Tropical plants are in fact very beautiful, and especially if you want to go with an island theme in your home, having an indoor tropical plant such as the banana plant will be a wonderful idea, a great way to add that final touch. Before you get a banana plant or any other type of tropical plant however, you are going to need to learn about indoor banana plant care and indoor tropical plant care in general.

There are a couple of indoor tropical plant care tips that are going to be especially important and which will be discussed in more detail here.

Indoor Tropical Plant Care: How to Care for Them

You should not be scared off by caring after indoor tropical plants, but at the same time you should know that it is going to be more challenging than looking after other, more basic types of indoor plants. One of the best indoor tropical plant care tips that you can find is that the plants are provided sufficient sunlight.

We all know that plants need light to survive, but when it comes to indoor tropical plant care, these plants require even more light to survive because they are used to being in a tropical climate where there is an abundance of sun and not always a lot of water. In case it is not possible to get sufficient sunlight into your home particularly into the area where you have the tropical plants, then this is easy enough to fix as all you really have to do is get a grow light.

This way you can aim the grow light directly on the tropical plants and it will ensure that they are getting enough light to survive.

Another important indoor tropical plant care tipis to be careful with when and how much you are watering. You may also find some plant that require to be watered almost every day to strive, but with the tropical plants, the last thing that you want to do is overdo it with the watering. Make sure that you are only watering about once a week, when you can feel that the soil is dry all the way through.

Even then, you are going to want to water your tropical plants sparsely, and make sure that there are proper drainage holes coming out the bottom of the container that the plant is in so that the water is not just sitting there soaking into the soil.

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.

Orchids need resting time each year. The precise time for this depends on the Variety, but for most orchids it should begin some time in the autumn and continue well into winter. You must care for plants differently at this time than you would during their forceful growth periods (spring and summer usually). This is a necessary part of growing orchids successfully.

A good general practice is to provide your orchids rest from November through the middle of February. You do this by lowering the temperature of the room where they are kept, and by restricting water.

For orchids that originate in hot or very warm regions, you should keep the temperature at about 60 0r 65. For species originating in colder locales, you can lower the temperature to around 45 degrees.

At this time, give your orchids only enough water to keep them from shriveling. Most of the moisture should be supplied by misting or by taking measures to keep the air humid. From time to time, though, you should poke down into the soil and examine the stem, roots and rooting medium of your plants. If these are beginning to dry out you can water them directly.

A few species will continue to grow during the winter months. These will required somewhat more water than those that truly go dormant. If you see new shoots coming up, though, try to avoid wetting them or they else they could rot.

Some orchids are deciduous. This means they will lose their leaves after they have finished their growing for the year. You must give these as much sun and light during their rest period as you can. This will allow their pseuduobulbs to ripen, which in turn causes them to grow stronger and flower more freely.

Proper resting orchid care is not that hard or mysterious. Avoiding all problems, though, requires a good bit more information than can be covered in a short space. The most thorough guide to modern orchid cultivation, in the opinion of many, is Orchid Care Expert by Nigel Howard, which is available to be downloaded from the Internet. Howard’s wonderful guide constitutes a thorough education all to itself. And, it’s suitable for beginning gardeners as well as more seasoned orchid cultivators. Also, be sure to return here often to our Orchid Secrets web site, which has an ever-growing library of postings on many aspects of orchid cultivation.

The ability to grow orchids is no longer a privilege reserved to the few, now that the knowledge of how to do so successfully is widely available. This happened as a result of studying these plants both in their native habitats and in greenhouses, gardens and even the laboratory.

One important discovery about orchids was that many of the most ornamental species did not require either the high heat or the elaborate growing equipment that people once thought necessary. The new knowledge showed that growing orchids was something anyone could undertake.

In the 19th century, when the mania for orchids really boomed, many would-be growers were initially discouraged by one big problem. World travelers sent home one exotic species after another, but often without any notes at all as to their local growing conditions. Orchids vary greatly in their needs, such as for light, heat and water, and not knowing a particular plant’s unique requirements could and often did lead to disaster. “The want of some such information has been a source of extreme vexation to many lovers of these plants,” complained one author in 1885.

Today we are more fortunate with our understanding of the orchids. We can stand on the shoulders of other orchid lovers who carefully jotted down everything they learned about each type and species of the plants that they encountered.

So, it is crucial to know what an orchid’s native habitate and climate are like. Having said that, though, here’s a cautionary note. It is not generally a good idea to try to strictly imitate the natural conditions in which a plant might be found. Within reason, it is possible to cultivate better looking orchids than nature produces by intelligently tampering with its environment. As you can understand, this is both an art and a science.

Again quoting that Victorian orchid authority: “We admit that we should by all means take nature as our guide for the production of good plants but it should be nature in her best garb only and then looking as we do upon cultivation as a help to nature the result can only be an improvement if success in the object aimed at has been attained.”

So what should a novice orchid grower do? Can one strike a balance between imitating nature and trying to improve on it? The simple answer: Educate yourself. You can successfully grow orchids if you know what you’re doing up-front.

Among the best and most complete guides to modern orchid growing is Orchid Care Expert by Nigel Howard, which may be downloaded online. Now, there are lots of books about orchids but Mr. Howard’s guide constitutes a complete education all by itself. And, it’s suitable for beginners as well as more seasoned orchid growers. Be sure also to return here often, to GoGoKitty’s Orchid Secrets, with our growing database of articles on all aspects of orchids.

There is a huge selection of plants available to us nowadays to lend us their charm as house ornaments and to give our homes and offices a welcome air of freshness and life. Furthermore, we never grow tired of them, no matter how familiar they become to us; indeed, we tend to seek out more of them, and to want to add new varieties to our living and work spaces.

Flowers, especially, have great appeal to most of us, whether they are potted or cut and displayed in a vase. Among all the flowers there are, many people find themselves drawn to the orchid.

Orchids have long been known as “conquerers of the light.” They amaze us when we first encounter them, and they continue thereafter to draw us to them in admiration. Mother Nature has shown particular partiality to the orchids. Their flowers are consistently bright and elegant at the same time. Their fragrance is sweet, but not cloying. Certainly, orchids are thin in texture, but they are not nearly as frail as this leads many to believe. Really, the only thing they “lack” from the standpoint of aesthetics is thick foliage. But this is not a serious deficiency: one can always fill the space around them with fern leaves for an attractive arrangement.

Many people for years believed that these lovely plants were exceptionally delicate, and therefore hard to grow. This was erroneous. Orchids are actually rather simple to cultivate, and many amateur growers can consistently raise some of the most extraordinarily beautiful specimens anyone has ever seen. The key is to study up first, using a good modern guide to the art and science of orchids and orchid growing. To assure success, you must educate yourself first; skip this preparation and you may be dooming yourself to failure.

Don’t believe those who tell you that orchids require a lot of heat to grow well. That’s a myth. However, it’s not true! Yes, nearly all the orchids that are commonly cultivated are native to the tropics. However, a large number of them in their native habitats grow high on mountainsides exposed to cool, crisp air. It would therefore, in most cases, be unwise to subject the typical orchid to high temperatures.

You can grow these lovely flowers of jungle and mountainside yourself. Imagine the joy and pleasure of surprising someone with an orchid that you grew yourself. Envision yourself cultivating orchids so breathtaking they win prizes. Picture yourself going so far with your orchid growing hobby that it becomes a business, perhaps one big enough to provide you with a living. You can do all of these things if you are first armed with the right knowledge.

One of the best and most complete guides to modern orchid growing is undoubtedly Orchid Care Expert by Nigel Howard, available online. Howard’s guide is really a complete course, and will teach something to experienced growers as well as complete neophytes. Be sure also to return here often, to GoGoKitty’s Orchid Secrets web site, with our growing database of articles on all aspects of orchids.

Here’s to the fun and satisfaction of orchids!