Secret orchid light tips for successful orchid growing in the home..
Determining the kind of orchid light your plant needs may mean the life or death of your beloved plant! Has your orchid-plant leaves turned color? Are they drooping and hanging low? Read below for a few suggestions... It is wiser to try out different kinds of orchids. Give them a reasonably large and continuous amount of light. Then gradually transfer them to shadier places until the correct light intensity is reached. The right intensity is simple to determine, for orchids quickly indicate their light preferences. *If your plant leaves fade to a yellow-white in too much sun. *They become blue-green and fleshy in too much shade. The correct orchid light intensity seems to be that which keeps the leaves slightly yellow-green and the foliage some¬what stiff and leathery to the touch. The room you select must be well lighted and amply ventilated. Size is not an important consideration if the window is large. In the long run, light is the limiting factor in indoor gardening. The healthiest plants, common or exotic, are always found in the largest and best-lighted window.
To those of us who live in crowded cities where a window box or terrarium is the only means we have of indulging a desire for green and growing plants, orchids offer special attractions. Indoor gardeners say that a house full of plants is soothing. This is certainly true of the frequently grass-like and gracefully arching foliage of orchids. But growing orchids as flower plants are wondrous beyond all other plants. Ordinary house plants have an air of quiet respectability. Orchids bring to your home an exotic touch, a hint of far away lands. Many of these plants are perfectly adaptable house guests. At least six members of the orchid family have been grown in the windows of European homes for over a hundreds years without any more attention than is ordinarily given to Saint Paulias and begonias.
ONE DOZEN DENDROBIUM ORCHIDS ARRANGED IN A VASE Unfortunately, most of our modern homes are unhealthy for orchids. There is limited lighting and a lot of folks don't even open up the blinds. Unhealthy, in fact, for most plants, and even for us. The air is too dry; in many cases winter and summer it is nearly as dry as the air over the Sahara Desert. Our grandmothers, whose house plants succeeded so admirably, had wood or coal hearth fires on which they kept steaming kettles of water, and they had steamy kitchens— both conducive to plant growth. We have radiators and dry kitchens—both fatal to plants. Nevertheless, the wise choice of a room, a good selection of a window, a tin tray of water, several pieces of lath, and any room can be adapted to grow a few orchids. Try different kinds and find the one suitable to your particular environment. Good luck.....
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