Gardening Guidance for Growing Orchids

Orchids seem to do best if a greenhouse is devoted solely to their cultivation, though some types such as Odontoglossum grande and Coelogyne cristata will succeed very well in a general collection of plants.

At the outset, it is as well to consider the type of orchid collection you desire to grow or to provide for adding further sections of this large family. A general collection of orchids under one roof containing many species from widely differing habitats is perhaps the most satisfying type of collection. From it, you can gain a very broad understanding of the plants. The often wide temperature tolerance of many orchid species makes such a collection possible. Some may wish to establish a collection devoted to perhaps one genus, such as Cymbidium.

The ideal method is to divide a small greenhouse into two sections, one for plants requiring cool conditions, the other for those needing warm conditions. If an existing house is being taken over for orchids, and it provides cool conditions only, a small area could be enclosed with heavy gauge polythene and a soil-warming cable installed. This would allow the growing of warm types in the enclosure and the cool-growing types could be kept in the main body of the house.

The staging in the house should be of the double type, with a gap of about 16cm (6in) between the upper and lower stages. The upper stage can be of the open wood-slat type for placing the plants on and the under stage should be covered with gravel or ashes. This is referred to as the moisture staging and is frequently sprayed with water to keep up the humidity of the house. A gravel path which can be sprayed is also very useful for this purpose.

The type of plant will determine if the staging should be flat or in