The delicate, delightful scent and sight of the orchid has made vibrant gardens, forests, and fields across the world. For centuries, the orchid flower has illuminated settings around the world. From the remote parts of the rain forest, to stunning expanses across the midland, and improbable growths in permafrost landscapes, the orchid shines.

It is a flower as diverse as it is elegant, and its proper care is vital and precise. From enjoying an orchid collection with your first cup of coffee on a rainy morning, the joy of orchids is discovered in their simple growth and care.

And this guide brings you all of the essentials of caring for one of nature’s most diverse species. We aim to provide answers to all of your orchid question, and bring together a life span of research on a flower that has delighted mankind since the dawn of civilization.

The Magic Of The Orchid

The impractical plant, the “survivor” species of the flower world, the orchid has survived in climates and settings as diverse as they are radiant. The orchid has been found in freezing climates, Mediterranean paradises, and sun-deprived caverns under the earth.

The seed of the orchid flower pops from the plant, separates from the flower, and dispurses itself in the blowing wind. The plant grows from a symbiotic relationship with a specific fungus. As the fungus mines the earth for water and minerals, it supports the seedlings of the orchid, growing them into healthy blooms. The seedlings, in return, return the precious fruits of photosynthesis to the fungus: life-giving oxygen.

The diversity of the orchid, its ability to thrive around the world, is recognized on a smaller scale in its survival at your home. The temperate greenhouses of a flower-lover, the window sill of the home decorator, or the mild garden of the minor agriculturalist all support the orchid easily.

The long-lasting nature of the orchid, of variations like the broad-leaved Lycaste, makes them perennial beauties and delights. The wax-like Lycaste, named after the mythological Greek nymph, was dedicated to the beautiful daughter of Priam, the last king of Troy. Truly a flower of the gods and kings!

The Flower of the Gods and Kings!

The medieval orchid was even found most famously in the court Charles II of Spain. The Masdevallia, named after Charles’ physician Jose Masdevallia, has been a delicate mainstay of gardens across Europe since. The common tails and gorgeous sepals, the outermost portion of the flower, have pleased kings and court of the highest regard.

The aromas and fragrance, the colors, shapes, and sizes, delight even the most experienced grower. A lifetime of orchid growing could produce a different species every day. The distinct and individual are the norm, such as the Oncidium Sharry Baby, a potted plant that smells like chocolate.

If the breathtaking nature of the orchid has not encouraged a passion for the plant, a one-stop guide to an expertise with the world’s most diverse flower certainly should. And this guide brings that expertise to your fingertips!

Cliff Hunter is an enthusiast for Orchid Growing. He has devoted a lot of his resources to provide quality, professional information for Orchid growers and hobbyists.

We can thank orchid and other flower cultivators, in part, for the recentpush to recycle the water that reaches our homes, particularly that which falls as rain. If you are an orchid grower orchids, this is a subject you might like to investigate.

Orchids, like other plants, have very particular likes and dislikes as to the water provided them to nourish their roots. Most of them will not thrive in hard water. Unfortunately, the water that comes out of the faucets in many areas is too hard for orchids to respond as well as we might like. For the most part, hard water won’t kill orchids. It might stunt their growth, though, or keep them from ever blooming as beautifully as they might have.

A good thing about orchid plants is the fact that they have thick, fleshy roots that can hold up to hard water better than many other types of plants. Hardwood plants, as an example, with their fine roots, are too often ruined by water that is overly hard. Nontheless, you should try to avoid putting hard water on orchid plants if you can possibly avoid it.

You can buy filters that attach to your water line to soften the water while taking out various types of impurities. Nothing, though, is better than good old rainwater when it comes to doing right by orchids! After all, this is the way nature waters plants in the wild the world over.

A number of companies make rain barrels that are perfect for catching and storing rainwater until you want to use it. Many people set up the barrels below the rainspouts coming from their roofs. With a little planning and work, you could set up several rain barrels to channel water directly to your orchids. Then the watering task, presuming you live in a fairly rainy area, becomes virtually hands free.

Whatever water you use, don’t put it on your orchids if it has a chill on it. For instance, I would not use water taken from an outdoor faucet on a cold winter’s day, without first allowing it to come to room temperature in my home or in the greenhouse. Cold water can cause spots on the plants, rot the growths and damage the roots.

Some orchids will benefit from water with some lime mixed in it. In years gone by, people noticed that imported Cypripedium orchids often were covered with chalky lime deposits due to the plants having grown in limestone rock crevices where the water trickled down on them. So if you have a Cypripedium, you could try adding lime to its water, a little at first and then more if you determine that the plant is responding well to it.

The art and science of orchid cultivation is a fascinating subject. Orchid growing is not as difficult as some people like to make it out to be, but you must arm yourself with solid information before plunging in to this rewarding pastime.

The most complete guidebook to expert orchid care, without a doubt, is Orchid Care Expert by master orchid grower Nigel Howard, which is available to be downloaded from the web. Mr. Howard’s guide is a complete course of study, enlightening for beginners as well as the more experienced fanciers alike. In addition, be sure to visit here often at GoGoKitty’s Orchid Secrets, which features an ever-expanding library of entries on a wide range of facets of orchid care.

The Cattleya fly is one of the most potentially devastating insects that couldinfest your precious orchids. In fact, this insect is closely associated with orchids rather than any other type of plant, as you might gather from its scientific name, Eurytoma orchidearum.

Cattleya flies deposit their eggs in the young growths of the orchid. The eggs hatch, with the nymphs (or maggots) going to work right away, feeding voraciously. The nymphs quickly grow to a grotesque size within the bulbs. One signal that these maggots are doing their damage is that the bulbs themselves will swell and become club-shaped at the location where the pests are eating.

Finally, the nymphs turn into adult flies, which munch their way to freedom by chewing through the flesh of the bulbs. Adult flies are black in color, have transparent wings, and are about one-quarter inch in length. Unfortunatelyy, by the time you spot them it might be too late to rescue some of your orchids. Nonetheless, you should try to kill the flies before they can get a chance to inject their eggs into your remaining healthy plants.

If you have plants that are already infected, the best course is to slice away any bulbs that are seen to be swelling more than is natural. Then just drop the nymph or maggot into some water to drown it. It is discouraging to have to slice away a plant’s promising young growth, but it is better than leaving your other plants exposed to attack by the pest. With luck, the plant that you had to do “surgery” on will grow a new bulb in place of the old one.

Here’s a little good news, though, as far as these harmful little pests. They are actually not very common, and most orchid cultivators will never encounter them. Regardless, it is just good practice to carefully examine every new orchid for the signs of these flies and their maggots. Besides looking out for unusually enlarged bulbs where the fly’s nymphs might be eating, inspect for minute holes where a female fly’s ovipositor might have inserted her eggs into the plant. Absent such signs, you probably do not have a Cattleya fly problem.

To be really successful growing orchids it is important to know how to deal with all the possible threats to your plants, including insects. It is not as hard to grow orchids as many people believe, if you ground yourself in basic knowledge of these exciting plants.

The most thorough guidebook to 21st-century orchid cultivation, in my opinion, is Orchid Care Expert by a Mr. Nigel Howard, which may be downloaded online. Howard’s delightful guide will furnish a complete immersion in the subject. Also, return here often to our Orchid Secrets website, with our ever-growing database of articles on all facets of orchid cultivation.

Since tulip mania (or “tulipomania”) reached its height in the Netherlands until the present, no one family of plants has managed to acquire such a firm hold on popular fancy as the orchids. Believe it or not, though, today’s orchid craze hardly compares to the fanatical devotion that these plants inspired in our Victorian forebears, particularly in England and America.

Certainly other plants had a degree of celebrity in the Anglo-Saxon sphere of the mid- to late 19th century.  We may count among these the cacti, ferns, roses, chrysanthemums and palms. But it was the orchids that represented the height of horticultural attainment to 19th century gardeners. So highly were the tropical epiphytes held that on May 12, 1885, the first huge orchid conference was held in London. The gala event brought together amateur as well as commercial growers to show off their prized specimens and to discuss important issues, including the culture and nomenclature of these marvelous flowers.

At the time of that great conference in London, the exotic tropical orchids had been known to most of the world for only around a hundred years. A 16th-century Spanish botanist, Francisco Hernandez, casually referred to a few orchids as curiosities when recounting a voyage to Spanish America. Some 200 years later, naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer and botanist Georg Eberhard Rumphius, employed by the Dutch East Indies Company, described several of the Asian orchids. But it wasn’t until just before the beginning of the 19th century that Europeans in general became aware of these mysterious and exciting plants.

By the early 1800s, botanists were working on cultivating a few specimens at such places as Kew Gardens in London. Until 1820 orchids were looked upon as curiosities in botanical gardens, but about that time some showy Cattleyas and other species produced some stunning flowers, piqueing greater interest among the public. By the 1850s new specimens of orchids were pouring into Europe from all over the world and more and more people were trying to cultivate them at home.

The first great orchid craze was going full throttle by the late 1800s and continued undiminished for many years to come. Somewhat suprisingly, a solid scientific understanding of orchid botany and what was needed to be consistently successful in growing orchids did not arrive until the 1920s.

Nowadays, of course, we have an abundance of good information on the proper way to grow orchids. The most up-to-date guidebook to today’s orchid care, it is widely acknowedged, is Orchid Care Expert by Nigel Howard, which may be downloaded online. Howard’s clearly written guide will furnish a full immersion in the subject. Also, come back here often to GoGoKitty’s Orchid Secrets, where we have an ever-growing database of articles on many topics of orchid cultivation.

Quite frequently you will have an orchid that keeps growing year after year but that only ever brings forth a single flowering pseudobulb. If you want to increase the number of blooming growths, you can do so by a method of cutting with a knife in order to produce back shoots. With luck and an appropriate species (such as one from the Cattleyas), you will one day have a truly astonishing orchid.

Proceed as follows: Take a plant that has several back pseudobulbs, say four or five. Cut the rhizome in two between the bulbs, being careful not to otherwise disturb it. That’s basically it, but here are some things to keep in mind:

• The best time to cut most orchids is during their resting phase, usually fall or winter. When they next enter into their growing stage, you may observe them sending forth two growths from one pseudobulb at the place where you cut it.
• Only cut orchids that are in good health. Cutting as described above will not harm a healthy plant, but could be stressful to a weak or sickly one.
• If you cut the same plant for back shoots every year, you will eventually have an orchid that is both bigger and more stunning that it would have been without the knife. This is how some of the amazing specimens are produced that you come across in orchid showings.

There is more that can be said about the art of cutting to produce more blooms, as well as the process of taking cuttings to start more plants. To learn more about these and other secrets of orchid cultivation, a good guide such as that written by Nigel Howard is highly recommended.

The most thorough guide to contemporary orchid care, beyond question, is Mr. Howard’s Orchid Care Expert, which is available to be downloaded from the Internet. Mr. Howard’s ebook is a complete course, enlightening for beginners as well as the more experienced growers alike. Also, be sure and come back here to our Orchid Secrets web site, which features a growing database of articles on many topics of orchid cultivation.