I have a few dozen orchids, mostly no-name, growing in my window sills (on
porch in summer). I've been able to sucessfully get the phals, paphs,
cymbidiums, oncidiums, and masdevalias to all bloom nicely over the past few
years. However, no luck with the dendrobiums. I have two that look very
healthy (lots of growth) that I've had for ?3-4 years, but have never
rebloomed since I originally got them (can't remember where they came from,
and no labels). I've read that many dendrobiums need a dry period, and one
acquaintance who does well with orchids says to let them go totally dry for
a long time, and lose all their leaves, then begin to rewater, and they'll
then bloom. But I've also read that there are some dendrobiums that should
stay watered and green year round. I'm thus confused what to do here, and
I'm a little uneasy about letting them go totally dry for a long time. What
I've actually done is somewhere in between, just very lightly and
infrequently watering in the winter. While the plants stay healthy, no
blooms. The light I have through the windows (west facing glass patio
doors) is less than optimal. They get the same very dilute fertilizer as
everything else does.
Any advice about what to do to get these to bloom will be appreciated.
Chuck B.