Winter is generally a time when people rely on orchids for flowers. There are a few reasons for this. For one thing, the phalaenopsis orchid is the number one selling plant and they are available everywhere–grocery stores, box stores, sometimes even pharmacies.
And their flowers last for months as well so if you acquire one in late fall, you can reliably have flowers all winter. What’s not to like about that?
What most people have trouble with is re-flowering these plants. I suspect it’s a matter of patience. We are not patient people and don’t like to look at plants without flowers.
But these plants are quite easy to bring back into flower. You can see the flower spike forming on this one. I don’t do anything special to make this happen. I put them outside in the shade from Memorial Day to Labor Day (roughly late May to the beginning of September).
After I brought this in and was watering it for a little while, I happened to notice this periodic cicada carapace. I jumped and almost dropped the pot when I first saw it. Now I just smile. It’s a fond reminder of summer–and that something else was finding my plant useful.
Gardendaze 