Tag: plants

Growing Young Orchids Give You More Leisure

Posted by on August 25, 2009

Lots of people feel wary to grow young orchids. They are anxious that they can not grow young orchids successfully or even the plants droop before they produce flowers. In fact, growing young orchids will provide you more joy than growing the mature one. To successfully start these young orchids, take a moment to notify yourself with these essential tips.

Watering Your New Orchids

When you purchase young orchids at the first time, you may presume that the plants are too dry. That’s most likely not the problem. An orchids cultivator, trustworthy nursery or even an online nursery will deliberatory maintain the growing medium around young orchids on the drier area. This is intended to avoid the growth of mold and fungus.

Upon receiving your young orchids, don’t heavily soak the plants. It will be best to gradually moisten the growing medium, making certain it doesn’t get too wet. If by accident, you see a small amount of fungus or mold, you may utilize a plant fungicide that is available at garden centers.

Orchid cultivators usually start young plants in moss just like they likely in their natural habitat. It will be best for the tender plants to stay in the growing medium that you receive them until they are accustomed to your home.

Potting Young Orchids

It is not necessary to immediate move your young orchids to a new pot. In fact, doing so may harm the newly developing roots. You will know that your orchids are ready for a larger pot when the plant produces new growth that cannot be contained in its original living space. When choosing the new size pot, take the smallest possible one that will accommodate the plant. Orchids do not grow well in oversized pots and other problems may develop.

The Right Light

Young orchids do not involvethe same level of light intensity that a more mature plant requires. That’s because an older plant has different needs since they are in the flowering stage. A quick way to must decide if you are providing your orchids with adequate light is to check the color of the leaves. The normal color is a light green, but if the new growth remains dark green, increases the lighting around the plants.

Do not be wary to start growing young orchids. There are a variety of sorts of orchids that have been soaked to thrive in homes. Starting with young orchids is an amazing way to start a hobby that willprovide you years of charm.

Want to know further about young orchids? Let’s explore more on the links here and you will get much more about orchids.

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Catagorize Your Plants Using a Plant Encyclopedia

Posted by on November 26, 2008

There is more to the care of potted and outdoor plants than simply pruning, watering and tending to them. Researching within a plant encyclopedia learn all you need to ensure that you have the knowledge you need to keep a broad range of plants alive, including medicinal herbs, common flowers and rare plants.

An excellent plant encyclopedia should contain several different categories of information on each type of plant it documents. One important aspect is how the plants are named. Based on region, may be addressed differently. A valuable encyclopedia will include the most common references for each plant, so you can use that book to acquire your plants as seeds from the internet, and ensure that you are buying the correct type of plant.

In addition to that, the plant encyclopedia should have care information for each plant A good resource include legends showing the grow zones of plants, the temperature ranges that they survive in, and how the plants react to changes in the temperature. Hydrating information, required exposure to light, tolerance, scale of hardiness, as well as challenge level of growing should also be included. This is all knowledge that is needed to protect the long life of your plants.

Resourcing a plant encyclopedia will not be enough to guarantee the longevity of your plant. Knowing how to use the data once you have it is key. Many people use these plant encyclopedias after they have purchased the plant. However, their proper usage is in referencing before you buy. Several species of plants, like uncommon varieties orchids, that are only suitable for those who are who are willing to tolerate and tend to fickle plants prone to wilting.

Some data that is useful in a plant encyclopedia is the history and breeding aspects of the plants. As there are many hobbyists interested in the breeding of plants, as well as the possible creationand the creation of new types, having this information at your fingertips is particularly valuable. For those curious about cross-breeding, the references that cover this data should provide information on what types of plants can be bred against your plant, and the process of breeding.

For those interested in natural remedies, a plant encyclopedia should include how they are used, information on the safe use of the herbs, and any risks that may be associated with improper usage of the herb. If there are plants that are poisonous listed in the plant encyclopedia, data on the toxicity of the plant should be available.

To find additional information on landscaping and plants visit Herbal Medicine Plants

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The Art of Orchid Cutting for Bounteous Blooms

Posted by on November 22, 2008

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.

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Succeed in the Fight Against Orchid-Eating Roaches

Posted by on November 20, 2008

Cockroaches are some of the biggest pests with which you will have to deal in growing orchids. They can do unimaginable damage in a few nights if not intercepted and destroyed.

Why are cockroaches such a big problem?  The answer is that one of their favorite sources of food is a potted plant’s tender young roots and flower stems. It is not unheard of for the roots of a plant to be completely chewed up in one night by roaches.

How to effectively control roaches is a perennial topic. People have been fighting with them in their homes and kitchens for centuries, and we will probably be fighting them for centuries to come. They have evolved to be incredibly successful in living amongst us and in resisting extermination.

A tremendous variety of poisons have been devised in an effort to control cockroaches. If you go the route of putting out poison, you must of course only use the ones that will not harm your plants. Check out the garden supplies section of your local hardware store.

Less risky to you and your household is the boric acid solution. Get some boric acid (cheap and readily available at most drug stores) and mix it up into a paste with some sugar, a little flour and water. You should spread a little paste into every nook and cranny in your greenhouse or plant room. To be completely safe, though, don’t get any of the stuff on the plants themselves.

You could also set out a few those “roach hotels.”  These will catch many roaches and stop them from getting to your plants in the first place.

Truly, the only way you can every keep roaches under control is to look for them constantly. You should especially search for them on and around your plants in the evening, using a flashlight. They leave their hiding places in the evening to seek food and it is then that they are most easily caught and killed. Don’t forget to move your pots and baskets around to uncover ones that may have run into hiding from you.

A good guide to orchid growing will have many more tips and suggestions for making sure that pests such as roaches don’t put an end to your plants. The most up-to-date guide to modern orchid cultivation, I have found, is Orchid Care Expert by Nigel Howard, which is available to be downloaded from the web. Mr. Howard’s guide is a full course, useful for beginners and more experienced fanciers alike. Also, please come back here often to this Orchid Secrets web site, which has an ever-growing database of articles on all facets of orchid cultivation.

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A Peep at Ochids, by Regions

Posted by on November 14, 2008

Of the incredible variety of flowering plants on our earth, orchids easily wield the greatest fascination. Not only are they beautiful to look at, but they often bring a bit of wonder and mystery with them. Although widespread in distribution, many of them can only be found in isolated, nearly inaccessible places–volcanic mountainsides, dense jungles, deep swamps, etc.

Beginning most earnestly in the 19th century, orchid enthusiasts have devoted years and even careers to discovering as well as breeding new types of these flowering plants. Although most orchids are acquired these days from growers that specialize in cultivating these plants, many of them being developed through hybridizing, it is good to know a little of their origins in nature.

Orchids are herbacious plants encompassing tens of thousands of known species, with still more being discovered. They exhibit a startling range of color and form, which has contributed greatly to public interest. Master gardeners often delight in growing a wide range of orchids to demonstrate their mastery of the arts of cultivation.

Orchids grow throughout the earth, excepting the desert regions and polar zones. Some 85% of all orchid species originate in the tropics or subtropics, but this still leaves a large number that come from colder regions. In some parts of the Himalayan region, orchids make up the most abundant family of plants.

By far the greatest number of orchids occur in three large tropical belts:

  • Tropical Africa (including islands to the east in the Indian Ocean). These mostly belong to the genera (families) Angnecum, Bulbophyllum and Disa. Orchids from this region are not so widely cultivated as ones coming from other tropical lands, but Africa nonetheless has many interesting species.
  • Tropical Asia. This region, which covers Indonesia and other islands, along with mainland Southeast Asia, is particularly rich in orchid genera. Typical of the region are the large genera Dendrobium, Eria and Bulbophyllum and many smaller ones as well.
  • Tropical America. This region embraces Mexico, Central America and the tropical parts of South America. Isolated from other parts of the world for eons, this region has an especially large number of endemic genera of orchids, many of which include hundreds of species. Among the large indigenous genera are Epidendrum, Pleurothallis and Oncidium; many smaller genera found here also contribute more than their share to orchids that have found favor among cultivators the world over.

The temperate zones of the southern hemisphere also furnish many orchids, though not nearly so abundantly as do the tropics. In southern Africa the Disa and Calanthe genera furnish a few species judged valuable to cultivation. Australia contains many genera in common with the tropical Asia. Southern South America boasts a number of temperate orchids, but by the estimation of orchid devotees, they are greatly overshadowed by those
from the much larger tropical part of thecontinent.

in the norhern hemisphere’s temperate areas, we should take note of the United States, particularly the New England/norhteastern region, as well as Canada. There you will find some 20 native genera, whose members grow particularly in swamps and other moist grounds. The most famous of these are the Cypripediuins or Lady Slippers.

Europe also has many native orchids, but undoubtedly the most famous and showy is the Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera). The Bee Orchid may be found thriving on dry or semi-dry turf in open areas near or within woodlands. Bee Orchids are common near the Mediterranean coast of Europe, and grows (albeit less abundantly) as far north as Germany and the UK.

Orchids vary greatly in how easily they can be grown, but generally speaking they are not the difficult plants that popular wisdom would have it. The most complete guide to modern orchid cultivation, beyond question, is Orchid Care Expert by Nigel Howard, which can be downloaded online. Howard’s guide constitutes a comprehensive education all by itself. And, it’s suitable for novices as well as more expeienced orchid growers. Of course, be sure to come back here to our Orchid Secrets web site often. We’ll be adding continually to our growing library of postings on many aspects of orchid cultivation.

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