower,( just my thoughts).
But good in a cool greenhouse, I even have one outside at the moment hiding under the Strelitzia, it gets frost protection but all the weather otherwise, as a result I dont expect flowers until early summer next year.
Not sure about the modern hybrids but mostly they wont flower until they get a period of low night temperatures.
That is, low, but above freezing.

 

They had some in flower, when we bought it, it was worth a gamble for £5.00.
Ours at the moment is the dining room

 

That's the way to buy Cyms! Put it out for the summer - I leave mine out as close to the frosts as I dare as I find this to be a reliable way to get them to bloom (not saying that your other half should, just that it works for me!).

Be mindful that some orchids such as Cymbidium, Paphiopedilum, Dendrobium and many of the Cattleya alliance to name a few only bloom once from each pseudobulb, so always check for signs of new growth.

 

As Longk says, they will only flower once on each bulb, so until you get a new bulb build it wont flower again.

 

Thanks for the info

 

Here's a Paphiopedilum that I bought at the beginning of the year for £2.00.

The yellowing parts are the fan that had bloomed when I bought it..........................


On each side it had a new fan forming. During the course of this year two more fans have started growing too.........................


In this last photo a flower stem is emerging from the oldest of the new fans...................


Soon I'll find out what this one looks like! For two quid though it's worth a punt.

 

If you come down to London in March for RHS Orchid Show, it is worth while.
There are nurseries from around the UK, Europe and some from South America

 

Thats great will have a look on the RHS web site