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Orchids have the reputation of being difficult to grow in the West. Gardeners shy off from attempting to grow them because they think that they are difficult to grow and because they are expensive. This is easily understood, but there is more to the story than that. The fact is that most countries have their own native orchid species, so it is possible to grow orchids wherever you live, if you choose the right species.

The other side of the coin is that what most gardeners in the West think of as orchids are orchids from exotic countries and they can be a problem to grow. I say difficult to grow, but that is not the whole story either. If you can create an environment similar to where the orchids come from, it need not be a problem at all.

A lot of the spectacular orchids are parasites, like mistletoe is a parasite plant in the temperate countries of the West. These orchids often grow on trees. In trees and on trees, that is. So, their natural environment is to become attached to the bark of a living tree or to be lodged in the fork of a branch.

The orchid will then draw its nutrients and water from the inside of its host much in the same way as does a flea or a bed bug. Another thing to be aware of is that if a plant lives under the canopy of a tree, it seldom, if ever, experiences direct sunlight. Wooded areas are also fairly humid. It is also worth mentioning that exotic plants usually come from warm or hot countries.

Therefore, if you can recreate these conditions of providing warmth, humidity and a host, growing exotic orchids should not become that much of difficulty. And in truth, it is not, although in the West it might require a greenhouse.

Thailand is home to numerous parasitic orchids, most of which grow on trees in the forests, which are warm to hot and humid, but most people do not live in those conditions. Most Thais live in either open villages or cities where conditions are not favorable to growing jungle orchid varieties. However, most Thai gardeners do not want or even have greenhouses.

Instead, if a Thai gardener is interested in nurturing jungle orchid species, he or she will purchase (or acquire) the root complex of a dead tree which also has a tree stump of, say, a metre attached. They will then move this tree stump in to a very shady position, say, under a canopy and grow their wild jungle orchids on that.

How is that done?, you may ask. Well, it is actually simplicity itself. First you acquire a sample of the orchid and then you affix it to the stump with a ‘strap’ of something that will both permit the orchid to expand and to breathe. Most Thais use some of the fibres from inside a coconut.

The gardener will strap the baby orchid to the stump using the coconut matting as a band-aid with either staples or small nails. By the time the orchid has sunken its roots into the host, the matting will have rotted away, as will probably the staples.

The only thing left to do is to keep the tree and the infant flower well watered so that it can draw the remaining nutrients out of the dead tree. They will flourish for numerous years under these conditions and the tree stump will be a living flower pot, of sorts.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several topics, but is now involved with Loy Krathong. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Package Holidays to Thailand.

Have you ever wanted a wild flower garden? A wild flower garden is not just a garden that has turned wild, in fact it is quite the opposite. A garden that has gone wild usually looks a bit of a mess, whereas a wild flower has to have a closely controlled environment.

Garden flowers have been hardened, so to speak. They have been cultivated and cross-bred so that they can put up with not being taken care of all that well by the typical gardener who does not know a great deal about gardening, although there are some very fragile garden plants too. However, wild flowers have never had this treatment, they grow only where the circumstances are perfect or they do not grow at all. It is virtually impossible to grow wild flowers where they would not naturally occur.

This is why many people’s attempts at making a wild flower garden fail so miserably – they have expected the wild flowers to ‘just grow wild’ without having made the correct environment. Therefore, if you decide to create a wild flower garden, you will first have to determine what sort of flowers you want to grow.

Do you fancy meadow flowers, woodland flowers, hedgerow flowers, marsh or riverside flowers? You can combine some of these styles, of course. You could merge meadow and hedgerow varieties, if you plant a hedge border around your garden.

After you have decided on which varieties of flowers you want to or can grow, you need to set about manufacturing the correct environment. One of the prettiest wild flower gardens, if your climate is right, is an orchid garden. In Thailand, a lot of the orchids grow on the bark of live or fallen trees, so we have a few uprooted tree stumps in shaded areas of the garden with dozens of wild orchids growing on them.

The simplest wild flower garden for most people to create would be waterside, meadow and hedgerow combined. Therefore, first you will have to make a suitable pond and start growing wild hedges around your perimeters. Then sow a coarse grass on the rest of the soil. The pond can have a brick border, but at least one edge should be muddy – just wet mud leading into a shallow edge of the water.

When these micro environments are ready, but not before, you can go out and forage for plants from like environments to transplant into your wild flower garden. One note of caution here: please ensure that the flowers that you want to collect are not protected before you uproot them and never strip an area of a species. If there are only one or two plants of a variety, do not take them.

Remember that your wild flowers are not that resilient, so you ought to have prepared their new home before you went foraging and you must replant them as soon as you get home. Try not to leave it until the next day.

It is preferable to collect flowers just after they have flowered and are starting to die back. When you have discovered a flower that you want, carefully dig it up with a trowel and include a good sized slab of soil with its roots. You can put this into a plastic bag and put this in a basket. It is a good suggestion to take few photos of the flower in its original environment, so that you can do a bit of tweaking when you get back. It will also help you remember what that flower likes to live with when you go out collecting for your wild flower garden next time

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on quite a few subjects, but is at present concerned with exterior wall lighting. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Outdoor Wall Lamps.

Check out this video about garden design:

Pruning moth orchids is done by simply trimming back dead blooms right where the bloom meets the stem, as orchids can often shoot off more blooms from the same stem. Prune a moth orchid to encourage new growth withhelpful advice from a sustainable gardener in this free video on gardens. Expert: Yolanda Vanveen Contact: www.vanveenbulbs.com Bio: Yolanda Vanveen is a third-generation flower grower and sustainable gardener who lives in Kalama, Wash. Filmmaker: Daron Stetner

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Kike Calvo Orchids – Orchid is a colorful garden flower in which is a spring tropical plant and bouquet when blossom – Water Bottles
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Kike Calvo Orchids – Orchid is a colorful garden flower in which is a spring tropical plant and bouquet when blossom – Water Bottles

Kike Calvo Orchids – Orchid is a colorful garden flower in which is a spring tropical plant and bouquet when blossom – Water Bottles

Orchids: Growing this fussy flower takes care, attention, but the payoff can be lovely
You’d have to be pretty keen on a plant to grow 500 of them in your house and garden – and that’s how Ron Bollicks is with orchids. But he’s not alone. As the president of the Tacoma Orchid Society, Bollicks is just one of around 55 Society members who are in love with this finicky, heat-loving flower. And the society is happy to get you started too at the annual orchid sale held this weekend …
Read more on The Olympian

Gardener-home: Orchids brighten winter with little effort
Orchids are beautiful and fascinating plants. But the thought of growing orchids, especially indoors, is intimidating for…
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Yes, everyone whom I have ever met claims that orchid plants are absolutely gorgeous and that it is hard to take one’s eyes off them, especially when they are in bloom. However, many of those who find orchids so appealing are also afraid that they might be too hard to grow and so they will not even try it out. Maybe because they’ve unsuccessfully tried before and maybe they have heard about other who tried and failed to succeed.

The truth of the matter is that orchids are indeed very, very beautiful but they are also not all that hard to grow. They are a whole lot stronger than they look.

Now that I have set you mind at ease about caring for orchids and since I have assured you that it is not at all so very difficult, I would like to extend a more practical hand by providing of a list of what your should do in order to keep your orchid plants thriving and producing their magnificent blooms. Take a look at the following list:

a) You have to know that most orchid plants originate in the tropics where the humidity is very high and that is what they are accustomed to. So, give your orchids the humidity they love by spraying their leaves with a fine mist as well as by standing their pots on humidity trays.
b) All orchids need some light source and all orchids cannot withstand direct sunlight. Aside from that, each type of orchid likes different amounts of light. You should get to know how much of that your particular orchid would be happy with.
c) Make an effort to emulate that which nature provided for orchids by potting them in a media that permits continuous air flow around and through the roots and will also let in some light. After all, orchids out in nature grow on tree trunks rather than within the ground.
d) Orchid plants of various types grow all over this planet and so there are all used to different weather conditions and temperatures. To be a successful orchid grower, you must take the time to learn about the orchids you have in possession, where they come from and what temperature the need.
e) Too much water can kill your orchid plant and so can not enough water. Your best bet is to study the needs of your particular orchid before proceeding with the watering process.
f) Plants are fed with fertilizers and your orchids too require fertilizations. Be sure that the mixture you give them is formulated with all the nutrients they need to grow, thrive and produce.

Enjoy the process of caring for your orchid plants and you will be rewarded with the most magnificent bloom!

Looking to find the best deal on Orchid Care, then visit Orchid Care.org to find the best advice on Caring for Orchids When You’re Away for you.

Orchids are one of the pioneer species on the planet. They are said to have existed way back when dinosaurs roam the earth. There are now over 30,000 species of orchids and many more hybrids of this awe-inducing flower. They are one of the most diverse flower types and have an amazingly large plant family to boot.

“Orchid” is derived from early Greek “Orchis-an” referencing to the way the orchid looks like a little “testicular”. Orchids grow worldwide and one of the most economical and useful orchid is the Vanilla Planifolia which is the source of vanilla flavoring. These orchids can be found in Central America and Mexico. The Aztecs figured out how to get the vanilla out of the Vanilla Planifolia. The world’s largest producer of this type of orchid is Madagascar in Africa and vanilla and Coca Cola is their biggest consumer.

Orchids have enchanted and amazed us for centuries with the earliest rare orchid pictures showing up in Asian art circa 700 BC. A lot of cultures believed that orchids have special healing powers, in fact they have been recorded in many herbalists and medicinal documents. Orchids started out as just a wild flower that grew on trees and blossomed into one of the most beloved and endearing bloom in the world of flowers.

Charles Darwin and Rare Orchids

Orchids were the perfect flower specimen for Charles Darwin to study when he was formulating the theory of natural selection. He focused on the Angreacum Sesquipidales and documented its pollination cycles. He predicted that when this orchid species gave off a strong scent at night, the insect that pollinated it would be a moth, because of the orchid’s bright white color made it look like a light in the dark. Sure enough Darwin’s theory proved right a moth came along and was instrumental in pollinating the Angreacum Sesquipidales. Pretty cool the tricks of nature.

Reproduction

At last count there where over 35,000 species of orchids, this is because the different species have creative ways to reproduce (think about the moth magnet described above). Some orchids rely on crawling insects while some rely on flying insects and there are those that rely on the wind pollination.

Another clever use of flying insects is found used by the Bee Orchid. This clever rare orchid lures bees to its flower by its disguise. This Bee Orchid looks like the female receptive bee which entices the male bee towards its pollinia. Other orchids have long stems which look as they are butterflies when dancing in the wind. Again, pretty dang tricky of these orchids.

Orchids are ancient flowers that are fascinating today more than in any time of history. It is a continuous source of delight for many people around the globe to grow, cultivate, breed and display these flowering beauties in their homes and/or greenhouses.

Looking to find the best deal on rare orchids, then visit www.rareorchids.net to find the best advice on cultivating rare orchids for you.

Orchids are Always in Bloom in Elma
What started out as a few orchid seedlings on an indoor windowsill a few decades ago has grown into a full-time hobby for Joe DiDomenico of Elma. He now has over a thousand orchids of all varieties from all over the world.
Read more on East Aurora Advertiser

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