Early spring in the Orchid Collection

 While we are still in the grips of winter the greenhouses are already showing signs of Spring. In our Cloud Forest Greenhouse most of our plants are in full growth and enjoying the increased daylight as the days start to lengthen. As a result we are increasing the amount of feed we are giving our plants. Our tank currently has feed to 400 micro-seimens which will increase to 500 micro-seimens in the summer.

In our Himalayas Greenhouse almost all of our plants are resting - refecting the very seasonal growth habits of the plants from the monsoon forests of the Himalayas. Some dendrobiums such as Dendrobium aphyllum have dropped all their leaves and are kept almost completely dry. Other plants like cymbidiums and coelogynes are kept damper - watering about twice a week to avoid any shrivelling of bulbs as they move into their flowering season. 

Indoors our warm orchids such as Phalaenopsis and Aerangis species are in growth and so watering and feeding does not change much during the year. Most Phalaenopsis need a cooler period to initiate flowering but we find this naturally happens in our house (thermostats at 17C) in the winter and flower spikes are well advanced on many plants.