Orchid Flower

Proper Care For Your Orchid Flower

An orchid flower is truly a thing of profound beauty, but it is likewise a creation of delicate fragility.  Orchids require extra diligent care, and one wrong move can cause the ruin of this truly exquisite flower.  Orchids originated from tropical places, and growing them in the mainland would mean raising them outside of their natural environment.  Often, they'll find it hard to survive by themselves, given the attendant circumstances which will be less than what is ideal for the optimal growth and health.  These orchids need our help.

The proper care for an orchid flower can be summarized into 5 basic steps:

1. Know Your Orchid.  Orchids come in many varieties, and each class demands its own set of needs.  Terrestrials, for example, require the best quality of soil for their healthy growth.  Lithophytes demand a constant supply of decomposing wood, humus or moss.   And Epiphytes need non-stagnant area for their nutritional supply.  What your orchid flower needs would depend on the class it belongs to, and preparing these needs would require a prior determination of your orchid's type.

2. Do not over-water.  Orchid plants possess great water retention properties which they have developed in the tropics, their natural environment.  If you supply an orchid with more water than it can handle, you can potentially kill it.  Try your best not to over-water your orchid.  This is very important!

3. Sufficient lighting.  An orchid flower will achieve its potential beauty only when it receives its required amount of lighting.  Some orchid plants, like Cattleyas, demand a lot of light everyday, from the natural source - the sun - at that.  Other orchids, like the Phalaenopsis, can survive with room lighting.  So again, it is essential to determine the kind of orchid you're keeping to be able to supply this requirement properly.

4. Watch the temperature.  Orchids grow best with humidity in the range of 35% to 65%.  Anything less or more will be detrimental to the healthy development of your plants.

5. Keep the air flowing.  Stagnant air is actually "poisonous" for orchids.  These plants garner important nutrients from the air, and stagnant air will deprive them of such.  If you don't want your orchids to grow malnourished, make sure that there is constantly moving air in the area where they will be planted.  Too much air, however, can harm the blooms, so strive to achieve the right amount of breeze at all times.