Learning How To Care For The Beautiful Orchid

Nearly all orchids are benefited by a period in the garden. There is something about outdoor life, no matter how short the period, that imparts vigor to them, ripens their pseudobulbs, and prepares them for heavy flowering. European gardeners stumbled onto this fact a long time ago.

English gardeners grow orchids in wooden baskets and rafts and hang them from oak trees. Mediterranean hobbyists leave orchids in clay pots, sinking them in the ground near azaleas or clumping them with ferns near sheltered terraces. In Mexico orchids are used for patio decoration, along with more commonly grown tuberous begonias and fuchsias.

ENCLOSED PATIO

Many orchids can be grown outdoors, provided suitable conditions can be found for them - but there's the hitch. Orchids with high humidity or warmth requirements never do become acclimated to North America. For the hardier orchids it is often difficult to find acceptable conditions in many portions of the United States.

The spring-to-fall growing season may be short. In actual practice you are limited to the time between the last frost of spring and the first frost of autumn. The weather may be too hot, too dry, or too windy. Nevertheless, knowing the limitations of your climate, you frequently can supply artificially the missing requirements for normal orchid growth.

Wind is a problem in Wyoming, but several gardeners have overcome it by using glass and wood folding screens to break the force of the wind. Northwest gardeners frequently use glass shields to help conserve warmth from the winter sun. It isn't the winter sun that is cold, but uninterrupted wind and the cold radiation from chilled earth. Of course, in most of these rigorous climates, outdoor orchid gardening is at best only a summer pastime. But you can have a lot of fun with it.

Orchids grown in the garden often do not require so much attention as when house cultured. Drafts are not a problem. Temperature changes are usually gradual. Humidity is created by hosing orchid foliage or the adjacent ground as often as necessary. Watering the pots may be a bit more frequent, but is no job at all with a hose. The difficulty - if any - will lie in the selection of a convenient and suitable garden spot for your orchids.

It is hard to be arbitrary about garden locations; orchids have succeeded in many places. The most unlikely spot, if care is exercised, can be made to grow lovely specimens. For the beginner a cool, semi-shady porch or terrace is probably the best starting point. The plants are easily accessible and can be closely watched for danger signs until a gardener acquires confidence. A brick porch or flagstone terrace is simple to keep moist. A wood porch can be protected by a strip of tar paper or galvanized tin over which a layer of moist gravel is spread.

The selection of a garden location should be made only after mature deliberation. It must have, ideally, the following characteristics: It must be open, permitting free air circulation. It should have some shade - a light, cheerful sort of shade, not heavy or dense. Study the filtered light beneath a single oak tree; that is about right. It must be as cool as possible in summer, as warm as possible in winter, with a natural hedge or high fence to block strong or cold air currents. Finally, there should be as much natural moisture in the air as possible.

Now it is time to take some orchids outside and enjoy them there.

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