Hi
I need some advice on how to care for an orchid. I have never tryed to have one but my husband went and got me 2 of them and I have no idea how to care for them. I have never had any luck with house plants so I stopped trying and started doing flowerbed. He was told they could be planted outside. I don't think they can. Can anyone give me a idea how to keep them alive. They look like they need moved to bigger pots. Here are pics of them and I think the root are coming out of the pots.
Thank you
Fmwynd

Welcome!
First of all, your husband is a sweetie to buy you two very pretty Phalaenopsis Orchids. He is a bit of a Weisenheimer to suggest they could be planted outside. No, they cannot be planted outside.
These plants are epiphytes in nature and they will resent being planted in soil. Those roots are perfectly normal to stick out all over the place and best left alone. I would suggest to simply enjoy your pretty blooms.
Regarding watering - when the medium feels dry, take it to the sink and thoroughly let room temperature water run through the pot, taking care to wet those roots too. Let it drip off and place back into its spot. (Keep away from straight sun) It is not a good idea to let water sit in the crown, better to gently tissue that out if you get water into the center of the plant. These plants grow slighltly tilted in nature, so rain water flows out.
I would suggest looking through the sticky Phalaenopsis thread and other help threads on top of our Orchid forum. There is tons of information in those.
Enjoy your Orchids!

Ursula has given you wonderful advice. There is nothing more for me to add, except not to sell yourself short.
As she said there are wonderful stickies and threads in our forums offering detailed information on how to grow Phalaenopsis. Read them, follow the advice, success will follow.
Do not seek advice from your husband or from anyone else on how to grow them. Orchids are not like other plants that you may have tried to grow before. But they ARE NOT hard to grow. Only take advice from orchid growers.
Ursula has provided the path to success! All you have to do is follow it. We look forward to hearing from you again and welcome to our happy little group!

I got my first Phalaenopsis in a very long while in the late autumn. I bought several at one time, and they have all done well.
Your orchids are planted in bark, rather than moss, so that is good. You can relax and enjoy them without having to repot them now. Just follow the instructions above from Ursula and Bill, and read through the Phalaenopsis sticky at the top of the page. There is just about everything you would ever want to know in there. I took my time and read through the stickies and I learned so much from them!

Good luck and from another newcomer to orchids and to this forum. I did own a Phalaenopsis orchid back in the 1980's but I don't think that counts. I am surely a newcomer now

I hope that you both read this in the forums but if not, I'll say it here and now, Phalaenopsis are typically one of the easier orchids to grow. Just remember:
No direct sun
Just a bright window
Water as they approach dryness, typically once every 5-7 days
Like 60-85 degrees
Don't try to grow in sphagnum moss until you have a few years experience
Do NOT use ice cubes to water!
Make sure all pots have drainage
Never let plants sit in water
They respond well to being repotted

Again, welcome! Read the threads and follow the above guidelines which appear in a more detailed form in the stickies!

Thanks, Bill. I think I am following the guidelines

Thank you all for the information. I will be reading them.
Thanks again
Fmwynd

Hi everyone! Need your advice...

I recently purchased a Rth Tsiku Lily, and can't find any information on how best to take care of it...watering frequency, media type, ambience, etc. Can anyone provide any tips? Right now I have it in a glass vase where I can keep an eye on water levels so I keep the roots humid but out of water. I would like to repot it very soon. It looks like I may need to trim some of the roots too.

Many Thanks!
Bob

Your orchid is a type of Cattleya. Do not keep it in a glass vase near water! It will need a couple of hours of sunlight per day, preferably morning sun. Otherwise it should be bright. It has the potential to bloom more then once a year.
It needs to be watered well and then go dry for a bit and then watered again. It needs to be in either a clay or plastic pot in orchid media. NOT in soil. An orchid is an epiphyte, growing on something for support. It is not a parasite. The roots need oxygen around the roots all the time, hence no water culture and no soil.
Not exactly sure about ambience!! If you grow orchids, they provide all of their own ambience. You grow them because they are the greatest flowers on earth, my opinion.
The orchid doesn't need ambience, a human might, but not an orchid.
When you grow an orchid, you grow an orchid. You can always display it in a beautiful ceramic container for example to show it off. But when blooming is over, you get it out of the ceramic pot and put it back in the proper environment.
Please take the time to read all of our threads on growing orchids and other related topics here in the orchid forums. Join in. Post and learn while you are having fun.
Visit the AOS website. www.aos.com
There under the membership pull down is some pdf files about Culture. How to grow the different types of orchids. You can then print out the one for growing Cattleyas. It is not ALL that you need to know but it is a start!

Thanks Bill! Sorry to send you on an ambient tangent! I meant what kind of ambient conditions in general would suit this type of orchid and you have answered all my questions! I think they should call you Quickdraw Bill! All my questions answered within 20 minutes of my post!

Hey, I just happened to see it and I love to talk Orchids.
Good luck and I am so glad that you found us!
Take care buddy.

Thanks again Bill for your help. I have repotted my Tsiku lily and will keep an eye on her.

I'd like your, or others', opinion on another orchid I purchased and am wondering if I have placed it in the right medium. It is an Angraecum eberneum, which I am quite excited about! When I purchased it, I found it root bound in a tiny plastic container full of media that had broken down, full of dead rotted roots and infested with bugs. I removed all the media and dead roots, rinsed then misted the roots with hydrogen peroxide, and misted the leaves with a 2% mineral oil and soap solution to help with the bugs (I think it was scale). I have repotted into clay pellet media only, and am wondering if that is the right choice. I understand the roots need to be kept moist and airy (similar to Vanda?). Would it make sense to add something a little more moisture-retentive into the mix, or should I keep it this way and just keep misting and watering more often? Thanks!

Angraecums are not the easiest of plants to grow, and I would not consider them as beginners orchids. But having said that let me add that your choice of media is fine. However, it is potted too high up. It should be down to where the roots meet the vertical growth.
While you can display an orchid inside of a decorative pot, it is not advisable to grow it inside of one. Why? It can lead to watering and drying issues.
A common mistake is to grow them in too much sun. It would enjoy morning sun, East window, of perhaps 3 hours of sun, otherwise bright. Never let them stay dry for too long between waterings. Fertilize weakly every other month. They like temperatures between 60-85, but will tolerate high and low extremes on occasion for a few hours.

Thanks Bill. I'll need to get a bigger pot to repot the Angraecum. It's normally in a display pot as I don't have an ideal place for them, so they stay in my living room. Perhaps we'll have to start appreciating the beauty of bare roots! I love seeing the roots, but my wife prefers the finished pot.

Any idea how mature this specimen will have to get before i can even begin to hope for a possible night bloom? Hopefully before Haley's comet comes around again! It currently has 6 leaves (a fifth had been trimmed off).

Probably within a year.
They bloom fairly small with just a few flowers and as they mature and get bigger, more flowers are produced on multiple inflorescences.

Hi Bill, a quick question regarding this same orchid. I have repotted it per your recommendation. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the centre of the stem has what appears to be a dried out leaf (not a surprise as the place I got it from appears not to be overly concerned about the quality of their orchids!). The orchid doesn't look to have grown much at all in these last two months, but it has put out a few new root shoots. Based on your experience, do you think it will ever bloom given it's potential past treatment? I am not keen on keeping it for its green leafy display... are the roots indicating a potentially positive future? I did notice some dark material in the plant which may be a hint of some kind of mold/fungus problem. The leaves appear to also be fairly bright and not the healthiest looking green. Perhaps.roo early to tell given it's slow growing nature. Thoughts?

Well what I see Bob, honestly, is a wonderful sign! When we see any orchid that has been traumatized, suffering from less than ideal culture, we see a plant that is less then healthy.
BUT when we repot it and we get three new roots that I see in your images, that is very encouraging. The plant is telling you just how happy it is. It has fresh media, better light and better water. These can all lead to blooming.
But let me say this too, some orchids bloom easily, some need ideal care, some are reluctant bloomers. Eburneum is not an easy orchid to flower like a Phalaenopsis. But as the culture gets better the plant will do better. Patience my friend, patience. I think that you should be pleased with the way your plant has responded so far. Good job man!!!

Oh I forgot to mention. I don't see any other issues at the moment. Some orchids just grow a "little ugly". But take heart, we are not trying to grow beautiful plants, we grow looking for beautiful flowers!!

Thanks Bill for your words of encouragement. I will keep calm and nurture on.

My pleasure Bob.