Native to the tropics, most orchid species are epiphytes, meaning they grow on the surface of other plants. But they are not parasitic either. They have fleshy roots covered by a spongy tissue that absorbs moisture and other nutrients from the air and organic debris.
A big part of understanding proper orchid care is to understand where it is they come from. For any plant to be happy in a) Ottawa and all its climate-y weirdness, and b) a house with air-drying heating and cooling systems, you have to try to recreate the environment in which it has spent the last billion or so years evolving. In the case of the phal-o that is the balmy, sunny, humid-as-a-monsoon tropics! Please, yes, let’s recreate that in my living room!
Orchids are epiphytes! Epiphytes are any plant that is able to collect most of their nutrients and moisture from the air. When in their native homes they hang from the crooks of trees, with blooms just spilling down like glorious technicolour waterfalls! Their roots have developed to cling to bark as an anchor. If you’ve ever tried to re-pot an orchid or even just shift the bark chips around you’ve probably noticed some pieces are really hard to separate from the silvery roots. That’s because your orchid thinks he’s high up on a branch and letting go of that bark means tumbling to his doom!
One more thing about the orchid’s origins is that these areas, while generally warmer, do experience significant dips in temperature overnight. Some places can experience a difference of 15 degrees. The orchids have gotten used to this difference and now need it to throw blooms. That’s why around here you’ll see a lot of phal-os blooming in January and February where next to the window the temp can drop considerably at night. You don’t want it to go down any lower than about 13 or 14 degrees celsius, but you want it to be a marked difference from the daytime temperature (of usually about 21-24 degrees).
Picture Credit : Google
