this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
33 points (97.1% liked)

Houseplants

4541 readers
107 users here now

Welcome to /c/houseplants @ Mander.xyz!

In between life, we garden.

About

We're a warm and informative space for plant enthusiasts to connect, learn, and flourish together. Dive into discussions on care, propagation, and styling, while embracing eco-friendly practices. Join us in nurturing growth and finding serenity through the extraordinary world of houseplants.

Need an ID on your green friends? Check out: !plantid@mander.xyz

Get involved in Citizen Science: Add your photo here to help build a database of plants across the entire planet. This database is used by non-profits, academia, and the sciences to promote biodiversity, learning and rewilding.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Be kind and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.

Resources

Recommendations

Health

Identification

Light Information

Databases

FOSS Tools

Similar Communities

DM us to add yours! :)

General

Gardening

Species

Regional

Science

Sister Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Plants & Gardening

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Memes

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
fossilesque@mander.xyz
hiajen@feddit.de
SciBot@mander.xyz
Spacebar@lemmy.world
tinycarnivoroussheep@possumpat.io
Doombot1@beehaw.org
33
So I asked my neighbors for old orchids to try to rebloom (pixelfed.social)
submitted 1 year ago by sean@lemm.ee to c/houseplants@mander.xyz
8 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/518987

I've been getting into orchids lately and reading a lot about them. I have a few, but thought it would be fun to get some more to learn about how to care for them best.

I posted on my local buy nothing group (a neighborhood facebook group where people give away stuff they don't want anymore). I asked if anyone would give me an old orchid that wasn't flowering and said I'd return it if I could get it to bloom again. Well, I had to cut the post off after 18 hours because so many people responded!

The picture shows the first 7 plants I received, but not the 4 I already owned or the 3 more I picked up the next day! I assigned each one a number so I can keep track of whose is whose.

Most were in pretty good shape, just dusty and a few dehydrated. I looked them all over and gave them a wipe down and a watering if they needed it and assessed their needs. One needed to be repotted right away, I think it had been kept too wet and it had a lot of rotten roots. I'll repot a few of the others in the next few days. Otherwise they're off and growing around my house! I'm excited to see how it turns out.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] sean@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I think overwatering is very common with orchids! They're different than most plants because they grow attached to trees, not in soil. So their roots are designed to be exposed to the air or just barely covered. They get water from rain that runs over them and then dries off as well as out of the humidity in the air. The houseplants we're used to growing grow in the soil where the roots are used to being moist. So that makes orchids a little different!

Here is a great video about watering orchids, it gives more details than I did and it's really helpful because it shows how the roots should look when they need watering. I've seen her other videos highly recommended too!