A former client gave me an orchid as a thank you (she really needn’t have; she paid me for my services). Happily, I looked after her more successfully than I looked after the orchid, which is by now very sad and droopy. Some of the flowers have fallen off. I am wondering if it is beyond rescuing, or whether I can learn to doula an orchid back to health.
Pour a pint of rainwater through it; cut off dead flower stems. Repeat weekly.
The spent flowers will fall off (they will come off easily with gentle assitance). The stem will gradually turn parchment-coloured from the tip downwards. Don’t cut it all the way back – if you look, there will probably be a “node” at the bottom of the parchment-coloured section (once it has turned that colour). Cut it just above the node. It will regorw from there and flower again later. (Sometimes the stem dies all the way back to the plant – don’t worry, it will grow a new one in time). Water weekly with the volume of water that is roughly equivalent to a large ice cube – rainwater is best, but tap will do.
Alternatively, treat it as disposable and buy a new one. Or get a new and equally generous client.
Must say that your foliage is looking very healthy. (That’s not a chat up line, by the way).
Do you think it will be happier living in the conservatory, or on a shady kitchen windowsill?
Ours are on a west-facing conservatory windowsill and , whilst the foliage is not as good as yours, they seem happy enough. My father keeps his on a north-facing kitchen windowsill and they do fine there. His foliage is better. They tend to dry out faster on hotter windowsills, natch.