Beginner Orchid Growers Facebook Group

“What to do right after getting an orchid”

By Steve Howard

First time buying or receiving an orchid? What’s the first

thing you do? Google it, jump on Facebook or YouTube,
and the next minute you are bombarded with every bit
of advice under the sun. Repot it, chuck it in water, hang
it upside down, feed it tea, trim spike, use keiki paste,
remove the orchid-killing medium it’s growing in, use
slotted pots or those full of holes and so on. Talk about
confusion and bombardment.

There is an old saying: “You need to learn to walk

before you can run,” and with orchids, it’s “you need to
learn to crawl first before you can walk.” There is a lot of
well-thought advice out there, but most is not suited to
the first-timer. So, when you get an orchid, take a deep
breath. Here is some of the most important advice I can give:

1) Let your plant settle and adjust to its new home. Don’t repot it straight away, especially if it’s in
flower. It’s stressed enough from the move from nursery to retail to home, so don’t add to it by
repotting.
2) Learn to find its sweet spot in the home. A warm bright area away from cold and heat sources
suits.
3) Learn how to water it. Not too much, not too little but just moist. More plants are killed
through poor watering practices than everything else put together.
4) If you buy a plant, buy one like the one in the picture. It’s healthy, has good roots, is in a decent
sized clear or black pot and grown in bark. As a newbie, this plant will fare far better than one
purchased from multinationals that cram them in small soft plastic pots, which often are their
 original seedling pots. These plants invariably already have a declining root system and a
growing medium that’s already aged to the point it’s causing damage through acidification. Half
the time the plant is dying before you get it. Bark-grown ones are far easier to manage from a
watering point of view and wont need repotting for a year. This gives you as a newbie ample
time to learn its sweet spot and the finer art of watering and fertilizing. Don’t buy anything in a
glass tumbler. These have been pulled out of pots in flower and shoved in with some moss to
look good for sale with no thought whatsoever of the plant’s health or wellbeing. Same applies
to those in fancy pots. A check under the topping will reveal a plant in one of the small soft
plastic pots.

So, from a new to the hobby perspective give yourself the best chance by picking a decent plant in
a decent pot with bark medium, find its happy spot, enjoy the flowers and learn to water, feed,
and care for it. Take the spike off after flowering and watch your plant change from flowering to
growth mode. It’s all about learning and growing, not forcing your plant to repeatedly flower. If
you do it right, your plant will be bigger and happier and will flower again. After a year, you can
graduate to repotting and other things such as reflowering. My recommendation is purely about
giving your new plant its best chance to settle in its first year and for you to learn its growth habits
through the year. Buying in small plastic pots of moss or peat, disturbed plants in fancy containers,
or discount shelf rejects isn’t the best way to start, and losses are significantly higher buying this
way. I’m not saying my way is the way for all, rather some recommendations about how to select a
decent orchid and a plan to give you the best chance of success, because with success comes new
purchases and the hobby lives. Failure sees many leave the hobby because they did too much too
early without knowledge and started off with inferior plants.