How to encourage a second flowering of the orchid
Making an orchid flower again requires patience, but there are techniques to put these delicate plants in propitious conditions to flower again. By applying them, you will be able to make all the orchids in your garden or the pots in your living room bloom again every year. To gain practice, prefer varieties that bloom again more quickly.
Orchids are flowering, monocotyledonous plants, which include about 20,000 species. The orchid flower needs light, heat, shade and non-calcareous water. In these favorable conditions, these plants can reward us with their beautiful flowers for as long as possible, even for months. The best varieties to gain practice are the Phalaenopsis and the Cymbidium.
The care of orchids
It is important to develop certain habits when dealing with orchids, starting by avoiding irrigation with calcareous water. It is a flower that needs a good humidity, so we must spray its leaves daily with water, avoiding wetting the flowers.
The weekly watering is sufficient: the roots need to be aerated and they can not be permanently soaked, as they could become moldy and this would cause the death of the plant. A wetting of ten minutes every week in summer and every month in winter is beneficial. Simply put the orchid pot in water with liquid fertilizer so that it can be properly nourished. The plant can also be sprinkled with solid fertilizers after wetting. The fertilizers used in these operations must be organ-mineral and specific to orchids.
In general, orchids are planted in plastic or clay pots with remnants of pine bark mixed with clay balls at the base, under the roots. Then you have to completely cover the root with the fertilizer.
On the other hand, the exposure of orchids to direct sunlight should be avoided. It is convenient to take the apartment orchids outdoors from May to September, to a place with a little shade but that allows the plant to have a good light. It is also important not to put the orchid pot near a window: the reverberation can damage the flowers. Always keep a distance of at least 50 cm.
The procedure to make an orchid bloom again
Normally, depending on the species and variety of orchids, the stem has eight to twenty flowers. Once they have bloomed, the flowers last several months. Then the flowers wither, and that’s when you have to start observing the stem well. The withered flowers should be removed after the first flowering; when all have already fallen, it will be necessary to wait a while until new buds appear on the stem.
Cut the stem one centimeter above the second bud to unleash a second flowering, which will normally occur within two months after the flowers fall from the first flowering. When all the flowers of the second flowering have already fallen, buds of the same stem will not grow again. It is then necessary to cut the stem flush with the leaves and wait for the appearance of a new flower stem.