"Steve" wrote in message
...
On 11/18/2012 12:56 PM, yellowgreentree wrote:
Hi,

This is my first thread, and I need to warn you that I'm not at all
green-fingered, but I'm trying!

A year and a half ago I was given a purple orchid. I'm not even sure
what type of orchid it is, but it's of average size (I imagine) and is
potted in some sort of bark mix. It has NEVER stopped flowering and
growing, and I've really come to like it.

At the moment it has less flowers than usual, and it's roots seem to be
coming out of the pot. I was simply going to buy some orchid potting
mix online and put it in a bigger pot, but I was given another orchid
(again, purple, but this time it's very small) and it's potted in a
totally different thing; it looks very mossy, so I didn't want to buy
the wrong one.

I then went to ask in garden centre, and the man there told me that it
should be in a clear pot which totally threw me!

Please can somebody help - I just don't know what to do, and I don't
want to kill this beautiful plant!



Thinking of which orchids show up in garden centers, the fact that it is
purple makes me guess that you have a Dendrobium. See if your flowers look
pretty similar to this:
http://www.rv-orchidworks.com/orchid...purple-ace.jpg
Also note the shape of the unopened bud in that picture. That is very
typical of Dendrobiums and not other common orchids.

If you can confirm that you have Dendrobiums, don't be in a hurry to move
to a bigger pot. They do better in a small pot, even if some of the roots
have to grow out of the pot. Your 2nd plant is growing in sphagnum moss.
Some orchids do well in that. I'm sure some people grow their Dendrobiums
just fine in moss. Personally, I wouldn't. You'll find a lot of garden
center orchids in the moss and the main reason is that it is very light
weight and cheap to ship from grower to the store.

A second though: Now that I read your original message again, the fact
that it has never stopped flowering swings me more toward it being a
Phalaenopsis. Maybe yours looks closer to this shape:
http://spacegurrrl.files.wordpress.c...sis-orchid.jpg
A Phalaenopsis can take a bigger pot and they actually do fine in sphagnum
as well. When you repot, take away most of the old medium (moss or bark)
and pull off any dead mushy roots before you pot it back up. The only
thing a clear pot would do for you is to let you see if new roots are
growing AND to let you see if there are still beads of moisture down in
the pot. That might keep you from watering too often and rotting off all
the lower roots.
Good luck.



Heard them say that the clear pot allows sunlight to get to the roots. Not
sure why that would be a help, but the pots that I have seen for sale are
all clear.