Hello --- I am the surprised owner of a Mother's Day orchid that has
flourished for five years, and I'm beginning to wonder what to do next.
It is one of those beautiful white ones that we see in the grocery
stores, perhaps a "cat"? It has happily and sweetly bloomed every late
winter. It lives under a 100-watt table lamp in front of a west window
in the living room. It grows a new pair of big green leathery leaves
each year, and the leaves have brown seed-like bumps on the bottom, and
a few brown bumps on the top of the leaves (and I wonder if those are
seeds). It summers on the morning side of my screened porch. When I
bring it inside, I first treat it gingerly for ants. I feed it just the
common liquid plant food (a cap added to the watering pot) that I use
for my Chinese Evergreens and snake plants and ivy (my house is on the
dark side for most plants). The plant scared me and I expected it to
die within several months, but instead, here it is, ready to go to
kindergarten. @@@ I have a couple questions, if I might impose: (1)
The orchid is in the same pot it arrived here in. Should I repot it,
and if so, what season, and what type of pot? (2) What do you call
those long, velvety, mint-green .... stems .... tendrils ..... branches
.... stamens ... feelers? ... that grow long in the spring. They reach
up and out and tap everyone nearby on the shoulder in the most
socialized way. I have looked at a lot of orchid pages on the net, but
none ID the long trailers --- and the sites all seem to be for
professional orchid folks, rather than orchid foster parents. As we
speak, the orchid is busy starting to grow a new leaf, although winter
doesn't start until Dec. 21. However, here in the D.C. area, our
autumns are quite Indian Summer-ish. (In the winter, I keep my old
radiator heat system set at 62 degrees. In the summer, my two old
window AC units do not keep the house really cold. These factors
apparently are satisfactory to this orchid ----- or would it be twice or
thrice larger than it is now if it lived in a really warm house? The
leaves' span is about 18 inches wide. @@@ thanks for any tips, and any
referral to a website for really novice orchid babysitters. Sue