People often think they don’t have the skills to grow orchids. But that’s not true, as Mike McLaughlin, Selby Gardens’ senior vice president for horticulture, explained during a March 23 segment on ABC7’s Suncoast View.
Mike was a featured guest during the program’s weeklong series celebrating spring gardening. During his appearance, he offered some anyone-can-do-it tips on how to tend to these beautiful and diverse plants.
Linda Carson and Mike McLaughlin talk orchid care on ABC7’s Suncoast View. Click above to watch!
Orchid Basics
Orchidaceae is the second-largest plant family in the world, with an estimated 28,000 species and more than 100,000 human-made hybrids. Orchids grow on every continent except Antarctica and can be terrestrial (growing from the land) or epiphytic (growing on another plant). Selby Gardens is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads and ferns, and other tropical plants.
The diversity of the orchid family is staggering. Some orchids are as small as a thumbnail, while others can be as large as a car! They often have strange and beautiful scents—vanilla is an orchid—and some even smell like dead animals to attract flies to their flowers.
Myth vs. Reality
Many myths exist around orchids, and Mike offered the truth behind three common ones:
1. Orchids are hard to grow. Orchids may require different techniques to grow than your typical geranium, but with a little knowledge anyone can have a lot of fun with orchids. You can get that knowledge by taking a class at Selby Gardens or purchasing a book about orchid care from the Selby Garden Shop at the Downtown Sarasota campus.
2. You need a greenhouse to grow orchids. That’s not true — especially here in Florida, where orchids grow well outside. If temperatures do happen to fall below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, just move them into a garage or cover them.
3. Using ice cubes is a good way to water orchids. Mike says that this common tip is actually a misleading practice. Orchids should be watered thoroughly until the water runs out of their pot, which is why growing orchids outside is easier than growing them inside.
How to Care for Orchids
Ready to try your hand at orchids? Here are some more of Mike’s top tips:
- When you purchase an orchid, keep the identification tags that come with the plant, so you know what kind of orchid you have and can look up specific care for that genus of orchid. Most of the orchids found in stores are epiphytic orchids, but some, like lady slipper orchids (Paphiopedilum), are terrestrial.
- Choose a good spot for your plant. Most orchids like dappled sunlight, so avoid full sun or deep shade. Morning sun is ideal, according to Mike.
- For planting, use a medium like orchid bark and repot the plant annually. Fertilize weekly during growing season with one-quarter-strength liquid fertilizer.
- Water wisely. What’s the biggest issue home gardeners tend to have with orchids? Watering them too little or too much. If the planting medium is dry and the leaves look wrinkled, the plant is too dry. When orchids are overwatered and the planting medium is old, root rot can occur, which is why repotting orchids is so important. Mike recommends keeping orchids moist during the growing season and drier during the winter.
- Once you know how to keep your orchids happy, they should rebloom every year!
See What’s Growing at Selby Gardens
Visit Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus to find lots of ways to admire and learn more about these beautiful plants.
At our Garden Shop, you can purchase orchids like the Vanda orchid, which doesn’t need to be potted and therefore is hard to overwater. Epiphytic orchids can be grown mounted on a tree in your yard for maximum ease.
There’s no need to be afraid of orchids! Once you get the basics down, tending to these show-stopping plants isn’t so scary anymore.
